Understanding Risk In Criminal Justice

“the Crime & Justice series has become a key resource for universities in teaching criminology and criminal justice… Professor Kemshall has established herself as a leading figure in the concepts of risk, risk management and public protection issues… an invaluable read for those entering Criminal Justice or moving to work in projects or teams at the forefront of public protection” Vista How significant is risk to the formation and implementation of penal policy? To what extent are the tasks and activities of frontline criminal justice workers informed by concerns to assess and manage risk? Has there been a significant 'sea-change' in the delivery of criminal justice, and if so, what are the future implications of this? This illuminating text examines the significance of the concept of risk in criminal justice policy, and in the role of criminal justice agencies and crime prevention initiatives. Particular features of the book include its use of practical examples, coverage of previously unpublished research, and a full review of current risk assessment tools for use with offenders. It is designed with undergraduate courses in mind, providing frequent summaries, lists of further reading, and a glossary. The identification, assessment and management of risk has become a central theme of criminal justice policy. For some penal policy commentators this represents a 'sea-change' in crime management to a new era of 'actuarial justice', that is the management of crime opportunities and risk distribution rather than the management of individual offenders. By drawing on key areas of criminal justice practice such as policing, probation and crime prevention, this book examines the actual extent of this change and reviews the case for a new risk-based penology. The book combines a review of current theories on actuarial justice with a detailed examination of current practices in key frontline agencies. The result is an essential text for criminology students and trainee professionals in criminal justice.

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.

Security and Risk Technologies in Criminal Justice takes students through the evolution of risk technology devices, processes, and prevention. This seminal text unpacks technology’s influence on our understanding of governance and social order in areas of criminal justice, policing, and security. With a foreword by leading scholar Kevin Haggerty, the collection consists of three sections that explore the impact of big data, traditional risk practices, and the increased reliance on technology in criminal justice. Eight chapters offer diverse examples that are linked by themes of preventative justice, calculability of risk, the theatre and reality of technology, and the costs of justice. With both national and international appeal, this vital resource is ideal for undergraduate and graduate students in criminology, police studies, or sociology.

This book provides an understanding of youth offending and policy and practice responses that have been underpinned by risk factor research. The arguments set out in this book engage with the purposes, quality and conclusions of risk factor research with young people and the deterministic and prescriptive nature of the risk factor paradigm. This book explores youth justice and youth offending in the context of the original and contemporary manifestations of risk factor research with young people in England and Wales as well as internationally. It analyses the influence of concepts of risk upon policy development in England and Wales, highlighting tensions between the proponents of risk factor research and methodological and ethical criticisms of the risk factor paradigm. Understanding Youth Offending will be essential reading for anybody wishing to understand risk factor explanations of crime, contemporary youth justice policy and responses to offending behaviour.

This book puts in one place and in accessible form Richard Berk’s most recent work on forecasts of re-offending by individuals already in criminal justice custody. Using machine learning statistical procedures trained on very large datasets, an explicit introduction of the relative costs of forecasting errors as the forecasts are constructed, and an emphasis on maximizing forecasting accuracy, the author shows how his decades of research on the topic improves forecasts of risk. Criminal justice risk forecasts anticipate the future behavior of specified individuals, rather than “predictive policing” for locations in time and space, which is a very different enterprise that uses different data different data analysis tools. The audience for this book includes graduate students and researchers in the social sciences, and data analysts in criminal justice agencies. Formal mathematics is used only as necessary or in concert with more intuitive explanations.

This book examines the impact and implications of the relationship between risk and criminal justice in advanced liberal democracies, in the context of the ‘revolt against uncertainty’ which has underpinned the rise of populist politics across these societies in recent years. It asks what impact the demands for more certainty and security, and the insistence that national identity be reasserted, will have on criminal law and penal policy. Drawing upon contributions made at a symposium held at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand in November 2018, this edited collection also discusses the way in which risk has come to inform sentencing practices, broader criminal justice processes and the critical issues associated with this. It also examines the growth and making of new ‘risky populations’ and the harnessing of risk-prevention logics, techniques and mechanisms which have inflated the influence of risk on criminal justice.

Criminal Justice, Mental Health and the Politics of Risk addresses the important issues which lie at the forefront of decision making and policy in criminal justice and health care. The book brings together several perpectives from a number of distinguished academic lawyers, criminologists, psychologists and psychiatrists. It is multi-disciplinary in its approach and is jointly edited by a lawyer, a criminologist and a psychologist - all of whom have expertise and experience in this field. The book is written in the light of the current emphasis on risk assessment and management as well as the recent government proposals to reform mental health law and detain dangerous and severely personality disordered individuals. It provides a theoretical overview for academics and students in the fields of medical law, mental health law, criminal justice, psychology, sociology, criminology and psychiatry. In addition, the book's highly topical and pragmatic approach will appeal to numerous professionals and practitioners

In this penetrating account of the impacts of risk on everyday life, Gabe Mythen provides a theoretically informed overview of the regulation of crime and security in a globalized world. By explicating the relationships between risk and crime, security and justice, the text applies risk to specific incidents and events, scrutinizing social processes and cultural practices, and illumining some of the central social and political issues of the modern age. Extending across a range of domains – including law, the environment, media and politics – Mythen embarks on a conceptual and critical exploration of risk theory. In doing so, his incisive text presents both a critical evaluation of the efficacy of competing perspectives on risk, and an authoritative appraisal of the place of risk within the social sciences.