The ‘Focal Concerns’ of Parole Board Decision-Making: A Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Following the high-profile murder of Jill Meagher in Victoria in 2012, parole is once again a provocative topic in Australia. While there is a developed scholarly literature on decision-making in other criminal justice areas, less attention has been paid to parole board decision-making. The study discussed in this article begins to address this gap in the literature through a thematic analysis of publicly available parole release decisions made by the Prisoners Review Board of Western Australia in 2013. Specifically, this study tests the viability of the focal concerns perspective as a conceptual framework for understanding parole board decision-making. Its analysis reveals that focal concerns relating to offender blameworthiness, community protection and practical constraints are evident in parole release decisions, albeit in a modified form from sentencing research to reflect the backend process of parole. In particular, decisions consistently project a strong sense of offender change. This article presents the study and discusses implications of these findings with respect to the use of the focal concerns perspective in parole research.