This book is a practical and theoretical analysis of public protection and criminal justice. This area has seen immense change in recent years and the book examines the recent legislative, policy and organisational changes and their impact on the various agencies involved, including the police service and the probation service. Public protection has now assumed a position of dominance within the criminal justice agenda. New ways of working have necessitated changes to organisational culture, which in turn has begun to blur traditional criminal justice boundaries. Agencies must now work together by law and the public protection 'family' has extended to include a range of agencies, such as housing and leisure services. This book explores the problematic concept of 'dangerousness' and its application to criminal justice. All recent policy and legislative initiatives are examined within a critical context that questions the need for populist, punitive agendas, for example the creation of MAPPA (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Panels) and changes in relation to the National Probation Service. Recent relevant legislative references are collated in a useful appendix at the back of the book. The book is a practical and useful reference, ideal reading for students and academics working critically in the area who wish to understand how public protection has reached its present status. It is also a useful reference for probation officers, police officers and policy makers.

Further serious offences committed by those released early from custody are the subject of intense media scrutiny. This accessible text examines the subject of further serious offending through the medium of major inquiries, inspections and reports. Inquiries discussed include the Clunis Inquiry, the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry, the Marchioness Inquiry and the Anthony Rice Inquiry.
This book explores the extent to which recommendations are implemented and their impact on the development of public protection policy. Reviewing all the major inquiries relating to further serious offending, the authors highlight commonalities that emerge from these reports, such as the nature of the offence and the type of response, as well as organizational and individual failures. By identifying similarities and themes across a range of agencies, the authors explore the nature of organizational and personal failure and blame. While most responses to further serious offending are organizationally based, they rarely refer to personal failings on the part of agency workers. This title does both, while providing an outline of the constitution and culture of inquiries and the development of the multi-agency approach.
This book also argues that the public protection edifice is built upon perceptions of danger which rarely reflect the true nature of dangerous behavior. The authors propose that many inquiries refer to incidents that do not meet the stereotypical profile of a dangerous predator; subsequently the construction of dangerousness is re-examined in the light of Inquiry findings and recommendations.
This title is a thought-provoking and topical book of great interest to probationpractitioners and students alike.

Public protection has become an increasingly central theme in the work of the criminal justice agencies in many parts of the world in recent years. Its high public profile and consequent political sensitivity means that growing numbers of criminal justice professionals find their daily work load dominated by the assessment and management of high risk of harm offenders. Developments such as sex offender registers and (in the UK) Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa) have made this issue not only a core activity for police, probation and prison services, but to a range of other organizations as well, in particular social work and the health services. Partnership has become central to the concept of public protection. At the same time the concept of public protection has occasioned increased political debate. Protecting the public from high risk or dangerous offenders has become an international issue and has increasingly shaped criminal justice policy.

This text brings together leading authorities in the field, providing authoritative coverage of the theory and practice of public protection, both in the UK and internationally. It provides a critical review of contemporary public protection practice as well as up-to-date research and thinking in the field.