A critical review of risk assessment policy and practice since the 1990s, and the contribution of risk practice to contemporary rehabilitation of offenders

Since the 1990s, risk assessment policy and practice with offenders has become a sizeable industry. The key drivers have been correctional, financial, and to a lesser extent rehabilitative, with these, at times competing, drivers taking place within a wider discourse of public protection and penal populism. This chapter will briefly address this ‘risk trajectory’ and focus primarily on more recent trends in risk policy and practice which attempt to ‘get the mix right’ between risk and rehabilitation. Risk practice which seeks to achieve risk minimization through attention to both risk reducing measures and rehabilitative measures will be highlighted, with a particular focus on techniques to engage offenders in self-assessment and risk management planning. Practical steps to achieving more balanced and holistic risk management plans will be presented, before finally concluding with some speculations on future developments.