Unprincipled Sentencing?: The Policy Approach to Dangerous Sex Offenders (From Confronting Crime: Crime Control Policy Under New Labour, P 51-79, 2003, Michael Tonry, ed. -- See NCJ-204841)

• NCJ Number: 204844
• Author(s): Amanda Matravers; Gareth V. Hughes
• Date Published: 2003
• Length: 29 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This chapter examines the effectiveness of current British legislation in providing the public protection that is the focus of contemporary penal policy in general and sex-offender statutes in particular.

Abstract

The first section of the chapter describes recent policy proposals and their emergence in the contexts of heightened public and media concern about sex offenders and a decade of legislative changes and evolving practices. The second section of the chapter reviews recent trends in the dispositions of sex offenders as well as research on their recidivism, followed by an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the risk-assessment process. The third section of the chapter draws on the work of sociologist David Garland in discussing some of the cultural influences on current concerns about sex offenders. The chapter concludes with the presentation of an agenda for the development of a comprehensive and principled approach in managing sex offenders. Under this agenda, the public should first be accurately informed that sex crimes are not increasing and that less punitive and repressive measures have been effective in reducing sex-offender recidivism. Second, a policy that focuses on the incapacitation of a small number of "dangerous" sex offenders should be replaced by a strategy that focuses on the various kinds of risks posed by different kinds of offenders to various types of victims. Third, less emphasis should be placed on unreliable risk-prediction instruments and more emphasis on the ongoing, multiagency management of identified offenders by a range of experienced professionals. Fourth, in addition to strategies that isolate sex offenders from society, there should be efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate them into society. Fifth, although the government is correct in resisting calls for widespread community notification about sex offenders residing in the community, the public should be involved in the development of policies regarding the management of sex offenders in the community. Finally, public policy should be based on rational empirically based findings regarding best practice. If this does not reflect popular public opinion, then public officials and policymakers must mount a public education campaign in support of rational policies, rather than let public opinion determine policy. 42 references