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

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 ill. 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 ill 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 management of the mentally ill 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 ill and how best they can be contained and managed, and will prove invaluable to a range of practitioners involved in the fields of criminal justice and psychiatry. Giddens states that 'A risk Society is a Society where we can increasing live on a high technological frontier which absolutely no-one completely understands and which generates a diversity of possible futures' (in Franklin, 1998: 25). The issue of public protection from the mentally disordered is examined in this study. It considers the concerns arising in contemporary society from dealing with uncertainty and suggests that the fear is at odds with the evidence