Trends in the management of registered sexual offenders across England and Wales: a geographical approach to the study of sexual offending |
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Authors: | Kirsty Hudson Chris Taylor Andrew Henley |
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Affiliation: | 1. School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK hudsonkj@cardiff.ac.uk;3. School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK;4. Research Institute for Social Sciences, Keele University, Keele, UK |
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Abstract: | AbstractSocial scientists, and geographers in particular, have long been interested in examining spatial patterns of offending in order to generate a “geography” of crime and criminality. This paper examines what value, if any, a geographical approach to the study of sexual offending might offer. Utilising published official data from England and Wales it presents for the first time geographical analyses of the registration, risk assessment and management of Registered Sexual Offenders (RSOs) across 42 Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) areas. In doing so it considers and evaluates the methodological issues pertaining to the use of such data and such a geographical approach. We conclude that geographical interpretations of both the incidence of RSOs and the rates of risk allocations between MAPPA areas provide valuable insights and raise new questions about the way in which RSOs are managed nationally and are thus worthy of further exploration. |
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Keywords: | Sexual offending MAPPA public protection crime geography crime mapping |
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