Research and development underpins and complements the work of the RMA. The RMA has a statutory requirement under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2003, in relation to risk minimisation to:
- To keep under review research relevant to the risk assessment and risk management of serious violent and sexual offenders
- To provide an evidence base for and support the development of best practice in the risk assessment and mangement of serious violent and sexual offenders.
- To provide training programmes and other educational initiatives to increase the pool of accredited risk assessors and promote the Standards and Guidelines for Risk Assessment
- To provide training programmes and other educational initiatives to promote the practice central to the Standards and Guidelines for Risk Assessment of Offenders subject to an Order for Lifelong Restriction
- To provide training programmes and other educational initiatives for the promotion of best practice in risk assessment and mangement of serious violent and sexual offenders
This provision allows the RMA to carry out, commission or co-ordinate research and publish the results, and to undertake pilot schemes to develop and improve methods. Research has provided the evidence base for the Standards and Guidelines for risk assessment and risk management.
The RMA’s research and training priorities go hand in hand to complement and provide the evidence base for the standards and guidelines and for the continuous improvement of these.
Version 2 of the Risk Assessment Tools Evaluation Directory (RATED), a document that provides information on the attributes of a number of familiar risk assessment tools and associated techniques, is available to download here.
Since its publication, feedback has been very positive with enquiries from across the globe. If you would like to comment on any of the tools, please use the feedback form available to download here. If you would like to submit for approval newly developed risk assessment tools, you can download information here, the Summary of Approval Evidence here and the Summary Document template here.
Information on the current research and training projects that we are taking forward is available here.
Information on proposed future research and training projects is available here.
We would welcome ideas for new research projects. If you would like to submit a proposal, you can download the Template for Submission of Research Proposals by clicking here.