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Professor Hazel Kemshall

Job: Professor of Community and Criminal Justice

Faculty: Health and Life Sciences

School/department: School of Applied Social Sciences

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH.

T: +44 (0) 116 257 7717

E: kemshall@dmu.ac.uk

W: https://www.dmu.ac.uk/hls

 

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Personal profile

Hazel Kemshall is currently Professor of Community and Criminal Justice at De Montfort University. She has research interests in risk assessment and management of offenders, effective work in multi-agency public protection, and implementing effective practice with high risk offenders. She has completed research for the Economic and Social Research Council, the Home Office, Ministry of Justice, the Scottish Government, and the Risk Management Authority.

She both teaches and consults extensively on public protection and high risk offenders, including training for MAPPA chairs and panel members in England and Scotland, for Police Services and Probation Trusts.

She has numerous publications on risk, including 'Understanding Risk in Criminal Justice' (2003, Open University Press). She has completed three evaluations of multi-agency public protection panels for the Home Office (2001, 2005, 2007), and has researched polygraph use with sex offenders, and evaluated the public disclosure pilots in England and Wales.

She is the lead author of the CD ‘Risk of Harm Guidance and Training Resource’ for the English and Welsh National Offender Management Service, and for the ‘Assessment and Management of Risk’ CD in Scotland for the Risk Management Authority. She was recently appointed to the Parole Board Review Committee. Her most recent book, Understanding the Community Management of High Risk Offenders, was published by the Open University in 2008.

Hazel is currently part of an EU DAPHNE funded project to develop learning materials for use by practitioners in assessing high risk victims of domestic violence in 11 European countries.

