NCJ Number
196338
Journal
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 46 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2002 Pages: 483-511
Date Published
August 2002
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This article assesses the community protection-risk management model for controlling sex offenders in the United States and Canada.
Abstract
Through a comparison of community protection-risk management, clinical, and justice models, this article discusses various ways to control sex offenders within the United States and Canada. After discussing trends in comprehensive special controls for sex offenders, this article describes the clinical approach to sex offenders which argues that the risk posed by offenders is the result of mental or personality disorders that are diagnosable and treatable by mental health experts. The justice approach to social control of sex offenders suggests that sex and violent offenders act rationally and must be tried in courts of law to receive due process and proportionate penalties. Stating that a convergence of these two models, at the state and community levels, has resulted in a community protection-risk management approach, the author describes sex offender registration, notification, surgical and chemical castration, and the sexually violent predator commitment statues that are used to control sex offenders in the United States. According to the author, community protection-risk management practices in Canada have been slower to develop than in the United States. Assessing the costs and consequences of community protection-risk management approaches to sex offenders in both Canada and the United States, this article concludes that this approach can be successful with support from the Community Reintegration Project, otherwise known as circles of support and accountability. References