Empowering Justice-Involved Women Through Smarter Assessment
Join the growing number of agencies using the WRNA. This research-backed, cost-effective tool delivers deeper insights, builds hope, and helps reduce recidivism among women.
Overview and Impact of the WRNA
The suite of Women’s Risk Needs Assessment (WRNA) instruments is used to measure women’s specific criminogenic needs as well as their strengths, aiding development of comprehensive case plans to keep women from cycling in and out of the criminal justice system. The WRNA is used by more than 100 international and U.S. jurisdictions, including England, Wales, Singapore, the Czech Republic, and Namibia. It is tailored for jails, prisons, reentry, community supervision, and treatment service providers and is embedded in many agencies across the U.S. including Texas, Oregon, Oklahoma, Kansas, North Dakota, Georgia, Wyoming, Vermont, and many others.
The WRNA is an empirically grounded, gender-responsive tool that enhances the accuracy and fairness of risk assessment for women in the justice system. It supports individualized, trauma-informed, and rehabilitative interventions that reflect the unique pathways and needs of justice-involved women. Unlike traditional, male-based risk assessments, the WRNA was designed using empirical research focused on women’s pathways into the justice system.
Understanding WRNA’s Unique Value
The Women’s Risk Needs Assessment (WRNA) is one of the few tools specifically designed to measure women’s strengths and protective factors that reduce their likelihood of recidivism. Recognizing these elements is key to improving motivation and shaping effective case plans.
What sets the WRNA apart is its trauma-informed interview process. Staff must be trained to deliver interviews in a trauma-informed manner and must demonstrate this skill before being certified as end-users. The WRNA also addresses criminogenic needs unique to women—such as unhealthy relationships, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and parental stress—that are often overlooked in gender-neutral assessments.
In addition, it evaluates prior trauma, victimization, PTSD, and other complex needs to ensure they are properly addressed in treatment. Grounded in theories and research centered on women’s experiences, the WRNA offers a gender-responsive approach to risk and needs assessment.
Although it is a public-domain instrument, use of the WRNA requires a license agreement, adherence to specific conditions, and associated training costs.
Why Professionals Choose the WRNA
Professionals who use the Women’s Risk Needs Assessment (WRNA) consistently highlight its practical benefits and meaningful impact. One of the most valued features is its cost-effectiveness—there is no pay-per-use fee, making it more accessible and sustainable for agencies over time.
Compared to other widely used proprietary tools, the WRNA is easier to score, streamlining the assessment process for staff. More importantly, it provides deeper, more actionable insights into treatment needs that are specific to women, allowing for more effective and individualized case planning.
Users also report that the WRNA helps foster a greater sense of fairness and hope among women clients. This perception shift can play a critical role in engagement and long-term outcomes. In practice, the WRNA has proven to significantly reduce recidivism and technical violations, supporting more successful reentry and rehabilitation efforts.
