Good risk assessment of the risk of harm is fundamental to ensuring the minimisation of the risk posed by serious violent and sexual offenders. Those conducting risk assessments using the RMA Standards and Guidelines for Risk Assessment, including RMA accredited assessors, must use a structured professional judgement approach when forming their assessments. Structured professional judgement combines consideration of evidence based selection of preset and predetermined factors with professional interpretation allowing the assessor to take into account individual specific details of the case. The RMA aims to achieve a consistent product for the courts and high quality risk assessments to underpin effective risk management.
The Standards as outlined in the Standards & Guidelines for Risk Assessment, are:
1. Document Review
The assessor must review a range of relevant documents concerning the offender’s social, criminal and medical context in order to inform their assessment.
2. Professional Judgement
The assessor must use a structured professional judgement approach informing their assessment. The assessor must use at least one risk assessment tool. Where only one tool is used, this should be a structured professional judgement tool approved by the RMA. Where actuarial tools are used in addition to a structured professional judgement tool, assessors must use or reference actuarial tools evaluated as suitable by the RMA. (these can be viewed in Version 1 of Risk Assessment Tools Evaluation Directory – RATED. Click here to view RATED)
3. Offender Contact
The assessor should aim to have a minimum of 6 hours, face to face contact with the offender. The 6 hours does not include the offender feedback session. The contact should take place on at least 3 occasions and span several weeks. The assessor must conduct a feedback session with the offender.
4. Multi-disciplinary Working
The assessor must use a multi-disciplinary approach in the collection of information and the formulation of considerations when undertaking the risk assessment. This will usually involve facilitating a meeting of a range of professionals from varying disciplines as part of the assessment process. The assessor should also verify with attendees at a later stage to ensure that the report accurately represents the information they provided to the assessor.
5. Report Structure
The assessor must submit the Risk Assessment Report, in relation to a Risk Assessment Order to the High Court, in the RMA Risk Assessment Report Structure. (Click here to view)
Further details can be found in Version 1 of the Standards & Guidelines for Risk Assessment. It is available by clicking here.