General Supervision & Offender Risk Assessment

Criminal justice agencies use a range of assessment procedures to ascertain risk levels and to inform their work with each individual offender. Risk assessment is an integral part of Probation work, and the Probation Service uses a computerised assessment system, called OASys.

The assessment procedure looks at an individual's offending history, a comprehensive review of their background and a classification on their potential risk of harm to others.

OASys reports found that, generally, offenders had on average four criminogenic needs likely to cause offending behaviour and that, overall, offenders in custody had a greater number.

The Probation Service also uses OGRS - the Offender Group Reconviction Scale. This assessment tool has been developed to help predict the likelihood of any given offender re-offending. The comprehensive data includes relevant details about the offender's previous offending history.

National research reveals that the majority of offenders have a wide range of criminogenic needs or factors that are likely to lead to repeat offending. These needs can be divided into static and dynamic risk factors.

Static risk factors refer to an individual's offending history, while dynamic risk factors can include past problems with their education, substance abuse, and finding and maintaining work.