Offender Management Flashcards
What are Prolific Persistent Offenders (PPOs)?
Adults (aged 21+) who have 16 or more previous sanctions, of which 8 or more were received when the offender was aged 21 or over.
Young Adults (aged 18-20) who have eight or more previous sanctions, of which four or more were received whilst the offender was aged between 18 and 20.
Juvenile (aged 10-17) who have four or more previous sanctions.
What is High Risk Offending?
There are some offences that need only occur once before they trigger ongoing Offender Management strategies.
For instance, offenders found guilty of serious and sexual assaults are highly likely to be placed on the Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) and once released from custody, to then be managed in the community through multi-agency arrangements (MAPPA).
What is Prolific and High-Risk Offending?
There are some offenders who repeatedly commit high-risk and high-harm offences.
Although the causes are various, and it is dangerous to make generalisations, this pattern of criminality is often seen among predatory sexual offenders.
At the core of any approach should be the individual offender, and to ensure that any police actions remain both ethical and effective, you should always start by asking a series of key questions about the individual, their offending and your objective.
The following are a guide to get you started, but are not exhaustive:
What is the known pattern of criminality? Offence types, places, time of the day, victims
What are the gaps in police understanding? What might we be missing?
What are the criminal motives? Money for drugs or greed, pride or peer pressure, sustenance, mental ill health, compulsion etc?
What is their ‘Origin Story’? Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) victim? Are, or were, they a Looked After Child (LAC) in local authority care? Poor mental or physical health? Gang member? What was their education like? Criminality or victimhood within the family?
What are the enablers? A car or bicycle, darkness, friends and associates, specialist equipment, tools or articles, charisma/charm, access to certain premises, position of responsibility etc.
Who are their victims? Vulnerable children or adults, unsuspecting/uneducated, passing through a place of vulnerability (eg a park or alley), businesses or charities, vehicle owners, public bodies etc.
What other public sector and law enforcement interactions does my offender have? Are there organised crime links? Benefits claimant? Probation service contact? NHS or CAMHS patient? On roll at a school or college? Subject to Home Office Immigration controls?
Management Frameworks and Key Players
HM Prison and Probation Service
An executive agency of the Ministry of Justice who carry out sentences given by the courts, in custody and in the community, and rehabilitate people in our care through education and employment.
Management Frameworks and Key Players
The Probation Service
Supervises high-risk offenders, and helps them resettle once they are released from prison.
Management Frameworks and Key Players
Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs)
Operate throughout 21 regions of England and Wales and manage the post-release supervision of medium and low-risk offenders. CRCs are private companies, contracted on a Payment-by-Results basis by the government.
Management Frameworks and Key Players
Youth Justice Board
Another Ministry of Justice agency that is responsible for overseeing the youth justice system in England and Wales. Local Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) are the frontline units that manage young offenders and are usually co-located with police or have police officers permanently embedded within them.
What is Integrated Offender Management (IOM)?
IOM is an overarching framework for bringing together agencies in local areas to prioritise interventions with offenders who cause crime in their locality.
Local IOM arrangements work best when they involve a wide range of social agencies, including the voluntary sector, who have a role to play in tackling risk factors associated with crime and offending.
What are Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA)?
MAPPAs are put in place to manages violent and sexual offenders.
MAPPA is about effective information sharing between the various agencies through the ViSOR (Violent and Sexual Offences Register) database, which holds details of the offenders. It allows each agency to share information with relevant partner agencies and contribute to the risk management of offenders.
What are Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPO) and Sexual Risk Orders (SRO)?
Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPOs) can be applied to anyone convicted or cautioned for a sexual or violent offence who poses a risk of sexual harm to the public in the UK and/or children or vulnerable adults abroad.
Sexual Risk Orders (SROs) can be applied to any individual who poses a risk of harm to the public in the UK and/or children or vulnerable adults abroad, including individuals without a relevant conviction or caution.
What is the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme (CSODS)?
The child sex offender disclosure scheme in England and Wales (also sometimes known as “Sarah’s Law”), allows anyone to formally ask the police if someone with access to a child has a record for child sexual offences.
Police have a duty to reveal details confidentially to the person most able to protect the child (usually parents, carers or guardians) if they think it is in the child’s interests.
