This is an introduction to the techniques of predicting criminal behaviour, and the ethical and practical issues surrounding them. It discusses the use of prediction in bail, sentencing, and parole decisions, as well as in the allocation of treatments to offenders and presents a typology of predictive approaches. This typology serves as the framework for a discussion of the various predictive factors, including sex, race and ethnicity, age, personality and intelligence, socio-economic status, criminal history, institutional adjustment, drug and alcohol use, etc. Issues of variable measurement and sampling are reviewed, as are some of the statistical methods used to predict criminality, including the Burgess Method, predictive attributive analysis, multiple regression, multidiscriminant analysis, and log-linear techniques. The book concludes with an evaluation of the potential value of statistical predictions.

'...essential reading for those confronted with the ethical and professional dilemmas involved in predicting violent behavior. Lawyers are destined to become familiar with Monahan's book, and mental health professionals will surely want to keep a step ahead.' -- Contemporary Psychology, Vol 27 No 2 '...In summary, Monahan's book is a very readable and succinct one. Often the reader finds himself saying "...well of course, what could be more obvious?" only to reflect for a minute and realize that many clinicians do not give many obvious relevant factors adequate weight in their assessments of dangerousness. Monahan's text is a very positive one which as he puts it, outlines for the clinician: "How to do it (predict vi

Publisher description

In the first decade of this century, the focus of law-enforcement agencies has shifted from prosecuting crime to anticipating crime. This approach emphasizes the discovery of narratives in crime-related data. However, while narratives are at the mainstay of entertainment, law, and politics, a scientific method by which narratives can be created - and subsequently be used to anticipate criminal behavior - still has to be established. In the creative industry, a narrative is generated by a scenario. A scenario describes the interactions between the characters and includes information - about behavior, goals, motivations, modi operandi, and resistances - that have to be overcome. Furthermore, a creative scenario is composed by a limited number of scenario components. In this book, a new and innovative scenario model is designed by which narratives in data can be detected. It introduces the ESC12 - the twelve Elementary Scenario Components - by which every conceivable narrative can be created. Moreover, the book introduces the ESC12 scenario model, a model that may support law enforcement agencies to effectively anticipate criminal behavior. The book's author, Peter A.M.G. de Kock, graduated as a filmmaker from the Film Academy of the Amsterdam School of the Arts in 1994, and has traveled all over the world as a professional photographer, cameraman, and film-director. In 2009, after receiving a Master degree in Criminal Investigation, he introduced creative scenarios to anticipate (terrorist) attacks. The operational results of his team were thought provoking, and he was invited to demonstrate his method of operation to prominent members of Dutch Parliament and the Ministry of Security and Justice. He was then offered the opportunity to pursue the use of scenarios to anticipate crime, as an external Ph.D. student at Tilburg University. This book is the result of his study. [Subject: Criminology, Policing]

Proactive policing, as a strategic approach used by police agencies to prevent crime, is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It developed from a crisis in confidence in policing that began to emerge in the 1960s because of social unrest, rising crime rates, and growing skepticism regarding the effectiveness of standard approaches to policing. In response, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, innovative police practices and policies that took a more proactive approach began to develop. This report uses the term "proactive policing" to refer to all policing strategies that have as one of their goals the prevention or reduction of crime and disorder and that are not reactive in terms of focusing primarily on uncovering ongoing crime or on investigating or responding to crimes once they have occurred. Proactive policing is distinguished from the everyday decisions of police officers to be proactive in specific situations and instead refers to a strategic decision by police agencies to use proactive police responses in a programmatic way to reduce crime. Today, proactive policing strategies are used widely in the United States. They are not isolated programs used by a select group of agencies but rather a set of ideas that have spread across the landscape of policing. Proactive Policing reviews the evidence and discusses the data and methodological gaps on: (1) the effects of different forms of proactive policing on crime; (2) whether they are applied in a discriminatory manner; (3) whether they are being used in a legal fashion; and (4) community reaction. This report offers a comprehensive evaluation of proactive policing that includes not only its crime prevention impacts but also its broader implications for justice and U.S. communities.