The role of developmental and situational factors in offender risk assessment and risk management has been largely ignored. This may be due to the fact that developmental and situational theories mainly focus upon explaining how offenders transition in and out of offending yet provide little information regarding the underlying process of change. Offender narratives, on the other hand, may provide insight into the manner in which offenders interpret and make sense of the world around them that may account for that change. This paper discusses the contributions of developmental and situational theories in understanding offending behaviour and how these can be understood through the offender’s personal narrative to provide a comprehensive theoretical and empirical base for the risk assessment and risk management of offenders. The findings of this research have implications for both risk assessment and risk management, which until now have not fully considered the role of situational and developmental contexts and the importance of self as manifested through the personal narratives of offenders.