Publications and outputs

  • Risk Assessment and Management of Individual's Convicted of a Sexual Offence in the UK
    Risk Assessment and Management of Individual's Convicted of a Sexual Offence in the UK McCartan, K.; Hoggett, J.; Kemshall, Hazel, 1958- The UK has seen changes in sexual abuse policy and practice over the last 10 - 15 years that have been driven by austerity, risk management, public protection and the socio-political climate; these changes have been problematic and challenging as well as positive and proactive. In recent years there has been an increasing move amongst professionals, practitioners and policy makers stating to think of sexual abuse as more than just a criminal justice issue, but reframing it as a public health and criminal justice issue; although this has not filtered down to the public and the media yet. This article will look at the current status of sexual abuse policy and practice in the UK, what has changed, its impact and where it is moving in the future. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the URI link.
  • Delinquants transfrontaliers: comment elaborer une approche europeene? Lecons du project SOMEC.
    Delinquants transfrontaliers: comment elaborer une approche europeene? Lecons du project SOMEC. Kemshall, Hazel, 1958-; Kelly, Gill; Evans, Martine Assessing and managing those individuals who pose a risk of committing a serious violent or sexual crime is challenging. Identifying who they are with an acceptable degree of accuracy, and then formulating effective plans for their safe management is demanding. Developing robust, agreed and acceptable criteria for their identification coupled with reliable assessment tools and management techniques is a challenging task at local, national and at European Union level. This article draws on a recent project SOMEC (Serious Offending by Mobile European Criminals) in order to present some key lessons on how to develop a robust approach to the development of appropriate procedures. Reference is made to the Offender Management User Guidance, produced by SOMEC for use by criminal justice personnel across the 28 Member States. The article begins with some background information on the presenting problem of serious sexual and violent offenders both in within Member States and those who travel across the EU. The article then reviews the SOMEC project objectives, and key lessons learnt for the conduct of the study itself for the subsequent development of User Guidance and robust risk assessment and management procedures for serious offenders.
  • Reframing the sex offender register and disclosuer: From monitoring and control to desistance and prevention
    Reframing the sex offender register and disclosuer: From monitoring and control to desistance and prevention Kemshall, Hazel, 1958-; Hoggett, J.; McCartan, K.
  • The Historical Evolution of Sex Offender Risk Management
    The Historical Evolution of Sex Offender Risk Management Kemshall, Hazel, 1958-
  • Contemporary Sex Offender Management, vol 2
    Contemporary Sex Offender Management, vol 2 Kemshall, Hazel, 1958-; McCartan, K.
  • Contemporary Sex Offender Management, vol 1
    Contemporary Sex Offender Management, vol 1 McCartan, K.; Kemshall, Hazel, 1958-
  • Risk, Actuarialism and Punishment.
    Risk, Actuarialism and Punishment. Kemshall, Hazel, 1958-
  • The rise of risk in probation work: historical reflections and future speculations.
    The rise of risk in probation work: historical reflections and future speculations. Kemshall, Hazel, 1958-
  • Serious Violent or Sexual Offenders Travelling Across EU Borders. Ideological and Ethical Challenges of Information Exchange.
    Serious Violent or Sexual Offenders Travelling Across EU Borders. Ideological and Ethical Challenges of Information Exchange. Hilder, Sarah; Kemshall, Hazel, 1958- The increase in travel opportunities coupled with open borders across much of the European Union has resulted in increased capacity for serious violent or sexual offenders to travel or migrate to other Member States within the EU. In some instances this results in (ex)offenders living and working in Member States with less monitoring, regulation or supervision than they would experience in their home Member State; and in some cases without any tracking or information exchange about their known criminality. In 2013 an EU funded project reviewed current information exchange systems within the EU, and the challenges and issues faced by law enforcement and probation service personnel when seeking to work collaboratively with other EU Member States to manage the risk posed by this small number of high risk offenders. This article reviews the key issues from that research, and most notably the differences in perceptions of privacy, data protection restrictions on information exchange, rights to free movement post sentence, and a range of legal and ethical constraints upon the choices and actions of law enforcement and probation personnel. Underlying ideological and philosophical differences, particularly across Probation practice, can be discerned focused on the relative weight that risk, desistance or rehabilitation should play in response to these offenders. This article examines the implications of these differences for the effective management of serious violent or sexual offenders who are mobile across the EU community. SOMEC is a two-year project running from January 2013 to January 2015 investigating current processes for information exchange and procedures to manage the harm posed by serious violent or sexual offenders travelling across the European Union. SOMEC is co-funded by the European Commission Directorate-General for Home Affairs - HOME/2011/AG/4000002521 30-CE-0519712/00-87. SOMEC Partners, Beneficiary Partners: National Offender Management Service (UK), The Home Office (UK) Association of Chief Police Officers (UK), ACPO Criminal Records Office (UK), National Crime Agency (UK), London Probation Trust (UK), De Montfort University (UK), CEP- Confederation of European Probation (EU), Department of Justice (Prison and Probation) Catalonia (ES), Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice (NL), Latvian State Probation Service (LV), Latvian State Police (LV). Associate Partners: The Ministry of Interior, Macedonia (MA), Probation Chiefs Association (UK), The Scottish Government (UK), The Police Service Northern Ireland (UK), Probation Board for Northern Ireland (UK), Europol (EU), Eurojust (EU). The full field work report and other project outputs are available at: http://www.svdv.org.uk/somec-project/
  • Understandings, Implications and Alternative Approaches to the Use of the Sex Offender Register in the UK
    Understandings, Implications and Alternative Approaches to the Use of the Sex Offender Register in the UK O'Sullivan, J.; Hoggett, J.; Kemshall, Hazel, 1958-; McCartan, K. This article reviews the current state of sex offender registration and community notification in England and Wales Drawing on previous research and a current examination of police perceptions of registration, notification and disclosure in this jurisdiction the article discusses issues related to the efficacy of such schemes in the effective management of sexual offenders (including – issues related to Information sharing, the Public and professional utility of Child Sexual Offender Disclosure Scheme (CSODS), Issues with the CSODS process and how the Sex Offender Register and CSODS could be used more effectively. Given that a similar disclosure scheme has been introduced in NI in 2016 there are issues highlighted which practitioners in that jurisdiction may find useful to consider. The article concludes by discussing alternative ways that the current sex offender register and community notification schemes could be more effectively used to prevent child sexual abuse, emphasizing a public health approach and the ‘spectrum of prevention’. Written in conunction with academics at University of West of England

Click here for a full listing of Hazel Kemshall's publications and outputs.

Key research outputs

  1. Currently Head of Research for EU funded investigation into: ‘Serious Offending by Mobile European Criminals’. http://www.somec-project.eu/default.asp?page_id=553
  2.  Co-applicant on ‘Community Engagement and partnership working with sex offenders network’, Leverhulme grant, http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/hls/research/offenderengagement

  3. Three evaluations of the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements in England and Wales; review of risk assessment tools and MAPPA arrangements in Scotland; evaluation of the Sex Offender Public Disclosure Pilots in England.

  4. Currently co leader of an ESRC Knowledge Exchange Network on ‘Sex Offender Public Disclosure - Learning from the UK pilots and international research’, (ES/J01251/1), with UWE and Cardiff Universities.

