Pre-Conference Workshop

Recent Advancements in SPJ: Assessing the Individual in Context Using the MLG-V2 and CARE-V2

PRESENTER: Prof. Stephen D. Hart

DATE: June 15, 2026

TIME: 9am - 5pm

CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS: 7 credits

COST: $500 CAD // Student Member Rate: $250 CAD (includes 2 catered coffee breaks; lunch NOT included)

DESCRIPTION: 

The Structured Professional Judgement (SPJ) is an evidence-based approach for the assessment and management of risk for violence posed by individual people. Since the publications of the first guidelines of the Spousal Assault Risk Assessment Guide (SARA) and Historical Clinical Risk Management-20 (HCR-20) in 1994 and 1995 to assess risk for intimate partner violence and general violence, a central feature and defining strength of SPJ is its emphasis on individualized, formulation-driven, and contextually grounded practice. Recent advances in SPJ place an even greater emphasis on evaluating the “individual in context” as exemplified by the newest versions of the Multi-Level Guidelines (MLG-V2; Hart et al., 2025) and Child Abuse Risk Evaluation (CARE-V2; Hart et al., 2026).

Drawing from ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and Action Theory (e.g., Davidson, 1963), SPJ frameworks recognize decisions to engage in violence do not occur in a vacuum; rather, they are influenced by factors operating within and across multiple nested levels, including the microsystem (e.g., family, peers), mesosystem (interactions among microsystems), exosystem (indirect environmental influences such as workplace or community structures), and macrosystem (cultural norms, legal frameworks, and societal values). Accordingly, while it is always important to consider the social context when assessing and managing violence risk by individuals, it becomes particularly relevant to attend to these broader ecological and contextual factors when evaluating complex, systemic forms of violence, such as group-based violence and family-based violence such as including child abuse and neglect.

Specifically, in the case of group-based violence, perpetrators’ decision-making is often heavily influenced by the norms, identities, dynamics of the social groups with which they associate or identify. To capture this ecological reality, the MLG-V2 explicitly assesses higher-level contextual domains, namely the Individual-in-Group, Group, and Group-in-Society levels. Similarly, child abuse represents a specific form of violence that is often embedded within identifiable family and environmental dynamics. The CARE-V2 systematically incorporates an Environmental Vulnerability Factors domain. This domain directs evaluators to look beyond the individual caregiver and child to assess material resources, living situation, social support, services, and broader exposure to violence affecting the family unit. In addition to individual caregiver risk factors, these environmental vulnerabilities may also exert direct or indirect causal influence with respect to the caregiver’s decision-making to commit child abuse and neglect and are important to consider as they may help to understand the nature of the child abuse and neglect that the caregiver is likely to commit in the future.

During this workshop, participants will learn how to assess the presence and relevance of these contextual factors, integrate them into formulation using an Action Theory framework, identify plausible scenarios of future violence, and develop individualized risk management plans that are responsive to the specific context of each case. The workshop will also review significant updates to both guidelines, reflecting advances in empirical research, professional practice, and legal standards, as well as feedback from multidisciplinary professionals across international jurisdictions.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:  

1. Define group-based violence and child abuse and neglect.

2. Describe the theoretical foundations of SPJ within ecological systems theory and Action Theory.

3. Describe recent developments in research and clinical practice regarding the nature of group-based violence and child abuse and neglect.

4. Describe how recent developments in MLG-V2 and CARE-V2 operationalize the “individual-in-context” framework by the inclusion of addition levels or domains of analysis.

5. Differentiate individual-level risk factors from higher-order contextual and environmental vulnerability factors.

6. Generate formulations of group-based violence and child abuse and neglect perpetration using Action Theory methodology incorporating relevant contextual factors.