Managing the risk posed by personality-disordered sex offenders in the community: a model for providing structured clinical guidance to support criminal justice services

2012 ◽  
pp. 105-131
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Clinical Guidance ◽  
Personality Disordered

Shame and blame: Secondary stigma among families of convicted sex offenders

2021 ◽  
pp. 174889582110173
Author(s):  
Douglas Evans ◽  
Adam Trahan ◽  
Kaleigh Laird
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Sex Offender Registry

The detriment of incarceration experienced by the formerly incarcerated has been increasingly explored in the literature on reentry. A tangential but equally concerning issue that has recently received more research attention is the effect on family members of the incarcerated. The stigma of a criminal conviction is most apparent among families of convicted sex offenders, who experience consequences parallel to those of their convicted relative. Drawing from interviews with 30 individuals with a family member incarcerated for a sex offence in the United States, this study explores manifestations of stigma due to familial association. The findings suggest that families face negative treatment from social networks and criminal justice officials, engage in self-blame and that the media’s control over the narrative exacerbates family members’ experiences. Given the pervasiveness of criminal justice system contact, the rapid growth of the sex offender registry in the United States, and the millions of family members peripherally affected by one or both, justice system reforms are needed to ensure that family members are shielded from the harms of incarceration and registration.

Sex Panic and Denial

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-482
Author(s):  
Corey Rayburn Yung
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
American Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Goal ◽  
Residency Restrictions

The American criminal justice system regarding sex is not just logically incoherent, it is also often morally bankrupt because it remains unexamined and poorly understood. This Article contends that there are actually common roots underlying the seemingly oppositional forces of social panic and denial, which explain why the United States has an endemic sexual violence problem. Both panic and denial reinforce the implicit, and sometimes explicit, desire to avoid substantive engagement with socially contentious issues related to sex. The use of residency restrictions and civil commitment fit the modern social goal of putting sex offenders out-of-sight and out-of-mind. Yet, those same desires also explain America’s unwillingness to believe victims of sexual violence and police failure to properly investigate criminal complaints. In this way, sex panic dovetails with sex denial—in both instances, American culture only permits a limited discussion and understanding of sex and sexual violence. The result is that our nation fails to take sex crime complaints seriously while overreacting to the few convictions that emerge from the hostile criminal justice system.

The Civil Commitment of Sex Offenders in Light of Foucha v. Louisiana

1993 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 371-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
RUDOLPH ALEXANDER
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Mental Health System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
Civil Commitment ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Supreme

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that an individual who has been judged insane and committed to a mental facility and who has regained his sanity but remains dangerous cannot continue to be confined. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Kennedy stated that the majority's decision might have put in doubt the civil commitment of persons other than insanity acquittees. The author of this essay contends that the Court's decision indeed did so and argues that dangerous or predatory sex offenders cannot now be civilly committed to mental institutions. The author argues also that the criminal justice system, rather than the mental health system, is more appropriate for controlling sex offenders.

Reversing the roles

Groupwork ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Claire Bellamy ◽  
Aileen Watson
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Group Process ◽  
Core Group ◽  
Male Offenders ◽  
Risk Management Process ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Group Experience

<p><i>Groupwork in a criminal justice setting has traditionally taken the form of a group of offenders undertaking a programme of structured work facilitated by (usually two) professionals. Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) represent a departure from this traditional model. The COSA model uses a group of volunteers to form a ‘Circle’ around an offender who is viewed as being very much part of the group. The approach is currently being used in the UK as part of the risk management process for convicted sex offenders who are experiencing social isolation, a factor that has been linked to the risk of re-offending. The goal of our research was to understand the COSA group process and this article presents a study of a relatively new and different approach to groupwork within criminal justice. We looked at the expectations and opinions of both core group members and volunteers to make some assessment of how this non- traditional form of groupwork operates. The research presented an almost entirely positive picture of COSA from the perspective of both the volunteers and the core group members. All Core members (and we acknowledge that the research focus is a small group of male offenders) felt that the group experience offered them support and a sense of belonging that had previously been missing in their lives.</i></p>

scholarly journals Perpetrators and Pariahs: Definitional and Punishment Issues For Child Sex Offenders, and Therapeutic Alternatives for the Criminal Justice System

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Charlotte Rose Glab
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Therapeutic Jurisprudence ◽  
Physical Contact ◽  
Great Success ◽  
Font Size ◽  
Therapeutic Assistance ◽  
Therapeutic Alternatives

<p><em><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A punitive approach to criminal sentencing is profoundly counterintuitive in circumstances where incarceration and criminal labelling expedites, rather than prevents, recidivism. In a bid to avoid physical contact offences some paedophiles self-manage with low-level offending, such as viewing child exploitation material. These individuals are child sex offenders who may be receptive to rehabilitation with therapeutic assistance, yet are punished in a system deficient of genuine rehabilitation methodology. Therapeutic jurisprudence approaches for paedophiles have seen great success in international jurisdictions. This article contends that it  </span><span style="font-size: medium;">is not without merit as an alternative for Australian sentencing practices. </span><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></em></p>

scholarly journals Policy on prisoners and sex offenders with mental disorders: practice of Gemany and some other countries and recommendations to Vietnam

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lan Chi Le
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
Target Groups

Mental disordershave nagative impacts on the serving sentences of prisoners, sexoffenders and on the realization of the objective of rehabilitation and crime control. That is why many nations have issued particular policy on such target groups. This paper is to identify the grounds and contents of the policy and to reccommend to Vietnam, thus contributes to guarantee human rights as well as to adress related current practical issues of criminal justice in Vietnam

A Uniquely Punitive Turn? Sex Offenders and the Persistence of Punitive Sanctioning

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua C. Cochran ◽  
Elisa L. Toman ◽  
Ryan T. Shields ◽  
Daniel P. Mears
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Sex Crimes ◽  
Media Attention ◽  
Focal Attention ◽  
National Media ◽  
Social Concerns ◽  
Public Concerns ◽  
Over Time

Objectives: This article tests two theoretical ideas: (1) that social concerns about particular “dangerous classes” of offenders shift over time to influence court sanctioning practices and (2) that, since the 1990s, sex offenders in particular came to be viewed by courts as one such “dangerous class.” Methods: We examine sanctioning trends in Florida and compare punishment of sex offenders in earlier versus later parts of the get-tough era. We then examine whether sentencing is associated with rational criminal justice incentives (e.g., increasing seriousness or rates of sex crimes) or with shifting public concerns (e.g., increasing media attention to sexual violence). Results: Punitiveness increased for all crimes but especially for sex crimes. Punitiveness appears not to be driven by increasing seriousness or rates of crime, but does appear to be partially driven by increasing national media attention to sexual violence. Conclusions: The findings support arguments that sex offenders were subjected to a uniquely punitive turn in sanctioning and that courts are sensitive to shifting public concerns. The results advance theoretical arguments developed by Gottschalk and earlier work that suggests that the persistence of get-tough era sentencing practices may be driven in part through focal attention to select types of offenders.

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