Will They Do It Again?: Risk Assessment And Management In Criminal Justice And Psychiatry

Will they do it again? Focus in the media on the risks posed to ordinary people has become increasingly strong in recent years – particularly on those risks popularly perceived to be posed by the mentally disordered. But how justified is this concern? How do we best manage so-called dangerous people? In Will they do it again? Herschel Prins considers the issue of public protection within a broad context of risk in society generally, examining the concerns arising in contemporary society from dealing with uncertainty. It is argued that public fear over the danger posed by the mentally disordered is at odds with the evidence, and that much of the concern is focused on a small number of high-profile cases. Prins goes on to examine such cases where their management has failed and sets out suggestions for improvements in practice. Will they do it again? cuts through popular misunderstanding and media hype over risk to give a clear, unbiased picture of the real risks to society from the mentally disordered and how best they can be contained and managed; it will prove invaluable to a range of practitioners involved in the fields of criminal justice, psychiatry and psychology. Herschel Prins is a Professor at the Midlands Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Loughborough and Visiting Professor, Nottingham Trent University. By the same author Offenders, Deviants or Patients? An introduction to the study of socio-forensic problems Tavistock, 1980 Criminal Behaviour An introduction to criminology and the penal system, 2nd ed. Tavistock, 1982 Dangerous Behaviour, the Law and Mental Disorder Tavistock, 1986 Bizarre Behaviours Boundaries of psychiatric disorder Tavistock/Routledge, 1990 Fire-Raising: Its Motivation and Management Routledge, 1994 Offenders, Deviants or Patients? 2nd ed. Routledge, 1995 Will they do it again? Risk assessment and management in criminal justice and psychiatry Herschel Prins Foreword by Professor Keith Soothill London and New York First published 1999 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001. © 1999 Herschel Prins All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is a