Hello, My name is Amy and I am a student at Sac State. I am planning on graduating this December with a degree in Criminal justice. I enjoy being outdoors and love boating, camping, hiking and swimming. Some of my hobbies include showing dogs, wakeboarding and snowboarding. Once I graduate from Sac State I plan on attending Graduate school or Law School. I have not decided yet which career path I will follow.
GAted Communities: an alternative remedy for housing sex offenders
Sex offenders are in a constant battle about where they can and cannot live.Currently 27 states have laws and restrictions on where a convicted sex offender can live. These restrictions typically prohibit sex offenders from living, and sometimes working or loitering, within a specified distance of designated places where children congregate.States began trying to keep track of sex offenders over 50 years ago, when, in 1947, California enactedthe first sex offender registration law. Now all states have sex offender registration laws that help law enforcement agencies keep track of offenders' movements.
Oklahoma state Rep. Lucky Lamons states that these residency laws that prohibit registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or day care center are in some cases making the offenders go underground. He says it forces many offenders to live in rural areas where they are difficult for authorities to monitor. Also, he says, it does not differentiate between real predators and the type of men he recalls arresting for urinating in public, a sex offense in Oklahoma.
Researchers who study sex offenders say that other approaches could be more effective in dealing with released sex offenders than broad residency laws:
• More checks by probation officers — David Finkelhor of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire says the best way to monitor offenders is to require frequent meetings with well-trained officers.
•Mandatory therapy — Kim English of Colorado's Division of Criminal Justice recommends having freed offenders attend therapy in group residential centers.
• Polygraphing — Levenson says lie-detector tests also can be helpful, along with electronic monitoring and required driving logs.
The law is named for seven-year-old Megan Kanka who was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by Jesse Timmendequas, a repeat violent sexual offender. After this happened her parents started the Megan Nicole Kanka foundation- stating “Every parent should have the right to know if a dangerous sexual predator moves into their neighborhood.” Megan’s home state of New Jersey passed Megan’s Law in 1994.
Megan's Law is a name for laws in the United States requiring law enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders. Individual states decide what information will be made available and how it should be disseminated. Commonly included information includes the offender's name, picture, address, incarceration date, and nature of crime. The information is often displayed on free public websites, but can be published in newspapers, distributed in pamphlets, or through various other means.
This blog post will be about sexual offenders in prison.Sexual crimes impact the victim, families, and the community in a psychological manner that other crimes or mental disorders do not.Incarceration alone has not alleviated the problem, and other methods to prevent offenses or recidivism appear to be merited. (Flora, 2001).The monetary cost for the life sentencing of a sex offender is very high.A sex offender who is given a life sentence at age thirty and dies at age seventy would cost the state about $ 1,000,000, over the course of his lifetime (Flora, 2001).This is very expensive and generally is not doing anything to rehabilitate or change the offenders.
Sex offenders in prison need programs to help them rehabilitate and get better before they are released into the community.Various treatment programs are offered for sex offenders in the correctional facilities across the country.The Vermont Treatment Program for Sexual Aggressors utilizes relapse prevention and group and individual therapy.This aids the sex offenders in therapy that is much needed and in a group setting.The most effective treatment programs combine behavioral cognitive approaches with aversion conditioning, skills training, cognitive restructuring, and relapse prevention. These therapies are often supplemented with family therapy, drug or alcohol treatment, marital therapy, and individual crisis intervention (Special Needs Offender Bulletin).
The emphasis of this blog will be on Sex offenders and reentry into the community.The department of Corrections believes that sex offender treatment is a key component of its Re-entry Initiative, which is designed to help offenders begin to receive the treatments, education and job training they need in prison so that they return to society making choices that will keep them out of prison.Sex offenders need to learn self control, and through these treatment programs that is possible.
One of the best studies about sexual offenders and reentry is by Mary Ann Farkas and Grace Miller, called Reentry and Reintegration: Challenges faced by the families of convicted sex offenders.This article presents the results of a study about how sex offender’s families are impacted by the release of the offender.The article begins with stating that releasing sex offenders back into society raises questions about public safety, especially when it concerns sex offenders.Because of this, many laws have been passed including the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Violent Offender Registration Act passed in 1994, this legislation requires states to establish sex offender registries or risk losing ten percent of their federal funding for law enforcement (Farkas; Miller, 2007).Many places, including California require sex offenders to register online and they have living and working restrictions.These include not allowing convicted sex offenders to live or work within 2,000 feet of a school, park, day care center or bus stops.
Very few programs have included families into the reentry program for sex offenders, although the family often takes the brunt of the social and economic hardship.Many studies have found that there is a strong correlation between the maintenance of family ties and a lower recidivism rate.The article focuses on the adult family members of convicted sex offenders and the many challenges they face in reuniting with there loved ones post-incarceration (Farkas; Miller, 2007).The article examines the hardships and challenges facing the family of a sex offender, including emotional/psychological issues, housing, employment, economic hardship, invasion of privacy, social stigma and isolation (Farkas; Miller, 2007).
