Registrant Risk Assessment Scale Law and Legal Definition
The Risk Assessment Manual and the Registrant Risk Assessment Scale (RRAS) were designed to provide “an objective standard on which to base the community notification decision mandated by statute and to insure that the notification law is applied in a uniform manner throughout the State.” The Registrant Risk Assessment Scale considers the seriousness of the offense, the offense history, the characteristics of the offender and the community support available to the registrant. Registrants are assigned a certain number of points depending on the nature of their offense and other criteria. The Prosecutor of the county where the offender has chosen to reside initiates the Tier Classification process by applying the Risk Assessment Manual and the thirteen factors provided in the RRAS. The factors are recognized by experts in the field of risk assessment as reliable predictors of recidivism. The offender is given a score with respect to each factor: low risk (0), moderate risk (1), or high risk (3). The thirteen factors that comprise the RRAS are organized into four categories: 1) seriousness of the offense, 2) offense history, 3) characteristics of the offender, and 4) community support. The initial score for each of the thirteen factors is increased by multipliers, which differ by heading; the data are added together for a final risk assessment score (“RRAS Score”). [Alan A. v. Verniero, 970 F. Supp. 1153, 1164 (D.N.J. 1997)]
