The Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI), if used, should augment or supplement objective test findings. The Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) focuses on violence patterns. The Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) assesses many relevant areas of inquiry, including the youth’s attitudes, feelings and behavior. The Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) can help put the juvenile’s test results into perspective. Areas of inquiry vary from the obvious (court history) to more subtle (attitudes, feelings and relationships) psychological factors.

The Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) is a "structured" interview in that it consists of multiple choice items, and whatever answer is selected by the juvenile is printed in the JVI report. There is no dialogue with the youth, no paraphrasing of items and no probing for answers. The juvenile simply selects an answer from four options or answers that are available for each item.

The JVI has 60 multiple choice items and takes 15 minutes to complete. The JVI is a structured self-report interview that is designed to reflect the juvenile’s opinions and beliefs. It’s the juvenile’s opinion, with all its biases, that is most relevant for the initiation and maintenance of treatment. And, as L. J. Cronbach noted, "the significance of test scores are greatest when they are augmented with other sources of information" like the youth’s opinions, adjustment history and available records. The JVI summarizes several important areas of inquiry including violence, family and interpersonal relationships, explosives, weapons, gang involvement and much more.

Use of the JVI is optional and not required. However, if used, the JVI must be used in conjunction with a Risk & Needs Assessment, Inc. (Risk & Needs) test. The JVI together with a Risk & Needs juvenile test's results gives a violence profile.

The JVI is not a test and is not to be used as an independent (standalone) assessment or screening procedure or test. The JVI is provided free to Risk & Needs juvenile test users. And, as noted earlier, if used, the JVI must augment a juvenile Risk & Needs test.

The JVI is not a test. The JVI is an automated (computer-scored) self-report structured interview that explores juvenile violence. The youth’s answers or responses to JVI items are printed in reports that are available on-site within two minutes. The JVI summarizes several sources of relevant structured interview information. These areas of inquiry include:

Since the Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) is not a test, answers are not Truth-Corrected. It is the juvenile's opinion, with all its biases, that is assessed. Items are straightforward, and there are no "trick questions." The youth simply reads an item and then selects an answer from the four answers that are provided.

The Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) was deliberately kept "short" so that it can be administered in a reasonable (15± minutes) amount of time. The JVI contains 60 multiple choice items. The JVI is appropriate for male and female youths between the ages of 14 and 19. High school students that can read the newspaper can complete the JVI. It has a 6^th grade reading level on average.

An example Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) three-page report follows. Note in the top right side corner of the first page is a Deviant Answer total. This acknowledgement tells you how many of the 60 JVI items were answered negatively or deviantly. There is no special significance to this number other than it gives the assessor an overall attitude/behavioral impression. Most JVI users simply read the juvenile's selected answers to each JVI item.

Staff Member Input: Some people advocate fully automated assessment. Risk & Needs does not. The JVI is to be used in conjunction with experienced staff judgment. When available, court and probation records should be reviewed because they contain important information not provided or incorrectly provided by the client. Experienced staff should also interview the client. For these reasons, the following statement is contained in each JVI report: "The following responses represent the juvenile's self-report answers to the JVI. These responses represent the juvenile's opinions and biases and may or may not be accurate. All JVI responses are obtained directly from the client's answers. No decision should be based solely on JVI results."

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JUVENILE VIOLENCE INTERVIEW REPORT

The Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) report presents the juvenile's (male and female) answers to 60 multiple choice items. This three-page report summarizes the youth's answers in the following categories: Physical and Emotional Health, School / Students, Family / Friends, Guns / Bombs / Explosives, Interpersonal Relationships, Attitude / Outlook, Anger / Violence / Temper, Gangs, Delinquency and Self-Adjustment.

The first page of the Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) report gives the youth's name and some basic demographics. Then, the juvenile's answers to the Physical and Emotional Health, School / Students, Family / Friends and Guns / Bombs / Explosives are listed by item number and answer selected.

The second page of the Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) report summarizes the juvenile's answers to the Interpersonal Relationships, Attitude / Outlook, Anger / Violence / Temper, Gangs, Delinquency and Self-Adjustment items.

The third page of the Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) report completes the Self-Adjustment items. Space is provided for staff member recommendations, signature and the date of the interview. On the right side of the page is the number of the test (JVI TEST #1) used on the 25-interview diskette.

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The Juvenile Violence Interview (JVI) is not a test; it is a structured interview. The youth's answers to JVI items are printed in the report. Use of the JVI is optional (not required), and its use is limited to users of Risk & Needs' juvenile tests. The JVI is provided free to Risk & Needs test users of record.