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Offender Risk and Needs Assessment: Some Current Issues and Suggestions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2012

Mitchell K. Byrne*
Affiliation:
University of Wollongong. [email protected]
Stuart Byrne
Affiliation:
University of South Australia.
Katherine Hillman
Affiliation:
University of South Australia.
Emma Stanley
Affiliation:
University of South Australia.
*
*Address for correspondence: Mitchell K. Byrne, Department of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong NSW 2522, Australia.
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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.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2001

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