Title: The Women’s Risk Needs Assessment: Putting Gender at the Forefront of Actuarial Risk Assessment - Penal Reform International
Headings: The Women’s Risk Needs Assessment: Putting Gender at the Forefront of Actuarial Risk Assessment
The Women’s Risk Needs Assessment: Putting Gender at the Forefront of Actuarial Risk Assessment
Women have distinct pathways to offending to men, often marked by violence, abuse, trauma, mental illness and unhealthy relationships – all factors which translate into needs and risk factors for reoffending. However, traditional risk and need assessments are designed with male offenders in mind. This blog post by criminologists, Breanna Boppre and Emily Salisbury of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, summarises the gender-specific risk assessment that was designed specifically for women in the U.S. to bring gender to the foreground of offender rehabilitation.
The development of the WRNA: Starting from ‘women up’
More information
PRI’s work on gender-sensitive risk and needs asssessments
Footnotes

Content: Based upon crime trends and the voices of women offenders themselves, it is clear that women’s criminality is frequently quite different from that of men. Internationally, women are incarcerated at a much lower rate than their male counterparts. [ 3] Additionally, women tend to commit lower level offenses such as property and drug crimes in comparison to men. As the types of crimes and pathways into criminal behavior differ between men and women, gender must be in the foreground of offender rehabilitation, the principles of effective intervention, and risk/needs assessment inquiry to adequately account for gender differences in risk factors and treatment needs. Consequently, the WRNA is a central component in the gender-responsive movement as it was created with women’s specific needs and risk factors in mind and is, therefore, better able to classify women offenders for custody/supervision levels and treatment programming. More information
On the WRNA, including psychometric and validation reports, please visit http://www.uc.edu/womenoffenders/publications.html
The National Resource Center on Justice Involved Women is an excellent clearinghouse of evidence-based and gender-responsive policies and practices. http://cjinvolvedwomen.org/
Additional resources can be found at the National Institute of Corrections (U.S.), please visit http://nicic.gov/womenoffenders
PRI’s work on gender-sensitive risk and needs asssessments
PRI and the Kenya Probation Service are currently implementing a pilot project, funded by the Thailand Institute of Justice, on gender-sensitive community service and probation orders. The project includes research in Kenya on the current practices and experiences of both magistrates and probation staff, and women who have previously served community service or probation orders themselves. The findings will be used to develop gender-sensitive offender assessment tools and guidelines on the design and implementation of community service and probation mindful of women’s needs, as well as relevant training material. Footnotes
[1] For an overview of actuarial risk assessment and the RNR model, see Bonta, J., & Andrews, D. A. (2007).