Offender Risk and Needs Assessment: Some Current Issues and Suggestions

Abstract

Crime impacts upon the community at multiple levels, causing distress and loss for the victims, and feelings of insecurity for the public, as well as adding to the drain on financial resources for governments. This makes the accurate identification of risk of reoffending and the determination of efficacious rehabilitation strategies imperative. Key principles in cognitive and behavioural psychology can contribute to this task. This paper will review the issue of risk assessment and describe the applicability of functional analysis to forensic psychology. Two studies by the authors will be used to illustrate concepts raised in this review. The paper will conclude with a model that may help guide the realistic implementation of detailed individual functional analyses of offenders' behaviour.

Prevalence of Depression, Anxiety, Stress, and Anger in Turkish Prisoners

“…Anger can play a role in both the prediction of violence and the treatment of violent offenders. The prediction of violent recidivism is an important area of focus for correctional services (5,6). In literature, most research about anger in prisons has been directed at male offenders and studies using anger measures have been successful in distinguishing violent from nonviolent offenders (7,8).…”

The Level of Service Inventory-Revised (Lsi-R) and Australian Offenders

“…C ontemporary correctional practice is founded on the principles of risk (overall likelihood that the individual will engage in future criminal behavior), need (the idiosyncratic or offender-specific factors associated with offending behavior), and responsivity (characteristics of the offender and his or her environment that affect responsiveness to intervention; e.g., Bonta, 2007;Byrne, Byrne, Hillman, & Stanley, 2001;Kennedy, 2000;Ogloff & Davis, 2004). Risk assessment is an integral part of the decision-making process throughout correctional administration, impacting upon areas as diverse as levels of supervision, program admission, incarceration length, release status (i.e., authorized levels of freedom), and managerial justifications (i.e., justifying resources used to manage and care for offenders).…”

A Case Study of Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy With a Perpetrator of Domestic Abuse

“…This rate of abuse is important not only socially but also because of the psychological and physical consequences of such abuse. The psychological consequences are reported to include depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol misuse, drug misuse, and chronic low self-esteem (Byrne, Byrne, Hillman, & Stanley, 2001). It is further estimated that physical injury because of perpetrator aggression is highly significant, with pregnant women being at particular risk (Neggers, Goldenberg, Cliver, & Hauth, 2004).…”