DICKSON, J.
The remaining issue is whether, and in what manner, a trial judge may consider results from the LSI-R, SASSI, or other similar assessment tools. Such instruments, often called “scoring models,” are examples of “evidence-based practice” — “professional practices that are supported by the best research evidence, consisting of scientific results related to intervention strategies . . . derived from clinically relevant research . . . based on systematic reviews, reasonable effect sizes, statistical and clinical significance, and a body of supporting evidence.” Roger K. Warren, Evidence-Based Sentencing: The Application of Principles of Evidence-Based Practice to State Sentencing Practice and Policy, 43 U.S.F. L. REV. 585, 597 (2009) (internal quotation marks omitted).
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This considerable judicial flexibility [in Indiana’s sentencing statutes] permits the determination and management of penal consequences to be substantially tailored to each offender. While there remain valid concerns that equivalent offenders and offenses receive equivalent treatment at sentencing, “Indiana has never adopted a mechanical approach to sentencing, and we have not identified any inflexible system that did not raise more problems than it solved.” Cardwell v. State, 895 N.E.2d 1219, 1224 (Ind. 2008). We have thus expressed disapproval of “[a]ny effort to force a sentence to result from some algorithm based on the number and definition of crimes and various consequences.” Id. But, this does not diminish the objective that an individualized penal consequence should be efficacious in achieving the goals of reformation and minimizing recidivism.
For this goal, the concept of evidence-based sentencing practices has considerable promise. The amicus brief of the Indiana Judicial Center informs the Court of the growing acceptance and use of evidence-based practices in seeking to reduce offender recidivism and to improve sentencing outcomes. . . . The results of early criminal justice research led to the creation of “third-generation” risk assessment tools such as the LSI-R and the SASSI. Indiana has favorably considered risk assessment tools for the past fifteen years. Since 1995, the Judicial Conference has directed probation departments to assess the risk and needs levels of Indiana’s criminal offenders under their authority to adopt minimum standards and recommendations for probation department operations. Ind. Code § 11-13-1-8. Indiana probation departments have utilized the Indiana Risk Assessment Instrument and the Indiana Adult Needs Assessment Instrument, which seek to “provide the trial court with information relevant to the of-fender’s potential risk to the community and areas of need, allowing the [trial] court to address treatment services and individualized probation conditions in the sentencing order.” Judicial Center Br. at 3.5 [5 Strong support for expanded use of these instruments is also evident from the April 23, 2010, action of the Board of Directors of the Indiana Judicial Conference in adopting policy recommendations for the widespread use of an expanded Indiana Risk Assessment System, as reviewed and approved by the Probation Officers Advisory Board and the Probation Committee of the Judicial Conference.] Several local probation departments in Indiana recently began using the newer third-generation scoring tools. Id. at 4. The Judicial Center advises that, in comparison to Indiana’s original scoring models, the third-generation risk assessment tools allow more adequate identification of criminogenic needs. Id. By identifying these criminogenic characteristics, an offender’s specific factors can be addressed during his supervision or sentence and substantially decrease the likelihood of future criminal activity. Faye S. Taxman, Ph.D. et al., Tools of the Trade: A Guide to Incorporating Science into Practice, 3–4 (2004). The third-generation scoring models are well supported by empirical data and provide target areas to change an individual’s criminal behavior, thereby enhancing public safety. Christopher T. Lowenkamp, Ph.D. & Kristin Bechtel, M.S., The Predictive Validity of the LSI-R on a Sample of Offenders Drawn from the Records of the Iowa Department of Corrections Data Management System, 71 FED. PROBATION 25, 27–29 (Dec. 2007).
The scoring models at issue in the present case, the LSI-R and the SASSI, are third-generation assessment tools. According to the Center for Criminal Justice Research at the University of Cincinnati, the LSI-R is currently being utilized within the United States to “guide sentencing decisions, placement in correctional programs, institutional assignments, and release from institutional custody.” Christopher T. Lowenkamp & Edward J. Latessa, Ph.D., Validating the Level of Service Inventory Revised in Ohio’s Community Based Correctional Facilities at 5, . . . Once completed, the LSI-R produces a summary risk score that is intended to predict an offender’s likelihood of recidivism and to provide information useful in determining his rehabilitative needs. Judicial Center Br. at 4. The LSI-R has been used throughout Indiana by its community corrections agencies and its probation departments to assess an offender’s risks and determine what services should be provided. Id. The SASSI scoring model “is a brief self-report, easily administered psychological screening measure” that includes items “to identify some individuals with alcohol and other drug problems who are unwilling or unable to acknowledge” substance abuse warning signs or symptoms. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Assessing Alcohol Problems: A Guide for Clinicians and Researchers 591, . . . ..