The article notes that family members often suffer from emotional trauma from the incarceration of a loved one and sometimes they are directly involved in the sexual offense, such as incest; sometimes they have to go through the stress of having a loved one incarcerated.When they are released, the loved ones often fear that they may commit the crime again.Research confirms that these fears are well founded, because many released offenders have great difficulty coping with the everyday problems of reentry and end up re-offending (Farkas; Miller, 2007).Released sex offenders and their families often have a hard time finding places to live, due to the many restrictive laws passed for sex offenders and they have a hard time getting a job as a convicted sex offender.This creates a problem for family members and the community where the sex offender lives.The social stigma of being a sex offender also relates to the family of the offender, “many family members reported feeling as if they were convicted of sex offenses themselves” (Farkas; Miller, 2007 pg 89).The sex offender and the family have many obstacles to overcome and having no useful tools to achieve this is very discouraging.The Second Chance Act of 2007 was designed to create a reentry program designed to prepare prisoners for successful community reentry.It addresses issues such as employment, dealing with money management, identifying community resources, housing availability, social skills, and relapse prevention.For both the family and the offender, these services can be very valuable in making the reentry process successful.The article concludes by saying that families can be a valuable resource in assisting offenders in their transition from prison into the community and everyday life.
Sources: Farkas, Mary Ann and Grace Miller. ( 2007).Reentry and Reintegration: Challenges Faced by the Families of Convicted Sex Offenders, Federal Sentencing Reporter, Vol 20, No. 2, pp 88-92.
Flora, Rudy, ( 2001). How to Work with Sex Offenders.New York, Haworth Press.
Sex offenders in the community where we live is something that affects a lot of people and can have a huge cost to society and families alike.Many people do not address this issue and that is something that hopefully this blog will help educate people about and hopefully help them avoid any tragedies.
The release of any offender back into the community warrants public response in regards to public safety, supervision of the offender, and whether they can reintegrate back into the community smoothly.This public response is especially strong when the offender being released is a convicted sex offender.The public’s response to the release of a sex offender is often a flurry of social control and legislative mechanisms.These include laws that restrict where sex offenders can live and work and that they must register online and notify the community when they are released from prison.All of these obstacles are what the convicted sex offender faces when he/she is released from prison.
First of all, lets define what a sex offender actually is.A sex offender is defined by a sexual act committed by one person against another, either against the will of that person (lack of consent) or when such consent cannot validly be given (Spencer, 1999).Sexual offending can be committed by both male and female offenders, although the majority of offenders are male and their victims are adult females or young children.
Many theories have been examined as to why sex offenders commit these crimes.Some include displays of anger, control, domination, hostility, and power upon another person.Recently a shift in emphasis in how we might view sexual offending has occurred.A number of feminist scholars have linked sexual aggression and predisposing factors.Their argument is that although sexual drive is important, the patriarchal nature of our society is what causes them to offend.Thus, sexual offending can be used by men to fulfill non-sexual needs such as the expression of power, anger, and the need to control, dominate and, through that, humiliate women.The fact that women and men are raised differently and given different values, with the link to childhood abuse and or neglect, lead to sexual aggression in these men.
Data at a Glance:
¨One of six U.S. women and one of thirty-three U.S. men have been
victims of a completed or attempted sexual assault.
¨Nine out of ten sexual assault victimizations involved a single offender
with whom the victim had a prior relationship as a family member,
intimate, or acquaintance
¨67% of reported crimes to law enforcement were related to assaults
against juveniles
PC290
¨67,710 registered sex offenders living in California communities
¨In 2006, approximately 2000 sex offenders registered as transient. In
January, 2008 here are 2,879 sex offenders registered as transient.
In Custody (Criminal)
¨There are currently 22,474 sex offenders currently in custody (in state
prison).
¨The number of registered sex offenders in California’s 145 jails fluctuates
from day to day and is unknown at this time.
Civil Commitment
¨Coalinga State Hospital currently has 655 men under commitment or precommitment as a Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) (including WIC 6604s and WIC 6602s).!
¨Atascadero State Hospital has a total of 63 men committed as Sexually
Violent Predators.!
Supervision
¨There are 10,425 registered sex offenders on state parole with the Division of Adult Parole Operation.
¨Approximately 70 - 80% of all sex offenders are living in the community
under no formal supervision.
¨There are approximately 3,011 designated as High Risk Sex Offenders
currently on parole.
¨There are approximately 2,337 High Risk Sex Offenders (HRSOs) on
active GPS monitoring.
¨1002 non-HRSO PC 290 registrant sex offender parolees on passive GPS
monitoring as of January 21, 2008.
¨With 50 of 58 counties reporting numbers of sex offenders, there are 6,738 sex offenders under county probation.
¨There are 243 registered sex offenders on U.S. Federal Probation.
Proposition 83
¨Of registered sex offenders in the community on parole, CDCR has
determined 2,393 were not subject to the provisions of Jessica’s Law, and
4,345 are subject to the provisions of Jessica’s Law.
¨4,332 are compliant with Jessica’s Law requirements, and 13 are noncompliant with Jessica’s Law requirements (due to extenuating
circumstances of a medical or psychiatric nature).
