NCJ Number
189638
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Volume: 29 Issue: 2 Dated: 2001 Pages: 232-237
Date Published
2001
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This article reviews parts of the Criminal Code of Canada that pertain to detention and long-term monitoring of convicted sexual offenders and to providing a preventive peace bond.
Abstract
The article contains a history of dangerous offender legislation in Canada and a review of requirements and implications of recent legislation. Canada now has four types of legislation pertaining to the situation in which a sex offender is about to be released into the community. First is psychiatric gating, an informal mechanism whereby offenders are certified by a physician under the Mental Health Act as requiring detention in a psychiatric facility on the grounds that they present a danger to themselves or others. Second, police may obtain a preventative peace bond with the consent of the attorney general. The bond may be applied at the end of an offender's prison term or parole and can set certain conditions for behavior. The final two measures use dangerous offenders or long-term offender legislation. There is increasing use of dangerous offender legislation. The long-term offender designation and preventative peace bonds are new and have to date been used infrequently. The article suggests that use of all the mechanisms will increase as the system becomes more familiar with them. Tables, references