Understanding the Management of High Risk Offenders

“This is an extremely important and timely book written by a pre-eminent scholar in the field. Hazel Kemshall has a proven track record not just of exceptional scholarship but, equally importantly, of engaging effectively with policy and practice. Given the damaging synergies between media hype and public insecurities about 'dangerous' offenders, the evidence-based, measured and thoughtful analysis provided in this book provides a vital counterpoint to increasingly punitive and exclusionary discourses around public protection. In promoting a more balanced, humane and integrative approach to risk, the book deserves to influence not just scholars but also policy makers and practitioners facing the complex challenges of managing risk and dangerousness.”
Fergus McNeill, Associate Fellow of the Centre for Sentencing Research, Strathclyde University, UK

High risk offenders have attracted much media, policy and practice interest in recent years. New legislation and extensive multi-agency partnerships have been initiated to improve the assessment and management of these offenders in the community.

Drawing on a wide range of cross-national literature and original research by the author,this timely book reviews current approaches to the community management of high risk offenders. The book examines in detail a range of risk management techniques, including:

• Community protection measures (such as sexual offender registration and community notification)
• Restorative and re-integrative measures (such as Circles of Support and Accountability, pro-social modelling, public health campaigns and environmental risk management approaches)

Hazel Kemshall argues for a ‘blending’ of these two approaches to provide risk management interventions for the ‘protective integration’ of high risk offenders back into the community.In addition, the book examines contemporary difficulties in risk assessment, effective multi-agency partnership working, and recent policy and legislative initiatives in this challenging area of work.

Understanding the Management of High Risk Offenders is a vital resource for criminology and criminal justice students and stimulating reading for probation officers, social workers, police and prison staff, among others.