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: Risk-need-responsivity model for offender assessment and rehabilitation (User Report 2007–06). Ottawa, Ontario: Public Safety Canada. [2] See Bloom, B., Owen, B., & Covington, S. (2003). Gender-Responsive Strategies: Research, Practice, and Guiding Principles for Women Offenders. Washington, DC: National Institute of Corrections. [3] For an overview of female imprisonment rates worldwide, see the World Female Prison Imprisonment List provided by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research.