Community-based sex offender management: Combining parole supervision and treatment to reduce recidivism

Wilson, Robin; Stewart, Lynn A.; Stirpe, Tania; Barrett, Marianne; Cripps, Janice

doi:10.3138/cjcrim.42.2.177

Cited by 36 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 0 publications

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“…We are firmly convinced that prospects for offender success in the community are significantly increased when the offender has a supportive network and a real accountability framework, especially when both are derived from community involvement sensitive to both victim and offender needs. While this is certainly intuitive, it is also supported by the data reported here, as well as by studies demonstrating the benefits of collaborative, community-based approaches (Wilson, Stewart, Stirpe, Barrett, & Cripps, 2000). We hope that further investigative reviews, currently under way, will lend additional credence to this proposition.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Restorative justice innovations in Canada

Wilson

Huculak

McWhinnie

2002

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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As many jurisdictions move towards more retributive measures as a means to address public discontent with crime, a parallel movement has developed in regard to restorative justice. This article presents three restorative initiatives currently in use in Canada. Each initiative addresses offender behavior and community engagement at a different point in the justice continuum. The use of Sentencing Circles is an example of how restorative justice principles can be instituted at the front end, prior to an offender becoming lodged in the system. The Restorative Justice Options to Parole Suspension project demonstrates how community engagement can assist in preventing offenders from being returned to the system once they have achieved conditional release. The Circles of Support and Accountability project has enlisted the support of professionally supported volunteers in the community reintegration of high-risk sexual offenders. These initiatives are presented within a framework of effective correctional interventions and increased empowerment for a variety of stakeholders.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Restorative justice innovations in Canada

Wilson

Huculak

McWhinnie

2002

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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“…The Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers' (ATSA) Collaborative Data Project (Hanson et al 2002) has recently demonstrated a treatment effect, in which the treated group reoffended at a rate considerably less than the untreated control group (10% vs. 17%, respectively). Results are also available showing that co-ordinated, multidisciplinary approaches to community-based sexual offender management can further decrease recidivism (Wilson et al 2000). Further, in terms of identifying who is at risk to reoffend sexually, research has shown that attitudes supportive of sexual offending are surprisingly poor predictors of sexual reoffence risk.…”

Section: Nothing Else Will Work?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Circles of Support and Accountability: Engaging Community Volunteers in the Management of High‐Risk Sexual Offenders

Wilson

McWhinnie²,

Picheca

et al. 2007

The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice

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The release to the community of a sexual offender is frequently accompanied by intense coverage in the news media. Too often, the type of coverage these releases receive serves only to force many offenders into hiding or out of one community and into another. Forced to move to another community, the scapegoating process starts all over again. It is well known that secrecy and isolation are critical elements in sexual offending behaviour. Thus, forcing offenders into hiding does nothing to increase community safety or offender accountability and, arguably, increases the risk that new victims will be created. The most problematic releases are those in which sexual offenders arrive in a community with few or no links, and with little access to appropriate treatment and supervisory services. This article outlines a restorative approach to the risk management of high-risk sexual offenders in Canada using professionally-facilitated volunteerism. The Circles of Support and Accountability model grew out of an ad hoc, faith-based response to a situation much like that described above in South-Central Ontario, Canada. The resultant pilot project has since reached its twelfth anniversary and the model has proliferated both nationally and internationally.In the summer of 1988, a notorious sexual offender, Joseph Fredericks, succeeded in achieving a conditional release allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence in the community under supervision. He subsequently kidnapped, raped, and killed eleven-year-old Christopher Stephenson. Fredericks, himself, was later murdered in jail. Although other tragedies had occurred around about the same time, the Stephenson

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“…Specifically, being held accountable for their actions, and being afforded a close community support network, has given them the kind of support that might have been available had they received conditional release. Results of a recently-reported investigation looking at recidivism rates for conditionally-released offenders to the same geographic area (Wilson et al, 2000) also suggested that collaborative facilitation of offender reintegration, including a variety of stakeholders, increases the likelihood of success. In that study, recidivism rates were also lower than those reported elsewhere in the literature (Barbaree, Seto, & Maric, 1996;Motiuk & Brown, 1996).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, research shows that the availability of facilitated community reintegration significantly impacts risk for future involvement in criminal activities, with those offenders receiving community support being at less risk for recidivism (Andrews & Bonta, 1998;Wilson, Stewart, Stirpe, Barrett, & Cripps, 2000). Andrews and Bonta (1998) have clearly shown that imprisonment without appropriate rehabilitative ser-vices amounts to a virtual "deep freeze," in which offenders are returned to the community slightly worse than when they went in.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%