NCJ Number
230799
Date Published
2010
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Drawing on the authors' research, this chapter reviews the development of the United Kingdom's Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), which is a key operational structure charged with the community management of sexual and violent offenders, and it examines how "effectiveness" is measured in these arrangements.
Abstract
MAPPA is based in the community-protection approach to risk management. Public-protection agencies manage offenders through restriction, conditions, sanctions, corrective programs, and enforcement, with the identification of the public as a potential wider victim group. Controlling and restrictive measures are those conditions attached to supervision orders or licenses that restrict where offenders can go and live, what they can and cannot do, and whom they must not approach or contact. Restrictive conditions are specific to individual offenders, and are proportionate to the severity of the crime while being workable in practice. Offender management is characterized by interagency information sharing, risk assessment, and risk management planning. Measuring the effectiveness of MAPPA policies and practices remains problematic. What constitutes a positive outcome under MAPPA is still debated, and measures of effectiveness are influenced by high public anxiety about the offender group involved. Media and resource pressures are additional factors in measuring effectiveness. This chapter demonstrates the importance of audit as a mechanism for quality assurance, especially in ensuring a more systematic way of reviewing risk management outcome and communicating these to the public. MAPPA's success will be judged by different stakeholders in different ways; providing a strong evidential narrative is one way of challenging common public misconceptions and media interpretations. 52 references