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Attempts to measure and control risk have become a central concern in criminal justice. Critics have pointed out how the use of risk assessments can conflict with proportionality, and have also argued that it can increase the general level of punitiveness and social disadvantage. Developers and supporters of risk assessment have pointed to advantages, such as the support it offers for rehabilitative measures. This paper discusses the development of risk assessment in British criminal justice practice and argues that its consequences, both positive and negative, have depended not simply on the use of risk-related practices but on the policies they have been deployed to serve.