Risk assessments are sometimes used in court to determine a person's risk of violence and recidivism. A judge ordered a risk assessment for a convicted violent offender to advise in sentencing. The defense and prosecution each hired a clinical forensic psychologist to conduct a risk assessment, and the judge wants to know how these psychologist's assessments compare. The problem is, they used two different assessment instruments. In order to figure out how the assessments compare, the judge decides to calculate the Z scores of each assessment score relative to nationwide assessment data.

Question 4. The defense's expert gave a risk assessment score of 16. The nationwide scores for this particular assessment have a mean of 20 points and a standard deviation of 4 points. What is this expert's Z score?

ANSWER: -1

Question 5. The prosecution's expert gave a risk assessment score of 30. The nationwide scores for this particular assessment have a mean of 25 points and a standard deviation of 2.5 points. What is this expert's Z score?

ANSWER: 2

Question 6. Did the defense's or prosecution's expert (from Q4 and Q5) report that the offender was a higher risk (higher score = higher risk)? How did you know?