Decision-making by community corrections practitioners: Drivers of compliance with risk-needs assessment tools

• In Event: Risk and Needs in Supervision Agencies: Key Issues

Abstract

Evidence-based practices in community corrections lean heavily on practitioners’ use of structured assessment in assigning sanctions and services according to clients’ risks and needs. Yet, with some notable exceptions, research has done rather little to examine how risk/needs assessment tools are used in practice. This paper reports on findings of a national survey of front-line community corrections concerning practitioners’ compliance with risk/needs assessment tools—that is the extent to which they fully and accurately complete the tools and make decisions based upon their results. After considering different dimensions of practitioner compliance and non-compliance, the paper will review their empirical patterns among the practitioners surveyed. In particular, the paper will focus on how practitioners’ differential involvement in the risk-needs assessment process is associated with their levels of compliance. Findings offer pointers to good practice in the use of risk/needs assessment tools.

Author

• Joel Miller, Rutgers University