The risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model has been widely regarded as the premier model for guiding offender assessment and treatment. The RNR model underlies some of the most widely used risk-needs offender assessment instruments, and it is the only theoretical model that has been used to interpret the offender treatment literature. Recently, the good lives model (GLM) has been promoted as an alternative and enhancement to RNR. GLM sets itself apart from RNR by its positive, strengths-based, and restorative model of rehabilitation. In addition, GLM hypothesizes that enhancing personal fulfillment will lead naturally to reductions in criminogenic needs, whereas RNR posits the reverse direction. In this article the authors respond to GLM’s criticisms of RNR and conclude that little substance is added by GLM that is not already included in RNR, although proponents of RNR may learn from the popular appeal that GLM, with its positive, strength-based focus, has garnered from clinicians over the past decade.

The risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model: Does adding the good lives model contribute to effective crime prevention?

The general personality and social psychology underlying the Risk–Need–Responsivity (RNR) model of rehabilitation recognizes the importance of the personal, interpersonal, and relatively automatic sources of control over human behaviour as well as the power of cognitive-social-learning approaches to interpersonal influence in many social settings. In terms of both prediction and intervention, the RNR model has impressive but limited research support and is widely implemented, albeit with mixed support in routine correctional practice. This article suggests that RNR and the psychology that underlies it may also assist justice agencies and the courts through crime-prevention jurisprudence (CPJ). Always in the context of ethical, legal, just, and otherwise normative interventions, the first task is to help keep low-risk cases low risk and not interfere with existing strengths. The second task is to identify moderate and higher-risk cases and arrange crime-prevention activities consistent with ethical, legal,...

The Risk–Need–Responsivity Model of Assessment and Human Service in Prevention and Corrections: Crime-Prevention Jurisprudence

The science of effective offender rehabilitation remains a very young field: dominated theoretically and empirically by the work of a small group of Canadian psychologists. Their achievements include the ‘what works’ research literature, and the RNR model of offender rehabilitation. First disseminated in 1990, over the following 20 years, the Risk, Need and Responsivity Principles became the core of the theoretical framework used in those correctional systems around the world that use science as a basis for offender rehabilitation. This paper evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the RNR model as a Level I rehabilitation framework. It proposes that unrealistic expectations and mistranslations of the model into practice are contributing to concerns about its validity and utility, and stifling needed innovation in the development both of mid-level treatment resources, and of RNR-adherent interventions. It concludes that although the RNR model's empirical validity and practical utility justify its place as the dominant model, it is not the ‘last word’ on offender rehabilitation; there is much work still to be done.

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An appraisal of the risk–need–responsivity (RNR) model of offender rehabilitation and its application in correctional treatment

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND BEHAVIOR, Vol. XX, No. X, Month 2007 94-XXX DOI: © 2007 American Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology I I J I I , l. 39 No. 1, January 2012 94-110 I: 10.1177/0093854811426085 12 International Association for Correction l and Forensic Psychology AUTHORS’ NOTE: Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Tony Ward, Deakin University, Geelong Waterfront Campus, 1 Gheringhap Street, Geelong VIC 3217, Australia; email: tony. ward@deakin.edu.au. THE GOOD LIVES MODEL AND THE RISK NEED RESPONSIVITY MODEL

The Good Lives Model and the Risk Need Responsivity Model A Critical Response to Andrews, Bonta, and Wormith (2011)

The present study evaluated a training program for probation officers based on the risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model of offender rehabilitation. A total of 80 officers were randomly assigned to ei...

An Experimental Demonstration of Training Probation Officers in Evidence-Based Community Supervision:

https://www.ccoso.org/sites/default/files/import/Ward-Melser---Yates-2007.pdf

Joseph Melser

Papers

Reconstructing the Risk-Need-Responsivity model: A theoretical elaboration and evaluation