Restriction and Rehabilitation: Getting the Right ... - Ministry of Justice

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The Policing and Crime Act 2009 Section 23 raised the age of a child
deemed to be at risk from 16 to 18 and also altered the criteria for
determining which offenders could qualify for a foreign travel order to
include those who had committed specified offences against children and
young people under 18. It also altered the maximum duration of a foreign
travel order from six months to five years and required those forbidden to
travel outside the UK to surrender their passport at a police station.
2.5 The MAPPA guidance, issued in April 2009, emphasised the importance of
disclosure in effective risk management, particularly where:
there was evidence that grooming might take place, for example,
through leisure clubs, churches or employment
the offender was excluded from a specific location and/or having
contact with named persons by a condition in their sexual offences
prevention order (SOPO) or licence
others could be at risk, for example, in supported accommodation
past or potential victims needed protection, in particular where
offenders formed new relationships with partners who had children or
grandchildren. In some cases, this could include friends or neighbours
with children
a person could assist in managing the offender by being familiarised
with the risk factors.
Current or developing tools for the assessment of sexual offenders
2.6 The use of structured assessment tools informs professional judgements and
underpins defensible decision-making.
2.7 Within the context of offender management, risk assessment is the process of
establishing the:
Likelihood of Reoffending - the likelihood of recurrence of behaviour
or events based on the range and type of offending related problems
Risk of Harm to others (RoH) – a combination of static and dynamic
factors relating to the level of harm caused by the individual’s
behaviour, who it would affect and its imminence.
2.8 The risk of reconviction within a specified period of time is based on previous
behaviour and other static factors. For adult sexual and violent offenders, the
approved assessment tools are:
Risk Matrix 2000 (RM2000) - the assessment tool currently
approved for use by the police forces in relation to sexual and violent
offenders. It is also used by the probation and prison services to score
the risk of reconviction for sexual or violent offences by adult male
offenders. It contains two scales, one focuses on the risk of further
violent convictions, and the other on the risk of further sexual
convictions. Where appropriate, both scales must be used in order to
identify a reliable classification of the risk of reconviction
OASys - used by the prison and probation services, generally with all
current cases, to identify the risk of reconviction and then enable the
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