Offender Management: Reducing hazards and building resilience

Abstract

This article examines the psychological impact of working in a multi-agency team managing registered sexual and violent offenders. A review of the nature of the role and data collected from psychological surveillance identifies personal and work-related hazard and resilience factors. The study found that much of the variance in anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and secondary trauma could be predicted by the psychological surveillance survey's resilience and hazard measures; each mental health condition had a different set of predictors with some common features. The findings are a first step towards increasing the resilience of multi-agency offender management teams with suggestions for reducing hazards and improving individual and team resilience. These findings can help reduce the mental health problems experienced by offender managers working with registered sexual and violent offenders in prisons, probation and policing.

Keywords

offender management mental health psychological surveillance well-being

Introduction

One of the most complex and demanding roles in policing is that of a management of sexual and violent offenders (MOSOVO) officer. The belief behind placing violent and sex offenders on a register is that this will help to protect the community from the possibility of registered offenders harming children and other vulnerable people. The goal of police and probation officers is to deter offenders from becoming involved in harmful and illegal behaviour (Mydlowski, 2022); it is not being named on the register that provides the protection, but the efforts of offender manager (OM) teams working with registered offenders.

As the number of offenders placed on the Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) increases annually, reducing the incidence of re-offending becomes more challenging for OMs. A review of re-offending has highlighted the lack of supervision in managing offenders as the primary causal factor in re-offending (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP), 2020). The HMIP finding that the supervision of offenders is an essential element in offender management raises the question of the nature of offender supervision, the number of skills required to protect the community and rehabilitate offenders, and the emotional and psychological burden carried by the OM teams of police and probation service officers.

The MOSOVO role requires OMs to have a wide range of skills (College of Policing, 2020), including assessing the level of risk the offender poses to the community, developing a strategy for eliminating or mitigating this risk and a plan ensuring the offender's adherence. OMs also have to protect the well-being and safety of the offender, who may be at risk of physical harm from members of the public who do not want offenders living in their neighbourhood (Cubellis et al., 2018).

In addition to the risks created by offenders and their propensity to recidivism (Hanson et al., 2003), OMs are also at personal risk of mental health problems related to their role of working closely with sex and violent offenders. Evidence shows that police officers and other professionals experience heightened clinical symptoms, including anxiety, depression, simple and complex trauma, as well as increased levels of suicidal ideation and alcohol abuse (Foley et al., 2021; Syed et al., 2020). Working with offenders exposes OMs to daily traumatising information and situations, leading to burnout, compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress (Duran and Woodhams, 2022; Hurrell et al., 2017). Organisational factors can increase the experience of mental health problems (Sutton et al., 2022) and have a legal duty of care and ethical responsibility to create and maintain working environments that protect workers from harm (Management of Health & Safety, 1999).

Offender management skills and training

Research undertaken for HMIP (Raynor, 2019) indicated that a substantial decrease in re-offending can be achieved if OMs are trained to use effective supervision practices. Raynor explained that supervision involved the OM establishing their authority with the offender, modelling and reinforcing appropriate behaviours, building problem-solving skills, and identifying and utilising the available community assets to support the offender's rehabilitation. Guidance from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ, 2020) builds on these skills adding the additional requirements for OMs to: (a) use their relationship skills to create a working alliance; (b) establish and maintain role clarity with a clear balance between upholding the court orders and providing support; (c) model positive prosocial behaviours as a means of helping develop these behaviours in offenders; (d) use motivational interviewing and problem-solving skills to help embed and reinforce positive attitudes and resolve problems; and (e) adopt cognitive restructuring techniques to assist offenders in reframing their attitudes and beliefs from antisocial to more socially acceptable.

Although it is recognised that having the resources to train and support OM in building the practical and personal skills to deliver effective offender supervision practices is essential, an HMIP (2020) review of MOSOVO found access to specialist training in managing sexual and violent offenders in a few police forces; this was not universally available. The lack of specialist training is concerning; although it is recognised that generic policing skills are essential in the MOSOVO role, the context of working exclusively with serious violent and sexual offenders makes this role more specialist. Without the adequate training and development of MOSOVO teams, offenders and OMs can be let down by organisations with the responsibility to support them.

