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Offender Risk Assessment Paper

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There are many various risk prediction scales that are being use to assess offenders. By using these risk assessments on offenders we are able to determine whether the offender is a high, medium, or low risk to the society. The Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) is an assessment that consists of a series of questions that are answered by the offender. LSI-R uses all of the following factors “criminal history, education/employment, financial, family, accommodation, leisure, companions, alcohol/drug problems, emotional/personal, and attitudes” (LSI-R, 2015) when assessing an offender. With the score generated from the LSI-R and opinions from correction professional we can determine whether the offender risk of recidivism is high, …show more content…

Static risk factors are historical and are factors that are not likely to change over a long period of time. Examples of static risk factors would include any prior offense, any convicts, victims of any of your prior offenses, and young age. Static risk factors are not assessed during the assessment or during treatment because they are factors that can not be changed. Dynamic risk factors are those factors that are likely to change over time. Substance abuse, Social life, emotional, and hostility are all examples of dynamic factors that assessed during the treatment of the …show more content…

The assessments range from assessing substance abuser to assessing violent offenders. With there being a variety of different assessments, I think that it is hard to dial in on the effectiveness. I found some research regarding the effectiveness of the LSI-R, “they discovered that a larger percentage of higher risk individuals had negative outcomes (e.g., rearrests, technical violation reported to the court, incarcerated) than lower risk individuals” (Fass, 2015). Risk prevention assessments could also be good case management tools. By assessing the risk of the offender, the people involved in the case are able to accommodate and tend to the offenders needs.
Risk assessments are very effective in community supervision in my opinion. By assessing the risk level of the offender you are able to find to appropriate placement in the community for the offender. Whether it is a high-risk offender that is sent to a half way house where he or she is under maximum supervision with no furloughs allowed. Or maybe the offender is low risk and he or she can be release from the correctional center every morning to go to work. These are just a few of the ways to integrate the risk prevention assessment into community

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