Published Paper Details:

The main aim of the study is to assess the risk of imminent aggression in institutionalized youth offenders using the dynamic appraisal of situational aggression at selected hospitals, Ranchi (Jharkhand). This study aimed to examine the predictive validity of an empirically validated measures, designed to appraise the risk of imminent aggression within institutionalized adults psychiatric patients [Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression; DASA], in adolescent male and female offenders. Convenient sampling technique was used to select the study participant. The supervising staff members on the residential units related the DASA daily for 50 youth [30 males and 20 females] over one month. The result showed that DASA total scores significantly predicted institutional aggression in the following 24 and 48 hrs; however, the predictive validity of the DASA for institutional aggression was, at best, modest. Further analyses on male and female subsamples revealed that the DASA total scores only predicted imminent institutional aggression in the male subsample. Item analyses showed that negative attitude, anger when requests and denied, and unwillingness to follow instructions predicted institutional aggression more strongly as compared with other behavioral manifestations of an irritable and unstable mental status as assessed by the DASA. Hence it is concluded that the DASA may have some utility for the identification of youth at risk of imminent aggression within institutional settings, though the results are far from compelling as compared with the previous studies on adult population. It is evident that a high ratio of supervision staff to residents is important to ensure that the predictive validity is acceptable at selected hospitals of Ranchi (Jharkhand).