Requests for assessments of risk arrive not infrequently ± indeed, can at times be hidden in otherwise seemingly straightforward referrals. The growing tendency in our culture to assume omnipotently that risk can be eliminated, with a concomitant ethos of litigation when it cannot, makes our response to such requests necessarily particularly measured. Additionally, as Lucas reminds us: `Management's anxiety over containing disturbed behaviour has replaced asylum walls with ``walls of paper'', namely the Care Programme Approach (CPA) form and the risk assessment form' (Lucas 2006: 195), but `there is no foolproof way to prevent tragedies' (Lucas 2003: 43). We would nevertheless stress our conviction that a psychoanalytic perspective does have a huge amount to add to our understanding of dif®cult and dangerous young people. This understanding is dynamic: while a good assessment of risk offers an invaluable prompt to people's thinking about, perception and management of a young person, it cannot be an absolute, de®nitive statement. We are not in the area of solutions or magical ®xes: rather, a good risk assessment, like a good consultation, enables others to progress and plan.