ABSTRACT
Recent trends in penal policy in the UK as elsewhere have focused increasingly on risk management and surveillance of former prisoners as control is extended from prison into the community (Ericson and Haggerty 1997 ; Hudson 2001 ; Wargent 2002 ). This has been particularly evident in relation to sex offenders where ‘risk’ has been the touchstone of both academic and policy debates on sex offender management and reintegration (Simon 1998 ; Kemshall and Maguire 2001 ; Matravers 2003 ). Indeed, the reintegration of sexual offenders has captured both popular imagination and offi cial attention over the last decade or more (McAlinden 2006 ). In line with broader governmental concerns about ‘managerialism’, a pantheon of ‘risk-based’ (Maruna and LeBel 2002 ) initiatives have been implemented to increase the surveillance of released sex offenders and to extend the didactics of control from prison to the community. Recent initiatives have included a spate of legislative measures, including sex offender notifi cation and a range of orders under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 such as risk of sexual harm orders and sexual offences prevention orders. In tandem with the legislative and policy framework, formal inter-agency procedures have also been put in place to risk assess and manage sex offenders.
