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Children and Young People who have Sexually Harmful Behaviours: From Fixed to Transformative Risk Assessment

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Abstract

Risk, risk assessment and risk management have become central to contemporary policies and practices in criminal justice, with consequences for those who apply and receive such approaches. It has been argued that risk has been the key organising principle of contemporary correctional practice and offender management, and that actuarial risk in particular has taken on a hegemonic dominance that supersedes other models of governance, such as welfare and disciplinary forms of regulation. This article focuses on the construction and deployment of two assessment frameworks for young people with sexually harmful behaviour to illustrate the epistemological differences between a clinical/actuarial guided approach and that of constructing safety. It identifies current theorising about risk/technologies as being within a neo-liberal political and governance agenda and the opportunities for moving from a fixed to a transformative risk subject.

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Notes

  1. Webb (2006).

  2. Feeley and Simon (1994, pp. 173–201).

  3. Young (1999, pp. 87–407).

  4. Rose (1998, pp. 177–195).

  5. Giddens (1998, pp. 23–34).

  6. Beck (1992).

  7. Stalker (2003, pp. 211–233).

  8. Craddock (2001).

  9. Bonta (1996).

  10. Hudson (2003).

  11. Maurutto and Hannah-Moffat (2006, pp. 438–454, 441).

  12. Kemshall (2003).

  13. O’Malley (2004).

  14. Kemshall (1998).

  15. Andrews and Bonta (1989).

  16. Maurutto and Hannah-Moffat (ibid., pp. 443–444).

  17. Maurutto and Hannah-Moffat (ibid., p. 444).

  18. Rose (ibid.).

  19. Kemshall (2002).

  20. Mair (2004).

  21. Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984).

  22. Cowburn (2006, pp. 159–176).

  23. Hood et al. (2002, pp. 371–194).

  24. Hackett (2004).

  25. Print et al. (2001).

  26. AIM (2007).

  27. Silver and Miller (2002, pp. 138–161).

  28. Myers (2007a, pp. 365–377).

  29. World Health Organisation (1992).

  30. Pitts (2001, pp. 3–16).

  31. Webster et al. (2006, pp. 7–22).

  32. Muncie (2004).

  33. McNeill (2003, pp. 146–162).

  34. Ungar et al. (2007, pp. 287–310).

  35. Smith (2004, pp. 34–52).

  36. Rutter (1999, pp. 1919–1944).

  37. Douglas (1992).

  38. Webb (ibid.).

  39. Parton and O’Byrne (2000).

  40. Myers (2007b).

  41. Milner (2001).

  42. Wittgenstein (1968).

  43. Milner and Myers (2007).

  44. Turnell and Edwards (1999).

  45. Myers (2005, pp. 97–112).

  46. Jenkins (1990).

  47. Milner and O’Byrne (2002).

  48. De Jong and Berg (2002).

  49. De Shazer (1988).

  50. Friedlander and Stockman (1983, pp. 637–643).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Community, Health Sciences and Social Care, Salford Centre for Social Work Research, University of Salford, Allerton Building, Frederick Road, Salford, M6 6PU, UK

    Steve Myers

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Myers, S. Children and Young People who have Sexually Harmful Behaviours: From Fixed to Transformative Risk Assessment. Liverpool Law Rev 29, 51–66 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10991-008-9035-8

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