Dangerousness, Risk and the Governance of Serious Sexual and Violent Offenders is a fully up-to-date, comprehensive and user-friendly guide on dangerous offenders. It considers what a dangerous offender is and how such offenders are assessed and classified.

This book explores current criminal justice responses to the management of individuals who are convicted of sexual offences. It aims to help policy-makers, practitioners and students to develop an informed position on this complex and increasingly controversial issue. Although the focus is primarily upon the UK context, contributions from North America (USA and Canada) provide an important comparative perspective.

This highly controversial new book considers how the dangerous offender has become such a figure of collective anxiety for the citizens of rationalised Western societies. The authors consider: * ideas of danger and social threat in historical perspective * legal responses to violent criminals * attempts to predict dangerous behaviour * why particular groups, such as women, remain at risk from violent crime. This inspired collection invites us to rethink the received wisdom on dangerous offenders, and will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of criminology and the sociology of Risk.

The role of Public Protection Panels is to assess and manage sexual and violent offenders in the community. The Panels' decisions are made on the basis of information from a range of risk assessment methods. This report provides an overview of the different means of risk assessment and management for such offenders.

This book provides an authoritative overview and analysis of issues of assessment, treatment and management of dangerous offenders. It takes particular account of recent policy and legislative changes such as the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the development of initiatives to manage dangerous offenders, such as MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements). The book addresses wider issues of risk and the dangerous offenders in the context of the risk society, questions the relationship between the assessment, treatment and management of offenders, and considers who it is appropriate to involve in this process. The book takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the assessment, treatment and management of violent and sexual offenders, and extends its coverage to include the issue of stalking. Contributors to the book bring to bear a wide range of expertise from both academic and practitioner contexts, and are drawn from the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland.

“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.