In this edition, we're providing you with a selection of articles and resources specific to enhancing your capacity to work on issues surrounding sex offender management.
Deeper collaboration and mutual understanding between advocacy programs and sex offender management (SOM) professionals, such as probation officers and treatment providers, is important to victim safety and offender accountability. It is crucial for advocates who work with survivors to be involved in SOM, but many local advocacy agencies do not have the access to participate meaningfully in the conversation. Criminal and civil legal options for holding offenders accountable are complex, and we must equip advocates to guide survivors through their options for seeking safety and justice. To do so, advocates need training on the realities of sex offenders and SOM, skills and information for discussing all justice options with survivors and helping survivors understand SOM and sex offender registration, and tools to build local partnerships with SOM professionals, including probation/parole and treatment providers. We are inundated with false or misleading information and myths about sex offenders and SOM; policymakers, advocates, and coalitions are not immune from making decisions or reactions based on inaccurate information. It is important for sexual assault advocates to look for ways to change the tide of false information and myths to engage our communities in real efforts to manage sex offenders and build safer communities.
ARTICLES
Meaningful Sex Offender Management: Coalition Modeling and Support for Community Sexual Assault Programs by Andrea Piper-Wentland, Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs
Connecticut's Collaborative Approach to Sex Offender Supervision & Treatment and the Role of the Victim Advocate by Stephanie Headley, CONNSACS
Creating an Advocacy-Supported Community to Address Youth with Sexual Behavior Problems: A Vital Step Towards our Comprehensive Approach to Sexual Violence Prevention by Kim Alaburda, New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs
Thoughts from the RSP Topical Meeting on Sex Offender Management, Resource Sharing Project Staff
RESOURCES
No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the United States
Human Rights Watch
This Human Rights Watch report takes an in-depth look into the current sex offender laws in the US and offers a critique of such laws as well as recommendations and model programs. Issues related to juvenile offenders, residency restriction, offender registration, community notification, and internet registries are also discussed.
A Reasoned Approach: Reshaping Sex Offender Policy to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse
Joan Tabachnick and Alisa Klein, ATSA
This publication discusses reshaping sex offender public policy through a comprehensive approach and new collaborative models through cross-disciplinary professional partners; to craft new policies that prevent abuse before it is perpetrated and re-offenses.
Knowledge Leads to Empowerment: Victim Advocate's Guide to Sex Offender Containment Teams
National Sexual Violence Resource Center
This booklet introduces a new approach to helping victims of sexual violence. This approach, called the victim-centered "Sex Offender Containment Model", may be a significant change in the way some of you do your advocacy work. It uses a multidisciplinary team approach to working with probation and parole, law enforcement, treatment providers, and others on a Sex Offender Containment Team.
Advocacy & Sex Offender Management: Public Perception, Partnerships, and the Future of Our Work - Connections Newsletter
Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs
In this issue of Connections, the focus is on sex offender management, which moves advocacy beyond the time of sentencing to the point where an offender is returning to the community. This work is about supporting survivors and increasing community safety.
Key Considerations for Reunifying Adult Sex Offenders and their Families
Center for Sex Offender Management
This document has been developed for use by probation and parole officers, treatment providers, victim advocates, and others who work with sex offenders or the victims of sexual abuse. It provides an overview of the dynamics and key issues warranting attention when considering reunification and preservation with sex offenders as part of a broader, more comprehensive approach to sex offender management.
The Importance of Assessment in Sex Offender Management: An Overview of Key Principles and Practices
Center for Sex Offender Management
This policy and practice brief provides an overview of underlying principles and promising practices relative to assessments and emphasizes the integral role that assessments play in ensuring informed and effective management of this population. It is designed for all stakeholders who have a role in sex offender management, whether as gatherers or consumers of assessment data. These stakeholders include judges, release decision makers, evaluators, treatment providers, personnel within correctional facilities, probation and parole officers, and administrators at all levels.
Center for Sex Offender Management
This policy and practice brief synthesizes the research and other professional literature about women and adolescent girls who commit sex offenses. This review encompasses what is known about the seemingly low incidence of these crimes and their under-recognition, common characteristics and typologies of female sex offenders, and key considerations relative to assessment, treatment, and supervision strategies. It is intended for a wide range of professionals, including criminal and juvenile justice practitioners, court officials, treatment providers, child welfare personnel, victim advocates, and others who may be involved in the broader management of this special population.
Center for Sex Offender Management
This paper examines the critical issues in defining recidivism and provides a synthesis of the current research on the re-offense rates of sex offenders. Also discussed are factors and conditions that appear to be associated with reduced sexual offending and the implications that these findings have for sex offender management.
Engaging Advocates and Other Victim Service Providers in the Community Management of Sex Offenders
Center for Sex Offender Management
The purpose of this brief is to provide information, ideas, and resources that will encourage agencies managing sex offenders in the community to consider the benefits and feasibility of involving victim advocates and other victim service providers in their work.
Association for the Treatment of Sex Abusers
This article explores controversies regarding sexual offender treatment effectiveness. It argues that it is not enough to simply administer a program and that treatment is most effective when it is meaningful to the abuser.
