ABSTRACT
Professionals use the term ‘needs assessment’ to describe the population needs, the needs of an adolescent, a family, problems of an individual or a need for adolescent offenders to be punished or be treated. When used in these ways, needs assessment describes the demands or wants of individuals or a community. All of these uses are valid, the Oxford dictionary’s initial definition of need being ‘circumstances requiring some sort of action’. However, subsequent definitions include ‘want, a time of difficulty or crisis, poverty, lack of necessaries’. Because of these different definitions, it is important for professionals to have an agreed understanding of terminology and theory of needs assessment.