Cognitive, emotional and motor empathy

Although increased levels of empathy can make an OM more vulnerable to developing compassion fatigue and secondary trauma (Duran and Woodhams, 2022), many of the essential OM skills identified by the MoJ and Probation Service require a high level of empathetic awareness and attunement. Empathy is the ability to determine what someone else is thinking or feeling and to respond appropriately (Baron-Cohen, 2011). Without empathy, it would be impossible to build relationships, understand roles, effectively model behaviour or motivate behavioural changes.

There are three types of empathy: cognitive, emotional and motor. Cognitive empathy is the ability to take another person's perspective to be aware of and name the emotional impact on oneself and others. Cognitive empathy is an essential executive thinking function that enables OM to use rational thinking to predict and interpret the behaviour of offenders (Blair, 2009). Emotional empathy is the physical or emotional response to another person's emotional state (Blair, 2005). OMs experiencing emotional empathy will respond with the same emotional and physical reactions as the person they observe. Motor empathy is an automatic response created by neurons in the brain to mirror the activities of someone they are observing directly or from moving images (Cattaneo and Rizzolatti, 2009). The mirror neuron system enables OM to ‘experience’ the actions and intentions of other people and is the basis of observational learning (Baron-Cohen, 2011).

Psychopaths can talk about other people's emotions while remaining emotionally unmoved. Studies of how psychopaths process facial or vocal emotional expressions in others (Blair, 2009) have found that although there is cognitive recognition of different emotions, there is a selective impairment of the emotional response to fearful and sad expressions, but not to angry, happy or surprised expressions. This deficit leads to the development of callous and unemotional traits caused by the disconnect between cognitive and emotional empathy. Although not everyone on ViSOR will be psychopathic, a study of incarcerated serious and violent offenders (Fairweather et al., 2000) found that 64% had this condition.

The challenges of working with offenders

The potential to commit a crime is widely distributed in society, and most adults will commit an illegal act at some time in their lives, e.g. speeding or failing to pay all due taxes. However, some individuals are more likely to commit crimes because of the difficulties they experience in managing their drives and desires (Banse et al., 2010). The propensity to sexual and physical violence is influenced by genetic make-up (Baron-Cohen, 2011), personality (Dudeck et al., 2007), childhood experiences (DeLong et al., 2010), life experiences (Garrett, 2010) and age (Hanson, 2002). The opportunity to sexually or physically abuse is determined by the interaction of individual and situational factors in terms of when or if a person will engage in violent and sexual crimes (Wortley, 2018). The offence-related situational factors include having a personal or work-related relationship with children (e.g. family member or friend), being of an age where there is easy access to children (e.g. being a babysitter or parent), coming across children in routine activities (e.g. working in or frequenting parks, public places), undisturbed access to the internet to engage with offenders or children, (e.g. lives alone or isolated in the family), and in an environment where there has been a breakdown of social or personal constraints on safeguarding (e.g. war, disaster, dysfunctional school or youth organisation).

For OMs, understanding the drives and offender types can reduce stress by providing a framework within which the offending behaviour can be categorised and understood. Not all offenders are the same, learning more about the motivations and risk-taking behaviours of individual offenders can make these behaviours more predictable and easier to manage. The stronger the drive to abuse, the more situational barriers will be crossed (Finkelhor, 1984). Offenders will create or seek out circumstances in which offending is easier and less risky. Three levels of offenders have been identified (Wortley and Smallbone, 2006): first, the predatory or persistent offenders who are prepared to expend considerable energy in achieving their goals and who is difficult to deter; second, the opportunist offenders who have problems in delaying self-gratification, they abuse because they can; and third the situational offenders where crimes occur in the heat of the moment, owing to a failure of self-control (Cornish and Clarke, 2003).