Research interests/expertise

Research interests include risk assessment and management of offenders, effective work in multi-agency public protection, and implementing effective practice with offenders.

Sex Offender Disclosure Schemes, Polygraph use with Sex Offenders, effective management of high risk offenders, and Third Sector responses to high risk offenders. Effective risk communication with the public. Effective multi-agency responses to violence and domestic abuse, including training for police officers.

Research completed for the Economic and Social Research Council, the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Risk Management Authority Scotland, and the Scottish Government.

Currently a partner in the European Union DAPHNE funded WAVE PROTECT 11 project developing training materials, guidance and procedures on combating domestic abuse for use by criminal justice and women’s aid workers across Europe. The project covers some 45 countries.

Expertise includes process evaluations, qualitative methods, multi modal approaches to research, case studies, appreciative inquiry, and focus group work.

Projects have included:

  • Evaluation of Child Sex Offender Disclosure Pilots, (Home Office), with Wood, Westwood et al
  • Polygraph use with sex offenders (MoJ) with Wood and Westwood
  • Evaluation of the Social Contexts and Responses to Risk (SCARR) ESRC network
  • Evaluations of multi-agency public protection panels for the Home Office (with Wood, Mackenzie, Bailey and Yates 2005, Wood and Kemshall 2007)
  • Pathways into and out of crime for young people under an ESRC network (with Boeck and Fleming).

Areas of teaching

  • MA Public Protection and High Risk Offenders
  • MA Managing the Practice of Risk.

Qualifications

  • BA Hons Sociology, Durham
  • MA Social Work, Birmingham
  • Certificate of Qualification in Social Work, Birmingham
  • PhD, De Montfort.

Courses taught

  • MA Public Protection and High Risk Offenders
  • MA Managing the Practice of Risk

Membership of external committees

  • Chair of the Risk Management Plan Approval Committee for Orders for Lifelong Restriction, Scotland
  • Member of the Advisory Panel on Close Supervision Centres and High Security Estate, HMPS
  • Parole Board Review Committee
  • Offender Engagement Advisory Group, National Offender Management Service
  • Board Member, Risk Management Authority, Scotland
  • Board Member, Staffordshire and West Midlands Probation Trust
  • Member, National Offender Management Service Accreditation Panel.

External Examiner:

  • Masters in Social Work, Cardiff University, 2007-2010
  • Masters in Criminal Justice Social Work, Edinburgh, 2006-2009
  • BA in Social Work, University of Western Scotland, 2008-2011.

Forthcoming events

  • Presentation of research findings, final conference ‘SOMEC Serious Offending by Mobile European Criminals’, The Hague, Netherlands, November 2014 (see: . http://www.somec-project.eu/default.asp?page_id=553
  • Managing Sex Offenders in the UK: Challenges for Policy and Practice; Kemshall and McCartan, ATSA conference, 2014.
  • Online debates for ‘ Community Engagement and partnership working with sex offenders network’, http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/hls/research/offenderengagement
  • Key note presentation: ‘Why we should consider the evidence?’ at Risk Management Authority Annual Conference, ‘Which way now? New directions in evidence based and gender informed practice’. Dunblane Hydro Hotel, 5-6 March 2012.
  • Key note presentation at: Second International Symposium ‘Decisions, Assessment, Risk and Evidence in Social Work’, University of Ulster, 2-3 July 2012.

Conference attendance

Conferences for 2009 to 2013.

Hudson, K., McCartan, K. and Kemshall, H. (2013) The Knowledge Exchange Network on Sex Offender Public Disclosure- Learning from the UK pilots and International Research. National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers Annual Conference, September 2013.

McCartan, K. and Kemshall, H. (2013) Evaluating circles of support and accountability: developing good practice.  Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers Conference, Chicago, October 2013.

Kemshall, H. (2013) Improving Risk Management in MAPPA: The Four Pillars of Risk Management. Keynote presentation, Cumbria MAPPA Annual Event, October 2nd, Penrith.

Kemshall, H. (2013) Improving Risk Management in MAPPA: The Four Pillars of Risk Management. Keynote presentation, Lancashire MAPPA Annual Event, Lancashire Police Headquarters, November 11th, Preston.

Keynote presentation: ‘Best practice in the community management of high risk offenders’. For the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), National Public Protection Conference, Chase Hotel, Cheltenham. 12-13 October  2009.

‘Risk, Protection and Community’. Presentation in the School of Social Sciences, Risk Seminar Series, Cardiff University, Wales, 17 November 2009.

