Risk-need-responsivity model

Domain II · Behavioural & cognitive · Andrews, Bonta, Hoge · 1990 · Canada

What it is

RNR is a framework, not a single therapy. It is a model for assessing people who have offended and for deciding who gets how much service, what to change, and how to deliver it. It was first proposed by Andrews, Bonta and Hoge (1990) in Canada, building on earlier offender-classification research;…

Format

• RNR does not prescribe numbered therapy phases. The sequence below is the case-management cycle the sources describe (assessment, then RNR-based planning, then relationship-based CBT delivery, then reassessment), with STICS's session structure for individual contacts. STICS divides the supervision…
• Format: interview plus file review with a risk-need tool (e.g. LSI-R, LS/CMI, OASys in England and Wales); LS/CMI adds a responsivity section and links assessment to case management.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: the current 15-principle RNR model (Bonta & Andrews, The Psychology of Criminal Conduct, 6th ed., 2017, as summarised by Bonta, 2023), with the central eight risk/need factors and their intervention targets from Bonta & Andrews (2007). Session-level procedures come from STICS, the Public Safety Canada supervision model built by the RNR authors (Bourgon et al., 2009/2010; Bonta et al., 2021).…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Does it use a device, heat, cold, water or a physical procedure? Has a medical professional checked that it is safe for you?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• overrides used routinely to raise everyone's risk or to justify gut feeling.
• you solving it for them. Working: the client applies the steps to a new problem.
• RNR's human-service principle: sanctions without treatment do not reduce reoffending.
• goals the client cannot repeat back. Working: the client refers to goals spontaneously.
• strengths listed but never used. Working: goals are phrased as building on named strengths.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.