The change from managing offenders through monitoring and control to a system that emphasises desistance and prevention (McCartan et al., 2017) requires an OM to be much more aware of personal and situational factors, which can only be fully understood when the OM is spending time engaging with the offender. The level of contact required for the successful management and rehabilitation of offenders can put OMs in a position in which they become vulnerable to grooming by the offender and also to developing secondary trauma when reviewing the nature of risks associated with the offender. OMs need to have high levels of emotional awareness (Knight, 2012) and a working environment with access to personal supervision and support tailored to effective offender management and the nature of psychological risks and dangers the OM encounters.

This article has four aims:

Describe the challenges of the OM role and their responsibilities for protecting the community

Identify the hazards and resilience predictors for four mental health conditions (anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and secondary trauma)

Discuss ways to reduce mental health hazards and increase OM resilience

Propose further areas of investigation.

Method

Participants and design

It has been recognised that OMs are likely to experience increased anxiety and depression resulting from the level of ‘re-offending risks’ they carry when attempting to protect vulnerable children and adults from harm by serious offenders with a high propensity to re-offend. As part of the College of Policing's role in supporting police officers and staff, the National Police Wellbeing Service has undertaken role risk assessments for all specialist roles, and offers police forces in England and Wales the opportunity to have annual psychological surveillance. The College of Policing has funded psychological surveillance for all OM teams in England and Wales (Tehrani and Hesketh, 2018). The OM surveillance programme was supported by the National Police Chiefs’ Council Lead for the Management of Sexual Offenders and Violent Offenders. This study reviewed the surveillance data held on OMs from 16 police forces over 7 years (2015–2021). During this time, there were 1932 OM screenings with an 80% response rate. Some 53% of the OMs were female and 47% were male, the mean age was 43.2 years, and the average time in the role was 4.7 years.

Questionnaires

The questionnaires used in the online screening were selected and had been validated within an occupational setting (Tehrani and Hesketh, 2018).

The questionnaires included the following clinical measures: the Goldberg Anxiety/Depression Scale (Goldberg et al. 1988), with the anxiety and depression scores ranging from 0 to 9; the Professional Quality of Life (Stamm, 2010) for secondary trauma in which the scores of 30 or more are indicative of secondary trauma; and the Impact of Events-Extended (Tehrani et al., 2002), which measured traumatic stress, with scores of 50 or more indicative of PTSD.

Personal resilience was measured using a range of questionnaires, including the Sense of Coherence scale (Antanovski, 1996) with meaningfulness, comprehensibility and manageability items. Coping Skills (Tehrani and Kinder, 1996) measured time planning, physical well-being, psychological well-being, assertiveness, social support, involvement, problem-solving and relaxation. Workability with a single item measure (Ahlstrom et al., 2010) and a lifestyle measure assessed healthy eating, sleeping, alcohol, caffeine, smoking, exercise, hobbies and socialising.

The hazard identification questionnaires included: the Emotional Literacy Questionnaire (Steiner and Perry, 1999) that assessed emotional resilience and somatic sensitivity to traumatic events; the extrovert and neuroticism scales from the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck et al., 1985); the brief COPE questionnaire (Carver, 1997) that measures active and passive coping styles; and the Holmes Rahe scale (Holmes and Rahe, 1967) measuring current stressful events.

Other data, including age, tenure, manager support, lifetime traumatic exposure, addictive behaviours, mental health stigma, job stress and current traumatic exposure, were gathered from each participant.

Data collection

Data were gathered as part of a psychological health surveillance programme. Where surveillance identified OMs with marginal or clinical scores, follow-up assessments, support and counselling were provided. The names and email addresses of the OMs within each police force were collected, and a secure link to an encrypted questionnaire was provided; the questionnaire included a consent statement that had to be endorsed before the OM could start the questionnaire. OMs were invited to offer free-text comments on the surveillance questionnaires. Once completed, the data were analysed, and personalised feedback for each OM was produced. The 68 measurements taken from the 1932 screenings were analysed using a forward stepwise multiple regression to identify the resilience and hazard factors from the surveillance that significantly predicted anxiety, depression, PTSD and secondary trauma. At each step, variables were added based on p-values, and a p-value threshold of.1 was used to limit the total number of variables included in the final model. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS statistical software version 27.

