NCJ Number
188441
Journal
Punishment and Society Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2001 Pages: 237-264
Date Published
April 2001
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This empirical research focused on the implementation of risk assessment and risk management procedures related to sexual and dangerous offenders and used by public protection panels in England and Wales and assessed the claims that a broad shift had occurred in modes of crime control.
Abstract
The research examined whether modes of crime control had changed from penal modernism toward a new risk-based approach characteristic of the late or postmodern period. The fieldwork took place in six police agency areas that varied widely in size and character. Information came from 117 interviews with police and probation offices and 30 interviews with staff from other agencies, including social workers, prison officers, psychiatrists, health officials, and housing officers. Results were mixed and contradictory. The dominant discourse around approaches for dealing with sexual and dangerous offenders was in tune with this claim. However, numerous aspects of agency cultural and practice reflected the continuing strength of the modernist project. These aspects included interest in the individual case and the valuing of professional judgment above actuarial tools. However, signs existed of a growing populist challenge to the modernist assumption that risk knowledge and management should rely on small groups of experts who worked in secret. The analysis concluded that overall, perhaps the strongest indication of a shift toward new penal forms lies in two factors: (1) the emergence of new forms of partnership, driven by the logic of risk, and (2) the significant dispersal of accountability that has accompanied their development. Notes and 70 references (Author abstract modified)