Risk and Need Assessment of Juvenile Offenders

Abstract

The validity of a newly developed probation risk and need assessment instrument, the Ministry Risk/Need Assessment Form (MRNAF), was evaluated in a medium-sized Canadian city over-represented by Native Canadians. In the present study, 263 young offenders were assessed on the MRNAF. At 6 months, 250 youths were followed-up to determine if they had offended subsequent to their initial assessment. Results indicated that the total risk/need score and all of the eight risk/need factors could discriminate between recidivists and nonrecidivists. Moreover, despite some differences between Native and non-Native youths and between male and female youths, the ethnicity and sex of young offenders were inconsequential with regards to the instrument's prediction of recidivism. Therefore, the findings support MRNAF as a robust risk/need assessment instrument to ethnicity and sex.