Twenty Strategies for Advancing Sex Offender Management in Your Jurisdiction
Center for Sex Offender Management
This document was developed for policymakers interested in advancing adult and juvenile sex offender management in their jurisdictions. Based upon both research and practice, we offer 20 strategies that hold promise for reducing risk and promoting safe communities. Each strategy is illustrated by a case study representing one jurisdiction's efforts to thoughtfully advance practice. These policy and practice initiatives, the underlying rationale and available evidence supporting them, and the accompanying jurisdictional case studies together represent the tremendous progress that has been achieved in our nation's continued efforts to prevent further sexual victimization.
A Ten-Step Guide to Transforming Probation Departments to Reduce Recidivism
Council of State Governments Justice Center
This guide draws extensively on the experience of a multi-year effort in Travis County, Texas (Austin), to implement each of the four recidivism reduction practices. The fieldwork in Travis County emerged from an on-the-ground reality: Although much had been written about evidence-based practices in parole agencies, little or no research had been conducted on how the individual elements of effective probation practices can be used together to produce positive agency-wide outcomes.
Sex Offense Courts: Supporting Victim and Community Safety Through Collaboration
Center for Court Innovation
This article traces the problem of managing sex offenders and the establishment of sex offense management courts in New York, discussing their history, how they work and challenges to implementation. By outlining New York's experience, this paper aims to provide lessons learned to other jurisdictions so that they can continue to improve criminal justice responses to the problem of sex offending.
RESEARCH
Managing Adult Sex Offenders in the Community-A Containment Approach
US DOJ, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
This report details the results of a national telephone survey identifying how probation and parole agencies managed adult sex offenders and a description of a model management process for containing sex offenders serving community sentences.
Sex Offender Registries as a Tool for Public Safety: Views from Registered Offenders
Richard Tewksbury, Western Criminology Review
This research report from the Western Criminology Review explores the use and effectiveness of sex offender registries. Data for this research was collected from a sample of registered sex offenders.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Sex Offender Registration and Notification Policies for Reducing Sexual Violence against Women Medical University of South Carolina
This is the executive summary of a research project to determine the effectiveness of preventing sexual offenses after imposing a sex-offender registry requirement in South Carolina briefly discusses the findings. According to the report, first time offenses were reduced, online registries appear to have no impact on recidivism, and failure to register did not predict recidivism.
POLICY STATEMENTS
Community Management of Convicted Sex Offenders: Registration, Electronic Monitoring, Civil Commitment, Mandatory Minimums, and Residency Restrictions
National Alliance to End Sexual Violence
This is a policy statement on the management of sex offenders that was adopted by the Board of Directors of the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence.
Supporting the Use of Randomized Control Trials for the Evaluation of Sexual Offender Treatment ATSA
Consistent with professional and scientific opinion in diverse fields, ATSA recognizes randomized clinical trials (RCT's) as the preferred method of controlling for bias in treatment outcome evaluations. ATSA promotes the use of RCT to distinguish between interventions that decrease the recidivism risk of sexual offenders and those programs that have no effect or are actually harmful.
Sexual Offender Residence Restrictions ATSA
This policy paper offers a discussion and recommendations for managing the housing needs of sex offenders.
Registration and Community Notification of Adult Sexual Offenders ATSA
This policy paper offers a discussion and recommendations for managing the housing needs of sex offenders.
Adolescents Who Have Engaged in Sexually Abusive Behavior: Effective Policies and Practices ATSA
The goal of this document is to provide relevant information for reducing sexual reoffending by adolescents and promoting effective interventions that facilitate pro-social and law-abiding behaviors. This document is purposefully short in length, summarizes central findings from the research, and outlines some major areas for consideration when working with this population of youth and their families.
FACT SHEETS
What You Need to Know About Sex Offenders
Center for Sex Offender Management
This fact sheet highlights key issues related to sex offenses and the management of sex offenders who are under the control of the justice system. It is prepared for members of the public who want to know more about sexual assault, sex offenders, and the role the citizens can play in keeping their communities safe.
Myths and Facts About Sex Offenders
Center for Sex Offender ManagementThere are many misconceptions about sexual offenses, sexual offense victims, and sex offenders in our society. Much has been learned about these behaviors and populations in the past decade and this information is being used to develop more effective criminal justice interventions throughout the country. This document serves to inform citizens, policy makers, and practitioners about sex offenders and their victims, addressing the facts that underlie common assumptions both true and false in this rapidly evolving field.
Glossary of Terms Used in the Management and Treatment of Sexual Offenders
Center for Sex Offender Management
The purpose of this document is to provide, in a single source, a comprehensive listing of terms with definitions that reflect conventionally accepted language in the domain of sex offender management. The Center for Sex Offender Management has created this glossary as a reference document and training aid.
ONLINE TRAINING
Supervision of Sex Offenders in the Community: A Training Curriculum Center for Sex Offender Management
Despite longer sentences and a greater likelihood of incarceration, most sex offenders will spend some time under community supervision after a period of incarceration or as a direct sentence of probation. They present a wide variety of unique challenges to the probation and parole agencies that are primarily responsible for supervising them in the community on a daily basis. This curriculum provides information and materials (lecture content, participant materials, slides, references, etc.) designed to equip knowledgeable trainers to plan and deliver three different versions (short, medium, and long) of a training on the supervision of sex offenders in the community.