In the era of #MeToo and mass incarceration, The Feminist and the Sex Offender makes a powerful feminist case for accountability without punishment and sexual safety and pleasure without injustice. With analytical clarity and narrative force, The Feminist and the Sex Offender contends with two problems that are typically siloed in the era of #MeToo and mass incarceration: sexual and gender violence, on the one hand, and the state’s unjust, ineffective, and soul-destroying response to it on the other. Is it possible to confront the culture of abuse? Is it possible to hold harm-doers accountable without recourse to a criminal justice system that redoubles injuries, fails survivors, and retrenches the conditions that made such abuse possible? Drawing on interviews, extensive research, reportage, and history, The Feminist and the Sex Offender develops an intersectional feminist approach to ending sexual violence. It maps with considerable detail the unjust sex offender regime while highlighting the alternatives we urgently need.
This structured yet flexible manual presents an innovative group treatment approach that targets deficits in self-regulation—a central problem for sex offenders. Safe Offender Strategies (SOS) comprises 10 evidence-based modules that teach participants the skills to desist from problem behaviors, manage their emotions and impulses, and break unhealthy relationship patterns. Motivational enhancement and validation techniques are woven throughout this collaborative treatment. SOS can be used with a range of clients—including high-risk offenders and those with mental illness or intellectual disabilities—in institutional or outpatient settings. Fifteen reproducible forms and worksheets can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.
"This volume of readings provides an excellent source of information about sex offender laws and policies."--International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology "Sex Offender Laws...is a good source for balanced, objective, and thorough critique of our current sex offender policies as well as a source for accurate information about a very heterogeneous population...The message that sexual abuse is often a multifaceted and complex issue and that policy based on quick fixes or knee jerk reactions do not often work will be informative and enlightening to many readers." --Sex Roles "[T]his fine book by Richard Wright and his distinguished collaborators provides the evidence that wise policy-makers would want to consider. It covers every major field of research concerning sex offenders and sexual offenses and provides evidence of bad practices and policiesÖ.Intellectually honest politicians should read this book." --Michael Tonry, LL.B, Professor of Law and Public Policy University of Minnesota Law School (From the Foreword) In response to many high-profile cases of sexual assault, federal and state governments have placed a number of unique criminal sanctions on sex offenders. These include residency restrictions, exclusionary zones, electronic monitoring, and chemical castration. However, the majority of sex offender policies are not based on empirical evidence, nor have they demonstrated any significant reductions in offender recidivism. In fact, some of these policies have unintended consequences, which actually increase the likelihood of sexual offenses. In this book, Wright critically analyzes existing policies, and assesses the most effective approaches in preventing sex offender recidivism. This provocative and timely book draws from the fields of criminal justice, law, forensic psychology, and social work to examine how current laws and policies are enacted and what to-date is known about their efficacy. The team of expert contributors includes Karen Terry, author of Sexual Offenses and Offenders, and others who bring a wealth of insight to the field of sex offense. In response to the failed policies of sex offender laws, this book presents alternative models and approaches to sex offense laws and policies. Wright also explores critical, cutting-edge topics, such as internet sexual solicitation, the death penalty, and community responses to sex offense. Key Features: An introduction and overview of the history of sex offender laws Analyzes the role of the media in sex offense and sex offender policies Examines the political "untouchability" of sex offender laws and their adverse effects Features interviews with victims of sexual assault, investigating their points of views on what kinds of reforms need to be made to sex offender laws Thought-provoking and insightful, Sex Offender Laws serves as a vital resource for policy makers, researchers, and students of criminal justice, law, and social work.
This edition provides best-practice advice and strategies on critical issues facing anyone responsible for supervising sex offenders in the community. It includes : New developments in relapse prevention supervision strategies; Current risk assessment instruments and approaches; Guidelines for assessing family reunification readiness; Criteria for choosing effective treatment programs; Recent community notification laws and strategies; New research on why individuals commit sex offenses; New sex offender typologies; Sex offender behavior across the life span; Uses of plethysmography, viewing time measures, and polygraphy.
"When a South Carolina couple killed a registered sex offender and his wife after they moved into their neighborhood in 2013, the story exposed an extreme and relatively rare instance of violence against sex offenders. While media accounts would have us believe that vigilantes across the country lie in wait for predators who move into their neighborhoods, responses to sex offenders more often involve collective campaigns that direct outrage toward political and criminal justice systems. No community wants a sex offender in its midst, but instead of vigilantism, [the author] argues, citizens often leverage moral, political, and/or legal authority to keep these offenders out of local neighborhoods. Her book, the culmination of four years of research, 70 in-depth interviews, participant observations, and studies of numerous media sources, reveals the origins and characteristics of community responses to sexually violent predators (SVP) in the U.S. Specifically, [this book] examines the placement process for released SVPs in California and the communities’ responses to those placements. Taking the reader into the center of these related issues, [the author] provokes debate on the role of communities in the execution of criminal justice policies, while also addressing the responsibility of government institutions to both groups of citizens."--
This thought-provoking work raises important questions about sex offender laws, drawing from personal stories, research, and data to prove the policies promote fear, destroy lives, and fail to protect children. Do sex offender laws protect children, or are they inherently unfair practices that, at their worst, promote vigilante justice? The latter, this book argues. By analyzing the social, political, historical, and cultural context surrounding the emergence of current sex offender policies and laws, the work shows how sex offenders have come to loom as greater-than-life monsters when, in many cases, that is not true at all. Looking at its subject from a fresh viewpoint, the book shares research and new analyses of data and qualitative evidence to show how sex-offender laws are not only ineffective, but engender destructive fear and anxiety. To help readers understand the impact of these laws, the author presents interviews with sex offenders and their families as they describe the day-to-day reality of living on the sex offender registry. Citing research and statistics, the book challenges the idea that sex offenders must be continually monitored and publicly identified because they are incurably predatory. Most important, the study shows that undue sex offender panic is preventing policymakers from addressing the true threats to children—poverty and growing inequality.
