Risk, discretion, accountability and control: Police perceptions of sex offender risk management policy in England and Wales
| Author | Jack O’Sullivan,Kieran McCartan,James Hoggett |
| Published date | 01 September 2020 |
| Date | 01 September 2020 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1748895819839747 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895819839747
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2020, Vol. 20(4) 433 –450
© The Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1748895819839747
journals.sagepub.com/home/crj
Risk, discretion,
accountability and control:
Police perceptions of sex
offender risk management
policy in England and Wales
James Hoggett
University of the West of England, UK
Kieran McCartan
University of the West of England, UK
Jack O’Sullivan
University of the West of England, UK
Abstract
This article argues that understanding current approaches to sex offender risk management and
its operationalization must account for front line situational decision-making practices and the
culture from which they develop and operate. The research utilizes a mixed-methods approach,
combining an online questionnaire survey (N = 227) with a series of semi-structured interviews
(N = 27) with members of the police service of England and Wales. Analysis identifies ambivalence
about the effectiveness of the current system of categorizing sex offenders and suggests concerns
about accountability and a lack of resources results in discretion being used to engage with
but also negotiate policy in practice. The article suggests that the task for sex offender risk
management is to create classification tools that work with this discretion rather than against it.
Keywords
police accountability, police culture, police discretion, sex offender risk classification, sex
offender risk management
Corresponding author:
Kieran McCartan, Health and Applied Social Sciences, University of the West of England, Frenchay Campus,
Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK.
Email: Kieran.mccartan@uwe.ac.uk
839747CRJ0010.1177/1748895819839747Criminology & Criminal JusticeHoggett et al.
research-article2019
Article
434 Criminology & Criminal Justice 20(4)
Introduction
Since the 1990s risk has become a central component of the criminal justice system
(Ericson and Haggerty, 1997). Within this wider focus on risk, the management of people
who have committed sexual offences has become a particular public protection concern
(Kemshall, 2002, 2017). Hebenton and Seddon (2009) identify how understanding cur-
rent approaches to sex offender risk management must account for situational decision-
making practices. Taking this further, the current article seeks to give voice to those
working for the police on sex offender risk management to understand their views on
policy and how its tools of implementation are operationalized in practice. By doing so,
a critical understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of current sex offender manage-
ment policies and practices can be developed and wider discussions about policing in the
risk society can be engaged with. The article will briefly introduce some of the wider
debates around risk and the criminal justice system (CJS) before focusing on sex offender
risk. It will then examine the role that police culture and situational decision-making
practices may play in negotiating sex offender risk management policy in practice.
Risk, actuarial justice and sex offender management
During the last three decades the arena of criminal justice policy and practice has under-
gone a shift in approach whereby the understanding, assessment and management of
risks have become central pre-occupations (Garland, 2001; Maguire, 2000). This shift
can be associated with the development of the risk society (Beck, 1992) where rapid
social changes in the late 20th century arguably led to the breakdown of community and
the proliferation of fears from resultant insecurity (Young, 2007). Ericson and Haggerty
(1997) argue that as a result securitization has become the central focus of public and
private organizations and within the CJS this has led to a focus on risk and the develop-
ment of risk classification technologies to assess risks and secure public protection from
them. As Ericson and Haggerty (2002: 253) suggest, ‘the focus in criminal justice
becomes the efficient production and distribution of risk knowledge for the management
of populations of victims, informants, suspects, accused, and offenders’.
The impact that this re-focus on risk management has had on the criminal justice
system and those who both work within and are subject to it has been debated (Kemshall
2002, 2003; Kemshall and Maguire, 2001; O’Malley, 2004). For example, Feeley and
Simon (1994) argue that it has resulted in a shift from criminal to actuarial justice, where
predictive and statistical tools are used to create aggregate categories of risk which can
then be subjected to management thereby securing public protection. One of the most
high-profile areas within which this shift can be observed is in relation to sex offending
(Lacombe, 2007). In fact, it could be argued that sex offenders offer a unique kind of risk
for the CJS to assess and manage. For example, the recent UK transforming rehabilita-
tion agenda (MoJ, 2013) review of the probation service did not seek to allow private
companies to take ownership of the management of sex offenders, regardless of their
level of risk, as they did with all other types of low or medium risk offenders.
Within the current political context, sex offenders and their risk management are
therefore of central importance to the government and the CJS. There are currently, as of
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