The risk assessment process, the interventions and treatment commenced as a result of it and the theory behind it are central to the administration of criminal justice programmes around the world. Most youth and adult corrections departments routinely conduct risk assessments, which are then used to inform the nature and intensity of subsequent criminal justice interventions. In this unique and important text, a team of the world's leading researchers in the field of criminal justice come together to provide a critique of this risk paradigm, and to provide practical guidance for professionals, students and academics on how to move to a more effective way of working with offenders. Divided into three sections, the book provides coverage of topics such as: - The development of risk assessment in criminal justice practice, and its advantages and disadvantages. - The significance of risk factor research in understanding and explaining juvenile delinquency – as well as the problems it creates. - The argument that the risk paradigm fails to accommodate diversity, further disadvantaging women, ethnic minorities and other marginalized groups. - The various ways in which real or imagined risk posed by offenders has been regulated under the risk paradigm, the powerful influence of media reporting, and ways of moving 'beyond risk' to support successful reintegration of offenders. - Ways forward for criminal justice interventions that do not rely on risk, but focus rather on the vitally important aspects of social context, relationships and motivation. With strong links between theory and practice, Beyond the Risk Paradigm in Criminal Justice provides a fresh new direction for criminal justice work.

This comprehensive book reviews the main theories of rehabilitation models and advocates that rehabilitation should focus both on promoting human goods (i.e., providing the offender with the essential ingredients for a 'good' life) as well as reducing/avoiding risk.

Modern society is increasingly preoccupied with fears for the future and the idea of preventing 'the worst'. The result is a focus on attempting to calculate the probabilities of adverse events occurring – in other words, on measuring risk. Since the 1990s, the idea of risk has come to dominate policy and practice in mental health across the USA, Australasia and Europe. In this timely new text, a group of international experts examines the ways in which the narrow focus on specific kinds of risk, such as violence towards others, perpetuates the social disadvantages experienced by mental health service users whilst, at the same time, ignoring the vast array of risks experienced by the service users themselves. Benefitting from the authors' extensive practice experience, the book considers how the dominance of the risk paradigm generates dilemmas for mental health organizations, as well as within leadership and direct practice roles, and offers practical resolutions to these dilemmas that both satisfy professional ethics and improve the experience of the service user. Combining examination of key theories and concepts with insights from front line practice, this latest addition to Palgrave's Beyond the Risk Paradigm series provides an important new dimension to debates on mental health provision.

This book represents a brief treatise on the theory and research behind the concept of desistance from crime. This ever-growing field has become increasingly relevant as questions of serious issues regarding sentencing, probation and the penal system continue to go unanswered. Rocque covers the history of research on desistance from crime and provides a discussion of research and theories on the topic before looking towards the future of the application of desistance to policy. The focus of the volume is to provide an overview of the practical and theoretical developments to better understand desistance. In addition, a multidisciplinary, integrative theoretical perspective is presented, ensuring that it will be of particular interest for students and scholars of criminology and the criminal justice system.

Based on insights from interviews with key participants in 3 Australian jurisdictions, this book demonstrates the importance of connecting criminal legal system struggles with broader movements for community control, self-determination, and sovereignty.

This authoritative set provides a comprehensive overview of issues and trends in crime, law enforcement, courts, and corrections that encompass the field of criminal justice studies in the United States. This work offers a thorough introduction to the field of criminal justice, including types of crime; policing; courts and sentencing; landmark legal decisions; and local, state, and federal corrections systems—and the key topics and issues within each of these important areas. It provides a complete overview and understanding of the many terms, jobs, procedures, and issues surrounding this growing field of study. Another major focus of the work is to examine ethical questions related to policing and courts, trial procedures, law enforcement and corrections agencies and responsibilities, and the complexion of criminal justice in the United States in the 21st century. Finally, this title emphasizes coverage of such politically charged topics as drug trafficking and substance abuse, immigration, environmental protection, government surveillance and civil rights, deadly force, mass incarceration, police militarization, organized crime, gangs, wrongful convictions, racial disparities in sentencing, and privatization of the U.S. prison system.

This book, the second of two volumes edited by Kemshall and McCartan, focuses on responses to sexual offending, and how risk is used by policy makers, stakeholders, academics and practitioners to both construct and respond to unknown and known sex offenders within the contexts of criminal justice, health and social policy. The chapters provide an oversight of contemporary policies, practices and debates within the area to help both professionals and researchers. The collection focuses on emerging areas (crime linkage, predictive policing, sexual offending across borders, desistence, and public health approaches), as well as more traditional topics (multi-agency working, risk assessment, sex offender policies, and treatment). The authors examine how professionals can use multi-agency approaches to prevent sexual violence, and assessing the impact of desistance on framing sex offender management. A bold and engaging volume, this edited collection will be of great importance to scholars and practitioners working reframing traditional approaches to sex offender management in a contemporary fashion.

This book examines the increasing retention and use of previous criminal record information, within and beyond the criminal justice system. There remains a misconception that once an offender has served the penalty for an offence, his or her dealings with the law and legal system in relation to that offence is at an end. This book demonstrates that in fact the criminal record lingers and permeates facets of the person's life far beyond the de jure sentence. Criminal records are relied upon by key decision makers at all stages of the formal criminal process, from the police to the judiciary. Convictions can affect areas of policing, bail, trial procedure and sentencing, which the author discusses. Furthermore, with the increasing intensifying of surveillance techniques in the interests of security, ex-offenders are monitored more closely post release and these provisions are explored here. Even beyond the formal criminal justice system, individuals can continue to experience many collateral consequences of a conviction whereby access to employment, travel and licenses (among other areas of social activity) can be limited as a consequence of disclosure requirements. Overall, this book examines the perpetual nature of criminal convictions through the evolution of criminal record use, focussing on the Irish perspective, and also considers the impact from a broader international perspective.

For decades, child protection systems have striven to provide responsive services to vulnerable children and families in the face of the constant change and instability caused by the bureaucratization of child protection. This book lends a strident voice to the argument for a shift beyond the current risk paradigm, towards genuine cultural change.

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.