Results

For each clinical measure, the β variance and probability for the 68 hazards and resilience measures from the surveillance were analysed using a forward stepwise linear regression –the number of steps the regression explained and the probability of the final model are reported, together with the variance and probability of the identified resilience/hazards. A collinearity test was undertaken to check for correlations between items. The results of the final model are reported in Table 1.

Table 1.

Results of stepwise logistical regression scores for psychological surveillance results and their prediction of anxiety, depression, secondary and primary trauma.

Dependent variables RH	Source	Independent variable	Stand. β	Significance (p)	Collinearity
Anxiety (R)	Sense of Coherence	Manageable	−.193	<.001	3.04
Anxiety (R)	Coping skills	Physical well-being	−.155	<.001	1.42
Anxiety (R)	Demographic	Gender	−.080	.004	1.09
Anxiety (R)	Coping skills	Psychological well-being	−.093	.004	1.47
Anxiety (R)	Workability	Workability	−.173	<.001	1.27
Anxiety (H)	Demographics	Job stress	.140	<.001	1.09
Anxiety (H)	Holmes Rahe	Illness	.131	<.001	1.22
Anxiety (H)	Eysenck	Neuroticism	.218	<.001	1.49
Anxiety (H)	COPE	Alcohol and drugs	.063	.027	1.19
Anxiety (H)	Demographics	Tenure	.061	.026	1.05
Anxiety (H)	Sense of Coherence	Comprehensibility	−.100	.029	3.00
Depression (R)	Sense of Coherence	Manageability	−.193	<.001	2.06
Depression (R)	Workability	Workability	−.196	<.001	1.24
Depression (R)	Sense of Coherence	Meaningfulness	−.240	<.001	1.84
Depression (R)	Coping skills	Physical well-being	−.157	<.001	1.30
Depression (R)	Demographics	Gender	−.062	.020	1.07
Depression (H)	Eysenck	Neuroticism	.187	<.001	1.59
Depression (H)	Demographics	Job stress	.087	<.001	1.08
Depression (H)	Holmes Rahe	Relationships	.105	<.001	1.13
Depression (H)	Holmes Rahe	Illness	.103	<.001	1.23
Depression (H)	COPE	Alcohol and drugs	.066	.019	1.19
Depression (H)	Lifestyle	Socialising	.063	.025	1.22
Secondary Trauma (R)	Sense of Coherence	Manageability	−.193	<.001	2.06
Secondary Trauma (R)	Workability	Workability	−.196	<.001	1.24
Secondary Trauma (R)	Sense of Coherence	Meaningfulness	−.240	<.001	1.84
Secondary Trauma (R)	Coping skills	Physical well-being	−.157	<.001	1.30
Secondary Trauma (R)	Demographics	Gender	−.062	.020	1.07
Secondary Trauma (H)	Eysenck	Neuroticism	.187	<.001	1.59
Secondary Trauma (H)	Demographics	Job stress	.087	<.001	1.80
Secondary Trauma (H)	Holmes Rahe	Relationships	.105	<.001	1.13
Secondary Trauma (H)	Holmes Rahe	Illness	.103	<.001	1.23
Secondary Trauma (H)	COPE	Alcohol and drugs	.066	.019	1.19
Secondary Trauma (H)	Lifestyle	Socialising	.063	.025	1.22
Traumatic Stress (R)	Sense of Coherence	Manageability	−.254	<.001	3.16
Traumatic Stress (R)	Sense of Coherence	Comprehensibility	−.245	<.001	2.96
Traumatic Stress (R)	Workability	Workability	−.107	<.001	1.26
Traumatic Stress (R)	Lifestyle	Eating	−.088	.002	1.06
Traumatic Stress (R)	Demographic	Gender	−.084	.006	1.18
Traumatic Stress (R)	Coping skills	Social support	−.076	.024	1.41
Traumatic Stress (R)	Emotional literacy	Sensory awareness	−.266	<.001	5.84
Traumatic Stress (H)	Holmes Rahe	Bereavement	.099	<.001	1.09
Traumatic Stress (H)	Demographic	Addictive behaviour	.079	.010	1.18
Traumatic Stress (H)	Demographic	Job stress	.087	.003	1.10
Traumatic Stress (H)	Demographic	Manager support	.085	.005	1.13
Traumatic Stress (H)	Holmes Rahe	Relationships	.066	.028	1.13
Traumatic Stress (H)	Demographics	Adult trauma	.099	.017	2.15
Traumatic Stress (H)	Eysenck	Extroversion/introversion	.145	.005	3.32
Traumatic Stress (H)	Demographic	Tenure	.059	.043	1.07
Traumatic Stress (H)	Eysenck	Neuroticism	.109	.044	3.73

