Will They Do it Again?: Risk Assessment and Management in Criminal Justice and Psychiatry

191 Pages·1999·0.75 MB·English

by  Prof Hers Prins

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 available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
ISBN 0-415-16017-0 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-16018-9 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-13500-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-17928-5 (Glassbook Format)
This book is dedicated to all who have been my
students and who have helped me to a greater
understanding of some of the issues described and
discussed herein.
When once the itch of literature comes over man,
nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen.
Samuel Lover, Handy Andy
Contents
List of tables ix
Foreword by Professor Keith Soothill xi
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xv
Note on case examples xvii
1 Understanding uncertainty 1
2 Legal and administrative aspects 12
3 Serious mental disturbance and violence 36
4 With the (doubtful) benefit of hindsight 76
5 Improving practice 117
6 Epilogue 161
Name index 163
Subject index 166

Tables
1.1 Likelihood of involvement in a hazardous event 6
3.1 Outline classification of mental disorders (disturbances) 40
3.2 Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in penal populations 42
3.3 Number of persons indicted for homicide
(England and Wales) 1990–95 68