ABSTRACT
Assessments of the risk of recidivism are used to inform judicial decisions in the criminal and juvenile justice systems. Decisions made by the criminal and juvenile justice systems reflect the basic values embraced by a society and indicate the types of behaviours that are tolerable within that society. This chapter describes the implementation journey of the risk-need-responsivity framework in Singapore as well as the relevant local research findings on the associated risk assessment measure that facilitates the systematic evaluation of youth offenders. The risk-need-responsivity principles have been shown to be hugely important for the assessment and rehabilitation aspects of offender management. Originally developed in Canada, the Youth Level of Service measures have been successfully adapted for use in other international jurisdictions. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the directions of implementing the risk-need-responsivity framework and the need to enforce adherence to the model throughout the sector.