Current scientific research provides strong support for the proposition that, in contrast to penal incarceration for higher risk offenders, “low-risk offenders should be excluded, as a gener-al rule, from residential programs.” Christopher T. Lowenkamp & Edward J. Latessa, Increasing the Effectiveness of Correctional Programming Through the Risk Principle: Identifying Offend-ers for Residential Placement, 4 CRIMINOLOGY & PUB. POL’Y 263, 284 (2005) (based on a study of 13,221 offenders); see also D.A. Andrews et al., Does Correctional Treatment Work? A Clini-cally Relevant and Psychologically Informed Meta-Analysis, 28 CRIMINOLOGY 369, 370 (1990). “[A]cademic literature has demonstrated for decades [that] objective actuarial risk/needs instru-ments more accurately predict risk and identify criminogenic needs than the clinical judgment of officers.” Scott VanBenschoten, Risk/needs Assessment: Is This the Best We Can Do? 72 FED. PROBATION 38, 38 (Sept. 2008). “[T]he primary reason to use a risk/needs tool is to help officers both identify which offenders need intensive intervention and what type of intervention is required.” Id. The use of evidence-based risk instruments in assessing the suitability of sentencing scheme options is receiving strong encouragement. See, e.g., Roger K. Warren, Evidence-Based Practices and State Sentencing Policy: Ten Policy Initiatives to Reduce Recidivism, 82 IND. L.J. 1307, 1311 (2007). One of these tools, the LSI, “assigns each offender to a risk category, so that an appropriate case management strategy can be put into place.” Brenda Vose et al., The Empirical Status of the Level of Service Inventory, 72 FED. PROBATION 22, 23 (Dec. 2008). The LSI “is a theoretically and empirically based assessment instrument that is designed to enhance the supervision and effective treatment of offenders.” Id. Other authorities describe risk assessment information as “critical in making a number of important sentencing determinations,” including the following: “[1] [the] offender’s suitability for diversion from prosecution; [2] [the] most appropriate conditions of probation to be imposed; [3] [the] offender’s amenability to treatment; [4] [the] most appropriate treatment or level of supervision to be imposed; [5] [the] most appropriate sanction or behavioral control mechanism to be imposed; [6] [the] decision whether to revoke probation; and [7] [the] kind of sanction or additional treatment to be ordered upon a violation.” Roger K. Warren, Arming the Courts with Research: 10 Evidence-Based Sen-tencing Initiatives to Control Crime and Reduce Costs at 3 (The Pew Charitable Trusts, May 2009).
The product description for the LSI-R provides the following description and explanation regarding intended use:
[It] is a quantitative survey of offender attributes and their situations relevant to level of supervision and treatment decisions. Designed for ages 16 and older, the LSI-R helps predict parole outcome, success in correctional halfway houses, institutional misconducts, and recidivism. . . . [It] can be used by probation and parole officers and correctional workers in jails, detention facilities, and correctional halfway houses to assist in the allo-cation of resources, help make decisions about probation and placement, make appropri-ate security level classifications, and assess treatment progress.”
LSI-R: Level of Service Inventory-Revised, Product Description . . . . As explained in the user’s manual, the LSI-R “is a way of systematically bringing together risk and needs information important to offender treatment planning and for assigning levels of freedom and supervision.” D.A. Andrews, Ph.D. & James L. Bonta, Ph.D, The Level of Service Inventory-Revised User’s Manual at 1 (2001). Administration of the LSI-R requires the probation officer or other test administrator to make several objective determinations (e.g., information regarding criminal history, education, and employment) and to make subjective evaluations on several areas of inquiry including performance and interactions at work, family and marital situation, accommodations stability and the level of crime in the neighborhood, participation in organized recreational activities and use of time, nature and extent of social involvement with companions, extent of alcohol or drug problems, emotional/psychological status, and personal attitudes. Many of the questions require the assessment administrator to designate whether the offender has “no need for improvement,” “some room for improvement,” “need for improvement,” or “a very clear and strong need for improvement.” Id. at 26–27.
