Existing risk communication procedures are marred by various well-documented problems and inconsistencies. The Council of State Governments’ Justice Center (United States) developed a five-level system for risk and needs communication, to standardize these procedures and to provide a common risk language. Introduction of a common language could constitute a dramatic shift in criminal justice processes, with wide-ranging impacts. This article provides a critical review of the system and its suitability for application to various risk assessment functions. Issues discussed include: applicability to specialist and generalist offending behavior, the characteristics of suitable instruments, statistical and conceptual priorities, barriers to precision in language, and conceptual issues related to changes in risk level. A thorough understanding of each of these issues is necessary to apply the system to new contexts and populations, and facilitate straightforward and precise risk communication. Absent further elaboration of the system, many problems with risk communication will persist.

现有的风险沟通程序受到各种记录在案的问题和不一致的影响。州政府委员会司法中心（美国）开发了一个风险和需求沟通的五级系统，以标准化这些程序并提供通用的风险语言。引入通用语言可能会导致刑事司法程序发生巨大变化，产生广泛影响。本文对该系统及其适用于各种风险评估功能的适用性进行了严格审查。讨论的问题包括：对专家和通才犯罪行为的适用性、合适工具的特征、统计和概念优先级、语言精确的障碍以及与风险水平变化相关的概念问题。要将该系统应用于新的环境和人群，并促进直接和准确的风险沟通，就必须透彻了解这些问题中的每一个。如果没有对系统进行进一步的阐述，风险沟通方面的许多问题将持续存在。