Evaluating Sex Offenders is the first and only "how to" book describing the complete sex offender civil commitment evaluation. Aimed at helping practitioners, clinicians, counselors, and parole officers assess risk and evaluate offenders who have been convicted of a sex crime, the text offers readers a step-by-step description of what examiners need to know, including information gathering, interviewing offenders, and writing reports. Chapter topics include: defining risk; data gathering; diagnostic issues; recidivism base rates; risk factor lists; actuarial scales; instrumentation (violent and sexual); the evaluation report; presenting in court; ethical issues.
A comprehensive resource for practitioners working with sexual offenders. Discusses assessments and interventions, as well as providing a comprehensive literature review There are around 10,000 convictions or cautions for sexual offences in the UK each year; early evidence suggests that treatment programmes can halve re-conviction rates Edited by a University of Birmingham team who are world leaders in researching this area; the subject is of interest worldwide, with strong markets in Canada and New Zealand Includes material on managing offenders with developmental disabilities and those with Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder
The Sex Offender Register examines the origins, history, structure and legalities of the UK sex offender register, and explores how political and public opinion has influenced the direction the policy of registration has taken. Delving into the origins of the UK sex offender register and how the registration policy has evolved, this book provides an understanding of the register and its contribution to public protection while attempting to see the register as a policy that has grown and developed and as having an organic life of its own. The sex offender register is designed as a form of public protection rather than a punishment, requiring offenders to notify the police of their circumstances and to accept a degree of offender management from the police. The book: • puts the development of the register in its political, social and ethical context • considers the position of children and young people as offenders • outlines the movement of registered offenders across international borders • analyses how offenders can be removed from the register • explores how other countries in the UK manage sex offenders through registers • asks questions about the efficacy of the register and what contribution it makes to public protection • looks at specific aspects of registration including the management of information • delves into the experience of life on the register • examines the influence of public opinion • discusses the role of the police as custodians of the register and as offender managers. Exploring the different pressures brought to bear on the register, this book provides an authoritative starting point for police officers, social workers, probation officers, magistrates, students of Criminology, Criminal Justice and Policing, and the general reader wanting to understand where the UK sex offender register originated from and how it operates today.
Praise for the First Edition: "Sex Offender Laws . . . is a good source for [a] balanced, objective, and thorough critique of our current sex offender policies as well as a source for accurate information about a very heterogeneous population. . . . The message that sexual abuse is often a multifaceted and complex issue and that policy based on quick fixes or knee jerk reactions does not often work will be informative and enlightening to many readers." óSex Roles "[T]his fine book by Richard Wright and his distinguished collaborators provides the evidence that wise policy makers would want to consider. It covers every major field of research concerning sex offenders and sexual offenses and provides evidence of bad practices and policies. Intellectually honest politicians should read this book." óMichael Tonry, LLB, Professor of Law and Public Policy, University of Minnesota Law School (from the Foreword) The most comprehensive book available about sex offender policies and their efficacy, Sex Offender Laws has been widely embraced as a text for courses in criminal justice, social work, and psychology. Now updated to keep pace with rapidly changing laws and policies, this second edition features an increased emphasis on policy and program alternatives. It incorporates new content on high-profile issues affecting adolescent sex offenders, critical analyses of the results of recent studies on sex offender policies, effective approaches in preventing recidivism, and cutting-edge research in the fields of criminal justice, law, forensic psychology, and social work. The second edition continues to document and assess the full gamut of laws designed to respond to and prevent sexual violence. The majority of sex offender policiesóoften developed as "quick fixes" in response to high-profile casesóare not based on empirical evidence, nor have they demonstrated any significant reduction in offender recidivism. This new edition showcases alternative models that offer innovative and victim-centered approaches to combating sexual violence. Expert authors explore critical, controversial topics such as sexting, Internet sexual solicitation, the death penalty, mandatory sentencing, statutory rape, age of consent laws, and community responses. The book examines the political "untouchability" of sex offender laws and their adverse effects; despite their popularity, sex offender laws have largely failed to keep people safe and actually promote an inaccurate sense of vulnerability. The text also analyzes the role of the media and presents a new chapter on Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner programs. Expert contributors include Karen Terry, author of Sexual Offenses and Offenders, and others who bring a wealth of insight to the field of sex offense. New to the Second Edition: Emphasizes policy and program alternatives to currently ineffective policies Provides new content on the criminalization of adolescent sexuality Analyzes the role of the media in sex offense and sex offense policies Critically discusses state implementation of the 2006 Adam Walsh Act Introduces new policy alternatives including environmental criminology and its use toward sexual violence prevention and the increasing use of civil litigation in sexual assault cases Examines the political "untouchability" of sex offender laws and their adverse affects and unintended consequences
