NCJ Number
204815
Date Published
2003
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This paper presents an overview of the progress and related research in utilizing a structured approach in assessing risk assessment and needs of juvenile offenders under the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Juvenile Justice.
Abstract
In conjunction with the Australian Adaptation of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory, the New South Wales Department of Juvenile Justice has been involved in a program of research and practice. Over the past 4 years, the NSW Department of Juvenile Justice has accepted the approach of the structured assessment of the risks and needs of juvenile offenders as being fundamentally important in juvenile justice and has adopted this approach through progressively linked research and practice. This paper presents an overview of the NSW Department of Juvenile Justice’s progress and related research. The paper begins with an overview of the theoretical, empirical, professional, and philosophical underpinnings to risk-need assessment. A structured approach to assessing risks and needs rests within a framework that views adverse developmental outcomes as arising from the effect over time of antecedent risk factors. One of the key tenets is that the more risk factors the higher the risk. Risk factors can be biological, social, and psychological. The paper continues and concludes with a look into the Australian adaptation of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI-AA) which culminated from a number of versions of juvenile offender risk-need inventory. It reviews the psychometric properties of the YLS/CMI-AA, the implementation of the YLS/CMI-AA and the ongoing research with the YLS/CMI-AA. References