Offenders
Community Safety and Offenders
The essence of community safety is the effective reduction and prevention of offending. The essence of offending - the obvious basic ingredient - is the offender. As tempting as it is to try to provide the definitive description of the offender and attempt to list the myriad of sites that deal with all the aspects of offending we realise our limitations! This page hopefully will provide a few pointers to the principles of offending behaviour and activities undertaken in working with offenders.
The causes of offending are well described by criminologists - see further reading on this page - Further Reading
but by the nature of their trade, they are producing theories which in daily practical crime community safety life are hard to apply. Community safety practitioners are mostly dealing with individuals and small groups; trying to deter them from activity so the sociological causes of crime and delinquency - for instance - will be of restricted practical use but will reside hopefully in the back of your mind along with an understanding of the development of offenders Criminal Careers and will inform you of some of the issues.
So we do need to understand what makes an individual offender commit crimes or acts of anti social behaviour but we need to apply this in a practical way which enables us to get at the heart of the individual or groups offending behaviour. A useful tool for this purpose - although it applies to youth offending it can be varies for adult offending or for anti social behaviour can be found in the Home Office checklist Crime Reduction Toolkits: Analysing causes .
In the UK the specialist services for working with offenders are fragmented; there are differing statutory structures and services in England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland. Additionally, there are numerous large and small NGO's providing both voluntary services and services commissioned by the statutory bodies. See below, Probation Service and Youth Crime and Mentally Disorder Offenders.
Centralisation - moving away from local crime and justice solutions
What we know is that CDRP's will have to manage the local responsibility to reduce reoffending and will need to do that in partnership with the National Offender Management Services for the area but also any other services which may be commissioned by the Regional Offender Managers to deliver local services. There are already problems arising in the lack of communication between those services commissioned to provide bail accommodation and local CDRPs and this is only the very earliest stages of contestability fragmentation.
If the Local Government Association is thinking of a subject for their next conference they could not go far wrong with Community Safety and the Management of Offender Services!
Since the establishment of th National Offender Management Service (NOMS) there has been a gradual move toward centralising the services and commissioning them via a new regional management service. This in turn has supported a new way of diversifying the provision of services via contestability.
Currently, Autumn 2007, there appears to be moves afoot to deconstruct the overarching agency that manages both the probation and prison services. According to an article published in the Observer newspaper (Multibillion 'shambolic' penal agency to be axed) Ursula Brennan, a senior civil servant, has written a report for the Ministry of Justice recommending that the agency be broken up and incorporated into the Ministry. If this is the case it will have a major impact both on the operation of the current agency (what is a Regional Offender Manager) and the implementation of the Offender Management Act.
The Offender Management Act
This transition continues with the Offender Management Act 2007. The new arrangements for the provision of probation services contained in the Act takes from regional Probation Boards the statutory duty for making arrangements for probation services and places this duty with the Secretary of State; who will contract with providers to deliver these services.
The Act enables the creation of new public sector bodies, probation trusts, with whom the Secretary of State may contract, alongside providers from the voluntary, charitable and private sectors. The Act also contains a number of other provisions relating to the management of offenders sentenced to custody.
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Offender Practice Links
National Standards for Management of Offenders
The UK National Standards for the Management of Offenders (published October 2007) are intended to ensure that all providers of offender management are clear about what NOMS expects, and that offender management is delivered in an integrated, consistent way.
Sentences, Orders and Agreements : Youth Justice Board
Background information about the supervision of young offenders (those under the age of 18 years).
OUT-OF-COURT Disposals for Adults
A Home Office guide to help practitioners understand the wide range of out-of-court disposals available for low-level and first time offenders.
Offender Special Needs Links
Autism: A Guide for Criminal JusticeProfessionals
This guide from the National Autistic Society provides background information about autistic spectrum disorders.
ADHD and Implications for the Criminal Justice System
A US link to an article about Attention Deficity Hyperactivitiy Disorder as a Factor in Sentencing.
From Punishment to Problem Solving: A new approach to children in trouble
A policy paper written by Rob Allen (2006) for the UK Centre for Crime and Justice which highlights the issues of special needs and mental health issues in dealing with young people in the criminal justice system, identifying good practice.
PPO's and Restorative Justice Links
Persistent and Other Priority Offenders
This site advises CDRPs about the various schemes to tackle persistent offenders in their area, Drug Interventions Programme Emerging findings and lessons learned from DIP/PPO schemes.
Restorative Justice Consortium England and Wales
Restorative Justice Ireland Network
Providing essential information and links to this form of victim offender mediation and reparation.
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