stand: Standard; H: hazards; R: resilience.

Anxiety

There were 11 steps to produce the final model. The model predicted 49% of the variance in anxiety (R² = .494, F(11,713) = 49.4, p < .001). The resilience predictors included two Sense of Coherence factors, Manageability and Comprehensibility, as predictors. Two coping skills, physical and psychological well-being, male gender and Workability, were identified as significant resilience factors. By contrast, having a neurotic personality, experiencing job stress, being longer in role (tenure) and using alcohol or drugs to cope were hazards associated with higher anxiety levels. Collinearity showed correlations between the Sense of Coherence scores for Manageability and Comprehensibility.

Depression

There were 13 steps to produce the final model. The model predicted 53% of the variance for depression (R² = .531, F(11,713) = 53.1, p < .001). No collinearity problems were identified. The resilience predictors of lower levels of depression included two Sense of Coherence measures – Manageability and Meaningfulness; physical well-being, male gender and Workability were associated with lower levels of depression. Neuroticism, job stress, not socialising and turning to alcohol and drugs to cope were associated with higher levels of depression.

Secondary trauma

There were 14 steps to produce the final model. The model predicted 50% of the variance in secondary trauma (R² = .503, F(14,710) = 50.3, p < .001). No collinearity problems were identified. The Sense of Coherence measures of Manageability and Meaningfulness were associated with higher levels of resilience to secondary trauma. Workability and physical well-being and male gender were also associated with lower levels of secondary trauma. The identified hazards included neuroticism, job stress, relationship problems and illness and reduced socialising.

PTSD

There were 16 steps to produce the final model. The model predicted 44% of the variance for PTSD (R² = .443, F(16,708) = 44.3, p < .001). Manageability, comprehensibility and Workability, along with eating regular meals, having social support, being male and having sensory awareness, were found to be related to lower levels of PTSD. Being bereaved, having relationship problems or addictive behaviour such as an eating disorder or gambling were related to higher levels of PTSD. In addition, being exposed to adult trauma, finding the work stressful, being in the role longer, needing manager support and having an introverted or neurotic personality were also associated with higher levels of trauma.

In this regression, Manageability and Comprehensibility were correlated; in addition, the personality measures extraversion and neuroticism were associated with each other and emotional awareness.

Free-text comments

Each of the participants had an opportunity to comment on the usefulness of the surveillance questionnaires in protecting their well-being. Fifty comments were made by the OMs. Half were positive or neutral and included:

Really forces you to think about how you feel about certain situations.

I did actually realise that I need to make changes in how I cope with stress and look after my own mental health.

Useful mostly, but I felt that some of the yes / no answers needed a sometimes option, but I imagine there is a reason why some questions are set that way.

Four OMs thought the screening was not relevant to them or their role.

Some of the questions did not fully apply to the nature of my work. I deal with sex offenders who I can’t have empathy with, my only understanding of how they feel or why they offended is to protect the public.

Personally, I do not feel this is overly relevant to the OM role.

There were comments on some of the questions being unclear or repetitive; however, these responses only came from the OMs completing the questionnaire for the first time, which takes an average of 45 minutes, follow-up questionnaires take an average of 15 minutes to complete.

It was very long and got a little boring.

Finding the time in my working day to complete the questionnaire was another cause of anxiety.

Comments were made by 0.03% of those that completed the surveillance.

