The VRS allows the practitioner to exercise reasonable clinical discretion while maintaining structure and scientific rigor. This scale is one of the best, as integrate the idea of risk assessment and change measurement together for therapeutic purposes.
• It provides a quantitative measure of the risk of violent recidivism of forensic clients, in particular, those who are to be released from an institution to the community
• It uses both static and dynamic variables that are empirically or theoretically linked to violence to assess and predict violence
• Identifies treatment targets linked to violence; dynamic variables that receive high ratings (rated 2 or 3) are considered relevant treatment targets.
• It uses the well established Tran theoretical Model of Change to assess change as a function of treatment linking changes in treatment to changes in risk.
• It identifies the client’s stages of change (treatment readiness) which tells the service deliverer what therapeutic approach to take that would maximize treatment efficacy.
• It allows service deliverers to assess pre- and post-treatment risk levels.
