Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #10 - Understanding, Assessing, Managing and Reducing RISK (ACJ10-A001)
Abstract
Last October I had the privilege of delivering the Distinguished Scholar Lecture at the ICPA Annual Conference in Buenos Aires to a surprisingly attentive audience of more than 500 corrections professionals from over 70 countries. This paper is an abbreviated version of that presentation, minus most of the good jokes. The presentation was my attempt to imagine a prison psychology that was not obsessed with risk assessment. It turns out, as a famous Liverpudlian once sang, ‘It isn’t hard to do.’ A huge body of psychological research suggests that risk should be understood as a social, collective construct rather than a personality characteristic of individuals. Far from disempowering psychology, this new lens on risk can liberate the field to support desistance and reintegration without the need for stigmatising labels.
Please log in to download the full article. Access is available exclusively to ICPA Full, Staff, and Professional Members.