Discussion

The role of the MOSOVO is going through a transition with an increasing emphasis on reducing re-offending while ensuring that the community is protected from the criminal activities of the offenders. Many studies have looked at the well-being of emergency service workers (Cartwright and Roach, 2021; Clark et al., 2021). However, this study is the first to use a psychological surveillance programme (Tehrani and Hesketh, 2018) to examine the hazards and resilience factors of MOSOVO teams working with offenders registered on ViSOR. The evidence shows that to enable offenders to desist from their illegal behaviour, the OM has to manage the personal offending drives and reduce the situations where the offender can access victims (Wortley, 2018). The crimes committed by ViSOR offenders include the rape and sexual abuse of babies and children and the violent and sexual abuse of other vulnerable people. These crimes are morally abhorrent, making it challenging for the OM to create a relationship where constructive work can be undertaken to change the drives, attitudes and behaviours of abusers. Training of OM in protecting potential victims and offenders is essential, but equally crucial to these practical and personal skills is the need for the OM to have exceptionally well-developed emotional intelligence and cognitive empathy (MoJ, 2020). ‘Successful’ offenders use grooming skills to gain access to their victims; it is essential that in their attempt to understand the offender, the OM to recognises when attempts are being made to groom them into a false sense of confidence that they are managing the risk of re-offending. The unique OM demands create psychological strain and affect well-being. The surveillance results give some insight into the hazards involved and point to factors that can enhance resilience.

Interventions

One of the most straightforward areas for MOSOVO to address is the development of well-being skills and lifestyle. Three areas were identified as being particularly important:

Psychological well-being, including the willingness to seek support from family and colleagues, was found to predict higher levels of resilience. The themes to emerge from the analysis provided a clear message on the importance of recognising and rewarding personal success, having realistic self-expectations, talking about concerns and accepting situations which cannot be changed;

Physical well-being, which involves getting enough sleep, eating regular meals, exercising, and maintaining healthy eating and drinking habits, particularly under pressure, reduces mental health problems;

Social support is widely recognised as necessary in dealing with stress and trauma (Olff et al., 2013) and includes maintaining a good relationship with partners and friends, seeking support and advice, and talking to understanding colleagues.

Suggestions: the Lifestyle, COPE and Coping Skills measures are relatively easy to access and administer. Organising and running well-being workshops to build skills in these areas should improve resilience in dealing with the demands of the OM role.

The Sense of Coherence scale comprises three factors: Meaningfulness, Comprehensibility and Manageability. Building a Sense of Coherence and a positive attitude to work (Workability) are somewhat more complex skills and require the involvement of the OMs, their supervisors and senior management. For OMs to be psychologically protected, they need high scores in all three factors (Wijk et al., 2020).

Meaningfulness or a sense of purpose is a highly protective state of mind. It is that ability to make sense of the work that is protective. Where OMs understand their role and believe it to be essential, it will be easier to use that knowledge to make sense of why they work in an area that can be challenging and upsetting.

Comprehensibility is being able to understand where one's role fits within the larger organisation and the ability to predict how people may react to situations. This sensemaking capacity reduces uncertainty and helps OMs to prepare themselves to understand what is happening mentally.

Manageability is the capacity to manage the work's volume and nature. Manageability includes controlling the demands of the role within reasonable limits. Having an appropriate level of work and the skills and training to undertake the role is essential in maintaining well-being.

Workability is a self-assessment measure based on the OM's beliefs about their current capacities to undertake the work. To have high Workability, the OM needs to feel they have the skills, support and environment to achieve their best.

Suggestions: improving a Sense of Coherence and Workability involves team conversations and recognition of the individual drivers of OMs. Each OM will have a different reason for being in the role. For some, it may be to prevent re-offending and for others to change the offending behaviours. However, to be resilient in the role, OMs need to have a strong sense of purpose and a good understanding of where their role fits into the larger offender management strategy. Supervisors and managers should constantly review the sense of purpose, knowledge of the role, training needs and work allocation to maintain a healthy team.

