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the risk principle suggests that effective correctional interventions should vary the intensity of treatment by offender risk, with higher risk offenders receiving more intense services than lower risk offenders. Although much research indicates that programs that target higher risk cases are more likely to be effective, relatively little research has examined the impact of varying levels of treatment dosage by risk. Consequently, this study seeks to identify the number of hours of treatment that are necessary to reduce recidivism in a sample of offenders placed in a residential community corrections facility. the sample for this study includes 689 adult male offenders successfully discharged from a Community-Based Correctional Facility in ohio. the results provide support for providing higher levels of dosage to high-risk offenders, with substantial reductions in recidivism for high-risk offenders receiving 200 or more hours of treatment.

Numerous studies on the risk principle provide evidence that correctional practitioners should vary treatment by risk by providing more services to higher risk offenders than to lower risk offenders. Until recently, however, few studies have identified how much more treatment is required to impact recidivism for higher risk offenders compared to their lower risk counterparts. This article summarizes the empirical evidence on the risk-dosage relationship, identifies remaining gaps in the literature, and argues for a comprehensive research agenda that focuses on the most effective execution of risk-based dosage in corrections. Findings from current studies are also discussed in terms of policy and practical implications for the field.

Many sex offender registration and notification procedures use an assignment process that places offenders into a lower, middle, or upper tier. This implies that the offenders on the lowest tier pose less risk than those on the highest tier; yet empirical testing of this assumption is lacking. As a first step to determining whether this approach correctly identifies the dangerousness of sex offenders, this study seeks to determine whether there is a statistically significant relationship between a sex offender's pro bability of reoffending and his registration and notification assignment in an Ohio sample of male sex offenders. Chisquare results showed no significant relationship between a sex offender's probability of reoffending and his registration and notification assignment. Regression results demonstrated only two variables to be predictive of registration assignment-prior sex offenses and current first degree felony offensewhile other variables shown to be correlated to sex offending were not predictive of registration assignment.