NCJ Number
188352
Date Published
June 2000
Length
15 pages
Annotation
This summary compares six Illinois Specialized Sex Offender Probation Projects.
Abstract
The six projects were compared in the following elements: program setting, development, and design; program implementation focusing on target population and caseloads; offender, victim, and offense characteristics, supervision, and surveillance; and implementation of sex offender treatment. A common goal of all six programs was to improve the supervision of sex offenders. Each program used grant funds to enable the department to designate probation officers who would supervise only sex offenders. There were major differences in the target populations identified by each program, e.g., felonies only, both felonies and misdemeanors, adults only, adults and juveniles, or juveniles only. The comparison selected some key variables to illustrate offender, victim, and offense characteristics most pertinent to sexual offending: median age of offenders, offender employment status while in the program, and percent of victims age 12 and younger. One element that appeared to be deficient in many programs was the quality and completeness of offender assessments in that actual assessment reports and/or case files did not often contain a full range of offender assessment instruments that current practice suggested were important. However, for the most part, sex offender treatment was well implemented in these programs and the majority of offenders ordered to attend treatment did so. Tables