Public Services in the 2010s: Prosperity, Austerity and Recovery. ESRC Public Services Programme. Seminar discussion. Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, London, 11 December 2009.

‘Risk and Housing of Sex Offenders’. Presentation to Probation Foundation of Finland (Kriminaalihuollon Tukisaatio), Helsinki, Finland, 28 January 2010.

‘Best Practice in the Community Management of Sex Offenders’. Sex Offenders, Punish, Help, Change, or Control? Newport Centre for Criminal and Community Justice, University of Wales, Newport, 29 April 2010.

‘Improving the Quality of MAPPA’. Northumbria MAPPA, Northumbria Police HQ, Ponteland, 5-6 May 2010.

‘Risks, Rights and Justice’. A Working in Partnership Seminar: Principles and Values in Multi-Agency Risk Management. Risk Management Authority Conference, The Hub, ‘Violent Offenders, Risk Assessment.

‘Violent Offenders- Risk Management’; for Violent Offenders and the public protection arrangements conference. Northern Ireland Police Service, Public Protection Arrangements, Belfast, N. Ireland, 20-21 May 2010.

‘Contesting Risk: Empirical challenges to risk theorising’, Round Table discussion, British Criminology Conference, 11-14 July 2010, Leicester University.

‘Risk management of perpetrators: Good Practice lessons from MAPPA’. Keynote to 3rd expert group meeting, EU-DAPHNE 111, Project PROTECT1. Novotel, Bristol, 27-28 October 2010.

‘Reducing risk: integration or aversion? Risk assessment, management and the use of IPP in England and Wales’. Keynote address to: Managing Risk and Re-integration. 4th Annual Conference, The Scottish Association for the Study of Offending (SASO), 19-20 November 2010. Dunblane Hydro Hotel, Dunblane.

BSA Risk Study Group Conference: Risk, Policy and Decision Making. Public Disclosure About Sex Offenders: Does the public want to know? 12 April 2011. City University London. 

‘Sex Offender Public Disclosure: Learning from the UK Pilots and International Research’. Welsh Centre for Criminal and Social Justice, Violence Network, 11 May 2011, Gregynog. Kieran McCartan and Hazel Kemshall.

‘Polygraph Disclosure Study’, For ‘Law, Crime and Lying - and Lie Detection’ Seminar, Centre for Law, Crime and Justice, Strathclyde University, 25 May 2011.

Consultancy work

  • Consultant to the Public Protection Arrangements Northern Ireland.
  • Improving Risk Management Planning for Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements, National Offender Management Service, 2014.
  • Extensive training of probation staff and police officers, including West Midlands Police; Staffordshire and West Midlands Probation Trust; West Mercia Police.
  • Development of the ‘Risk of Harm Guidance and Training Resource’ for National Offender Management Service, 2005, 2008, 2011.
  • Development of the ‘Assessment and Management of Risk' CD rom for Risk Management Authority Scotland, 2008, 2010.

Externally funded research grants information

Polygraph Disclosure Project, Ministry of Justice, 2008-09, £50,004.

Evaluation of Public Disclosure Pilots, Home Office (CSOR), 2009-2010, £148,000.

Evaluation of the Social Contexts and Responses to Risk (SCARR) Network, 2009, ESRC, £20,000.

Development of FRAME risk assessment and management training disc, Risk Management Authority, Scotland 2010, £35,000.

Update of NOMS risk of harm guidance and training resource, 2010-2012, £64,000, National Offender Management Service.

Dissemination of FRAME, Risk Management Authority, Scotland, £15,000.

PROTECT 11: Capacity Building in Risk Assessment and Safety Management to project high risk victims of domestic violence and femicide. Partner 10 in the Women Against Violence in Europe (WAVE) Network. Funded by the DAPHNE Programme, European Union Funding.

All as PI.

Professional esteem indicators

Editorial Board, British Journal of Social Work, 2005-2008.
Editorial Board: Health, Risk and Society, current.
Member of ESRC Peer Review College.
Visiting Professor, University of West of England.

Case studies

Impact of ‘Evaluation of Child Sex Offender Public Disclosure Pilots’ considerable, with media impact (appended – P3); impact statement from Police (appended); and led to national roll-out of the scheme in 2010.

‘Risk of Harm Guidance and Training Resource’ CD rom for the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is used by all 35 probation trusts, police services in England, Wales; and the prison service.

‘Assessment and Management of the Risk of Harm’ (RMA, Scotland) is used by social workers, police and prisons in Scotland, currently to be updated as FRAME.