Two New Assessments for Women Offenders1

With women offenders representing only seven percent of the U.S. prison population, prevailing correctional policies continue to focus on the risk and needs of male offenders. However, in recent years, the female prison populations have increased more rapidly than male populations (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2005). Such rapid growth draws strong attention to existing practices of assessing and classifying women offenders (Van Voorhis, 2004). Current classification procedures involve the use of statistically-derived assessments that predict an offender’s likelihood of recidivism or an inmate’s likelihood of serious misconducts. They provide a risk score that determines the custody level of one’s prison assignment if incarcerated or level of community supervision if on probation or parole. Some assessments also identif