Some people come into a role with existing life experiences that may affect their capacity to be resilient.

This study showed that OMs having experienced an earlier life trauma or having an addictive behaviour such as substance abuse, self-harming or an eating disorder is related to lower levels of resilience. In addition, perceptions of high levels of job stress and current life problems with relationships, illness in the family and bereavement can temporarily impact capacity. There is a need for managers to be supportive when members of their teams are experiencing personal hardships. The demands of the OM role can involve a gradual build-up of burnout and secondary trauma. The need to consider providing an option for OMs to move to alternative roles after four years has been recommended (Tehrani, 2016).

Suggestions: improving a Sense of Coherence and Workability involves team conversations and recognition of the individual drivers of OMs. Each OM will have a different reason for being in the role. For some, it may prevent re-offending and for others to change the offending behaviours. However, these issues need to be reviewed and discussed within teams. Building a clear understanding of why each OM has taken on this role will improve resilience.

Perhaps the most challenging area to address relates to gender, personality and emotional literacy.

Although the study showed that being male, extroverted and emotionally stable were associated with higher levels of psychological resilience, it would be premature to suggest that OMs with these personal characteristics would be the most successful in their role. Evidence shows that, on average, women are more empathetic than men (Baron-Cohen, 2011). Empathy can lead to higher levels of exposure to the emotions of others which may account for the difference in resilience. It could be argued that women are not innately less emotionally stable but rather that they are more able to understand the feelings and needs of others.

Suggestions: these personal characteristics are essential for further investigations to identify the relative benefits and disadvantages of emotional intelligence and empathy in OMs. In the meantime, it is vital to provide additional support to female team members, especially the highly empathetic ones.

Limitations and areas for further study

There are limitations to this study; although the use of stepwise regression helps identify the contribution of hazard and resilience factors, the results need further testing to verify the results. Although the OM teams were multi-agency, only OM working for the police were included in the study. It is possible that the findings may not be transferrable to prison, probation and other groups involved in offender management.

One of the realisations from this study was that most of the efforts for rehabilitation are focused on the most prolific psychopathic offenders (Miles and Saward, 2012). With an ever-increasing number of ViSOR offenders, identifying offenders with psychopathic personalities where risks of re-offending are greatest is essential to reduce the risk to the public and to protect OMs because this group is much more likely to cause them psychological harm. Consideration could be given to enhancing the skills of OMs to concentrate on non-psychotic situational-driven offenders who may be more amenable to treatment, easier to manage and less likely to cause secondary trauma and compassion fatigue. Offenders encounter many problems during the process of desistance, including dealing with shame, stigma, broken personal and social networks, social isolation and interpersonal distrust. The current MOSOVO policies and practices focus on limiting access to opportunities for social participation to reduce re-offending. This approach sends out the message to offenders that they do not belong in society and can never fully desist or be re-integrated (Weaver and Barry, 2014); with this attitude of mind, offenders may be less inclined to be rehabilitated.

If MOSOVO becomes involved in the management and rehabilitation of non-psychotic offenders, there will be a need for more multi-agency work and a greater awareness of the psychological burden on all the involved professionals.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

I am grateful for the support of the National Police Wellbeing Service and Cumbria Police for their help in developing this paper.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article

ORCID iD

Noreen Tehrani

Author Biography

Noreen Tehrani is Past Chair of the Crisis, Disaster and Trauma Section of the British Psychological Society and has worked with various aspects of trauma for a long time. She was directly involved in dealing with 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist attacks and has worked on the Shoreham air crash, the Westminster and London Bridge terrorist attacks and the Grenfell Tower disaster. She has also supported first responders and victims of a wide range of traumatic incidents including child abuse, murders, rapes, fatal accidents, and road crashes. Currently she is working with several police forces to reduce the incidence of primary and secondary trauma in police officers and staff involved in working in undercover operations, firearms, road deaths and child abuse. Noreen has written many articles, papers and book chapters including two books on trauma Workplace Trauma - concepts, assessment and intervention and Managing Trauma in the Workplace. She has also written two books on Workplace Bullying.

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