Objective: The Examination and Assessment Form for Juvenile Offenders (ARDEF) was developed with the purpose of investigating risk of recidivism and needs of children and adolescents who are in conflict with the law. Methods: The study of reliability and validity for this scale was carried out with 370 adolescents in penal institutions in Turkey. Interviews with the participatns were performed by prison officers. Results: Test-retest and interrater analyses of the measurement and assessment scale generated statistically significant results. The two scales which were administered in order to measure criterion referenced validity were correlated with ARDEF subscales. The correlations between aggression and destructive behaviors evaluated with Youth Self Report Scale and aggression and criminality indexes of ARDEF were significant. These results show that ARDEF can validly measure those behaviors and risk of offending. Also the structural validity analyses that were carried out with factor analysis method have shown that the scale items loaded on three factors of mental status, poverty and criminal attitude, similar to the results of national and international research on juvenile crime. Discussion: It was shown that the scale can be used to assess the risks and needs, in order to develop individual rehabilitation programs in juvenile penal institutions in Turkey. The scale needs to be administered on a larger sample to establish the necessary norms. In addition, follow-up studies are needed to evaluate how well ARDEF measures the risk of re-offending in juveniles. [Anadolu Psikiyatri Derg 2011; 12(2.000): 143-150]