While there may be strong statistical correlation of assessment results and the risk or probability of recidivism, the administrator’s evaluation as to each question may not coincide with that of the trial judge’s evaluation based on the information presented at sentencing. The nature of the LSI-R is not to function as a basis for finding aggravating circumstances, nor does an LSI-R score constitute such a circumstance. But LSI-R scores are highly useful and important for trial courts to consider as a broad statistical tool to supplement and inform the judge’s evaluation of information and sentencing formulation in individual cases. The LSI-R manual directs that it is not “to be used as a substitute for sound judgment that utilizes various sources of information.” Id. at 3. Significantly, the manual explicitly declares: “This instrument is not a comprehensive survey of mitigating and aggravating factors relevant to criminal sanctioning and was never designed to assist in establishing the just penalty.” Id.
The SASSI is a screening tool used to help “identify individuals [with] a high probability of having a substance dependence disorder.” Franklin G. Miller & Linda E. Lazowski, The SASSI Manual 2 (2d ed., The SASSI Institute 1999). The SASSI instrument scores provide information regarding the “severity of substance dependence, substance abuse, acknowledged substance misuse, the possible need for supervised detoxification, level of acknowledgement, emotional pain, risk of criminal behavior, and focus on others rather than self.” Id. at 3. The SASSI Institute describes the information provided by the scores as providing “clinical information that can be of value in identifying treatment issues and in developing effective treatment plans.” Id. at 13. But the SASSI is not designed to diagnosis a substance abuse disorder. It only seeks to identify persons with a high probability for substance dependence. Id. at 2. The SASSI has been analyzed across various demographics (e.g. education level, employment status, gender, age, ethnicity, marital status). The SASSI Manual at 39–50. The analysis shows that in all but one category [footnote omitted] the SASSI is above 90% accurate despite variations in demographic variables or individual mental functioning. Id. at 50.
It is clear that neither the LSI-R nor the SASSI are intended nor recommended to substitute for the judicial function of determining the length of sentence appropriate for each offender. But such evidence-based assessment instruments can be significant sources of valuable information for judicial consideration in deciding whether to suspend all or part of a sentence, how to design a probation program for the offender, whether to assign an offender to alternative treatment facilities or programs, and other such corollary sentencing matters. The scores do not in themselves constitute an aggravating or mitigating circumstance because neither the data selection and evaluations upon which a probation officer or other administrator’s assessment is made nor the resulting scores are necessarily congruent with a sentencing judge’s findings and conclusion regarding relevant sentencing factors. Having been determined to be statistically valid, reliable, and effective in forecasting recidivism, the assessment tool scores may, and if possible should, be considered to supplement and enhance a judge’s evaluation, weighing, and application of the other sentencing evidence in the formulation of an individualized sentencing program appropriate for each defendant.
But the legitimacy of sentencing consideration of evidence-based assessment results has been questioned by the Court of Appeals, not only in the present case but also in Rhodes, which the defendant cites to support his opposition to using the LSI-R test at sentencing. In Rhodes, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s sentence but opined that the “use of a standardized scoring model, such as the LSI-R, undercuts the trial court’s responsibility to craft an appropriate, individualized sentence” and that “it is an abuse of discretion to rely on scoring models to determine a sentence.” 896 N.E.2d at 1195. We disagree. As noted above, there is a growing body of impressive research supporting the widespread use and efficacy of evidence-based offender assessment tools. The results of such testing can enhance a trial judge’s individualized evaluation of the sentencing evidence and selection of the program of penal consequences most appropriate for the reformation of a particular offender. The fact that numerical results from such tools may reflect factors that are separately shown by other evidence at sentencing does not disqualify the test results as duplicative. Sentencing considerations are often shown by the presentation of multiple, separate items of evidence or are repeated in the probation department’s pre-sentence report, but this doesn’t render them objectionable as duplicative. We defer to the sound discernment and discretion of trial judges to give the tools proper consideration and appropriate weight. We disapprove of the resistance to LSI-R test results expressed by the Court of Appeals in Rhodes.
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We hold that the results of LSI-R and SASSI offender assessment instruments are appropriate supplemental tools for judicial consideration at sentencing. These evaluations and their scores are not intended to serve as aggravating or mitigating circumstances nor to determine the gross length of sentence, but a trial court may employ such results in formulating the manner in which a sentence is to be served.
Shepard, C.J., and Sullivan, Boehm, and Rucker, JJ., concur.