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.
