Reflections of risk in Community Corrections

Abstract

The adoption of risk assessment instruments and practices in community sanctions founded in a risk-needs-responsivity framework and an increased political emphasis on recidivism has opened up the potential revival of notions of rehabilitation. Interviews with a group of Sydney-based accommodation and rehabilitation post-release service providers suggest that this potential is being undercut by the failure to address structural problems in the provision of services and a shift in emphasis from service provision to "criminogenic needs". The chapter then addresses a set of more general themes: "systemic responsivity", the individualizing tendency of risk assessment; the need to link risk assessment and desistance theory; the problematic nature of risk assessment for vulnerable populations; and the social justice implications of the professionalization of risk assessment practice.