Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice

No. 280: Assessment of the risk of reoffending by Indigenous male violent and sexual offenders

Alfred Allan and Deborah Dawson
ISBN 0 642 53845 X ; ISSN 0817-8542 ; CRC 6/00-01
July 2004

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Abstract

Modern corrections practice requires an assessment of the risk of reoffending on at least two levels. First, risk assessments are necessary to decide which offenders should be targeted for rehabilitation. Second, risk assessment is necessary to deal with the increasing demand by the public and politicians that offenders who are at a high risk of reoffending, especially violent and sexual offending, should not be released prematurely. This paper reports on a risk assessment tool that has been developed specifically for Indigenous offenders. The study was based on analysis of the file data of adult male Western Australian Indigenous offenders who had since 1987 been identified as requiring either a violent or sexual offender program. Separate risk prediction instruments were developed to assess the risk of reoffending by both violent offenders and sexual offenders. A three factor predictor model, developed for sexual offenders, was found to be highly accurate. However the research has also found that further work is required on developing tools for the various sub-groups of violent (family violence versus other violence) and sexual (violent versus non-violent) offenders.

This paper is taken from the report of research undertaken with the assistance of a grant from the Criminology Research Council.

References

• CRC final report: Developing a unique risk of violence tool for Australian Indigenous offenders
• Criminology Research Council
• Topic: Corrections
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