ABSTRACT
While some serious sexual and violent offenders will spend significant amounts of time in prison (as discussed in Chapter 4), almost all, at some point, will be granted parole and released into the community. For others, imprisonment will not have played a part in their sentence, with the crimes instead held to be commensurate with either a community order or a financial penalty. Regardless of which group an offender falls into, responsible authorities will employ a number of strategies in order to manage the offender’s risk and safeguard the public’s protection. This is especially important for those offenders who have been released from custody following a determinate sentence, as a reduction in risk is not required to necessitate release. While HM Inspectorate of Probation has noted that ‘it is simply not possible to eliminate risk altogether, the public is entitled to expect that authorities will do their job properly, i.e. to take all reasonable steps to keep risk to a minimum’ (2006: 4). Current approaches to achieve this aim include the use of registers, Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPAs), polygraphs, satellite tracking technology and civil orders. How these risk-management strategies are used, including a brief look at their efficacy, is the subject matter of this chapter.
