This article uses empirical research on the implementation of risk assessment and risk management procedures by public protection panels in England and Wales, to assess how far the evidence supports claims of a broad shift in modes of crime control from penal modernism towards a new `risk penality' characteristic of the late (or post-) modern period. The result is a mixed and contradictory picture, in which the dominant discourse around measures to deal with sexual and `dangerous' offenders is in tune with this claim, but there are numerous aspects of agency culture and practice - for example, interest in the individual case, and the valuing of professional judgement above actuarial tools - which reflect the continuing strength of the `modernist' project. There are, however, signs of a growing populist challenge to the modernist assumption that risk knowledge and management should be left to small groups of `experts' working in secret. Overall, perhaps the strongest evidence of a shift towards new penal forms lies in (a) the emergence of new forms of partnership, driven by the `logic of risk', and (b) the significant dispersal of accountability which has accompanied their development.

Keeping Track of Sex Offenders — Part I of the Sex Offenders Act 1997

Public Protection, Partnership and Risk Penality: The Multi-Agency Risk Management of Sexual and Violent Offenders

A punitive socio-legal policy towards sex offenders against minors has been driven by public demand. The perception of an appallingly high incidence of serious abuse by incorrigible men has been encouraged by press sensationalism, but criminal statistics and recidivism studies fail to confirm either an escalation of sex crimes against minors or the inevitability of recidivism. Retrospective victim studies have given alarming indications of the prevalence of abuse, but they have often included trivial incidents and the experiences of sexually active adolescents that do not involve real paedophiles. Clinical observation demonstrates the devastating effects of child sex abuse, but community surveys suggest that minor incidents have only minor effects, except when accompanied by other stresses. Statutory changes and prison statistics reveal the increasing punitiveness of criminal justice. Exaggerated perception of risk produces undue restrictions on children's freedom and on their interactions with teachers a...

Paedophilia: plague or panic?

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Risk Assessment And Management Of Serious Violent And Sexual Offenders: A Review Of Current Issues

Victim Attributes in Hate Crime Law Difference and the Politics of Justice

This paper explores the implications and difficulties of a system of sex offender registration for the two jurisdictions of Ireland. From the orthodox perspective, registration appears justified. S...

Keeping Track of Sex Offenders — Part I of the Sex Offenders Act 1997

Citations

Public Protection, Partnership and Risk Penality: The Multi-Agency Risk Management of Sexual and Violent Offenders

Paedophilia: plague or panic?

Risk Assessment And Management Of Serious Violent And Sexual Offenders: A Review Of Current Issues

Victim Attributes in Hate Crime Law Difference and the Politics of Justice

Sex Offender Registration: Implications and Difficulties for Ireland

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