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National Objectives for Social Work Services in the Criminal Justice System: Standards - Social Enquiry Reports and associated Court Services
CHAPTER 4: MAKING AN ASSESSMENT
4.1Paras 1.5 - 1.8 define the main purposes of a report as:
4.1.1offering information and advice which can help the court decide between the available sentencing options;
4.1.2assessing the risk of re-offending and the offender's attitude and motivation to change;
4.1.3assessing the feasibility of a community based disposal involving social work supervision or the need for supervision on release from a custodial sentence;
4.1.4assisting the court to avoid the use of custody for want of a suitable community based disposal;
4.1.5assessing the possible risk of harm to others in more serious cases e.g. those dealt with on indictment.
4.2The information and views collected in the course of preparing to write a report must be considered with these purposes in mind.
Assessing the Risk of Re-offending and the Offender's Attitude and Motivation to Change
4.3Assessing the risk of re-offending and, in appropriate cases, the risk of possible harm to others is central to each report. The draft supplement to National Standards on risk assessment offers guidance and a suggested framework for undertaking this task. The supplement underlines the need to consider factors relating both to the subject's current offence and previous offending history and to his or her personal attributes and social circumstances. It distinguishes between static factors (i.e. factors which cannot be changed) and dynamic factors (i.e. factors which may be amenable to change). It also introduces the idea of criminogenic needs i.e. needs which have been found to have an association with offending.
4.4Information and views collected about the subject's offending and personal and social circumstances are all potentially relevant to assessing the risk of re-offending and possible harm to others. Dynamic factors are most relevant to assessing the potential for preventing or reducing future offending and for putting together plans for addressing the subject's offending. Risk assessment is not a precise science. The risk assessment framework encourages a systematic review of risk factors with the intention of enhancing professional judgement not supplanting it. The aim is for report writers to reach as informed a view as possible with the information available.
Assessing the Risk of Custody
4.5If a report is to help the court decide whether there are ways of dealing with the offender which avoid the use of custody, the report writer has to assess the extent to which custody will be considered seriously by the court. Although each case should be considered individually, the following factors provide a general indication of whether or not the offender may be at risk of a custodial sentence.
| Custody more likely The subject is appearing on indictment. The subject is remanded in custody. The subject has previously been sentenced to custody. The court has requested a report on suitability for Community Service | Custody less likely The subject is appearing on complaint. The subject has been ordained or bailed. The subject has no previous experience of custody. |
Other indicators include the nature and seriousness of the offence, the seriousness and frequency of any previous offending and any comments made by the bench.
4.6Local authority managers and report writers may also wish to consider using the Dunscore (see appendix I), a method developed by researchers at Dundee University for assessing the risk of custody.
Assessing the Feasibility of a Community Based Disposal or the Need for Supervision on Release from Custody
4.7Reports have a particular place in advising the court on the feasibility of community based disposals involving social work supervision and on the need for supervision on release from custody, either on a Supervised Release Order or on an Extended Sentence.
4.8The report writer's assessment of the risk of re-offending and possible harm to others and the extent to which this could be managed in the community is an important aspect of this assessment. Where a report weighs up the pros and cons of a Probation Order as a feasible sentencing option the court will be particularly interested to know the essential elements of any proposed plan for supervision (the action plan). In the case of a Community Service Order, the court will want to know the report writer's view of those factors which would militate for or against and where in his or her judgement the balance would lie. If the report writer thinks that the court should consider making a Supervised Release Order or an Extended Sentence, he or she should say why the offender is likely to pose a risk of serious harm on release, what might be undertaken during a period of supervision, to reduce this, and what additional conditions might be applied to the order to reduce the risk.
Offering Information and Advice Which Can Help The Court Decide Between Available Sentencing Options
4.9A further aspect of assessment is to make the court aware of information and circumstances which have a general relevance to sentencing. Information about financial means is almost always relevant. Other factors which the court may wish to take into account include family commitments, ill-health, work record/prospects and accommodation (this list is illustrative not exhaustive).
Women Offenders
4.10Researchers and other commentators have noted a tendency for report writers to adopt a different approach to the preparation of reports on women offenders. In particular, researchers have identified that report writers tend to seek to explain individual women's offending in terms of psychological, psychiatric or other medical problems. Such problems may well be a feature in the offending of some women, but this will not necessarily always be the case, and workers must remain alert to the possibility of other significant underlying factors.
4.11When preparing reports on women offenders, report writers must take care to give proper consideration to the provision of information about, and analysis of, employment issues, education and training, and, in particular, alcohol and drug use and financial circumstances. They must also ensure that they review the full range of community disposals which may be available and appropriate in the light of the circumstances of the case and current responsibilities and other commitments should not rule out Community Service. Where such concerns apply, social workers will need to explore ways of addressing them with the offender and offer this information to the court.
Other Groups of Offenders
4.12Sensitivity to the particular circumstances of other under-represented groups of offenders eg those from ethnic minorities, should be shown to ensure that there is an absence of discriminatory attitudes in the content of reports.
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