SPJ Framework: Structured Professional Judgment for Risk Assessment

The Structured Professional Judgment (SPJ) framework represents a contemporary approach to forensic risk assessment that synthesizes clinical judgment with empirical evidence of risk factors. Rather than producing a numerical score, SPJ guides clinicians through systematic evaluation of case-specific evidence to arrive at a structured, transparent categorical risk judgment. SPJ has become the preferred methodology in many forensic settings globally and underlies instruments such as the HCR-20v3 (violence risk) and sexual offender assessment protocols.