How should society manage sex offenders who are released from prison? How can sex offenders be detained in a way that prevents re-offending while respecting civil liberties? Is preventive detention a type of double punishment? Do prison-based sex offender treatment programs work? What is the best way to protect the community from sex offending?Professors McSherry and Keyzer focus on three key modern policy responses to such questions, and the cases that propelled their development:Earl Shriner in Washington State, and the United States approach of detaining 'sexually violent predators' in special institutions;Dennis Ferguson in Queensland, and the Australian post-sentence detention and supervision schemes;John Cronin in Scotland, and the Scottish approach of making orders for lifelong restriction at the time of sentence.

In Australia, as in many ...

Most crimes of sexual violence are committed by people known to the victim—acquaintances and family members. Yet politicians and the media overemphasize predatory strangers when legislating against and reporting on sexual violence. In this book, Eric S. Janus goes far beyond sensational headlines to expose the reality of the laws designed to prevent sexual crimes. He shows that "sexual predator" laws, which have intense public and political support, are counterproductive.Janus contends that aggressive measures such as civil commitment and Megan's law, which are designed to restrain sex offenders before they can commit another crime, are bad policy and do little to actually reduce sexual violence. Further, these new laws make use of approaches such as preventive detention and actuarial profiling that violate important principles of liberty.Janus argues that to prevent sexual violence, policymakers must address the deep-seated societal problems that allow it to flourish. In addition to criminal sanctions, he endorses the specific efforts of some advocates, organizations, and social scientists to stop sexual violence by, for example, taking steps to change the attitudes and behaviors of school-age children and adolescents, improving public education, and promoting community treatment and supervision of previous offenders.Janus also warns that the principles underlying the predator laws may be the early harbingers of a "preventive state" in which the government casts wide nets of surveillance and intervenes to curtail liberty before crimes of any type occur. More than a critique of the status quo, this book discusses serious alternatives and how best to overcome the political obstacles to achieving rational policy.

Convicted sex offenders released from custody at the end of their criminal sentences pose a risk for re-offense. In many US states, Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) laws have been enacted that allow for the post-prison preventive detention of high risk sex offenders. SVP laws require the courts to make dispositions that protect the public from harm while at the same time respecting the civil rights of the offender. This book describes these SVP laws, their constitutionality, and aspects of their operation. Courts hear expert risk testimony based heavily on the results of actuarial risk assessment. Problems associated with this testimony include the lack of a theory of recidivism risk, bias due to human decision-making, and the insularity of scholarship and practice along developmental lines. The authors propose changes in legal standards, as well as a unified developmental model that treats sexual violence as an "evolving" condition, with roots traceable to childhood and paths that extend into adolescence and adulthood.

Managing Fear examines the growing use of risk assessment as it relates to preventive detention and supervision schemes for offenders perceived to be at a high risk of re-offending, individuals with severe mental illness, and suspected terrorists. It outlines a number of legislative regimes in common law countries that have broadened ‘civil’ (as opposed to criminal) powers of detention and supervision. Drawing on the disciplines of criminology and social psychology, it explores how and why such schemes reflect a move towards curtailing liberty before harm results rather than after a crime has occurred. Human rights and ethical issues concerning the role of mental health practitioners in assessing risk for the purposes of preventive detention and supervision are explored, and regimes that require evidence from mental health practitioners are compared with those that rely on decision-makers’ notions of ‘reasonable belief’ concerning the risk of harm. Case studies are used to exemplify some of the issues relating to how governments have attempted to manage the fear of future harm. This book aims to educate mental health practitioners in the law relating to preventive detention and supervision schemes and how the legal requirements differ from clinical assessment practices; examine the reasons why there has been a recent renewal of preventive detention and supervision schemes in common law countries; provide a comparative overview of existing preventive detention and supervision schemes; and analyse the human rights implications and the ethics of using forensic risk assessment techniques for preventive detention and supervision schemes.

In an effort to reduce repeat sexual offending, some Australian jurisdictions have introduced legislation providing for the restriction of a sex offender's liberty in anticipation of future predicted crimes. The operation of preventive detention legislation relies centrally upon forensic clinician assessments of risk for future sexual offending. This legislation has raised important research questions related to the validity of the laws' assumptions on sexual recidivism and risk prediction, the characteristics of sex offenders submitted to post-sentence orders, and clinicians' standard of practice of risk assessment in this legal context. This thesis conducted a series of theoretical and empirical investigations linked to these research areas. The first study consisted of a psycho-legal analysis whereby the assumptions underpinning the laws' provisions were evaluated in light of the empirical evidence on risk prediction, sex offender recidivism, and sex offender rehabilitation. Together, the findings revealed that many of the laws' assumptions are invalid; this has implications for the efficacy of the legislation to protect the community from sexual offending. The second study empirically examined the demographic, developmental, clinical, and criminal characteristics of a sample of 50 sex offenders under post-sentence orders in Western Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria. Data was obtained from court-ordered clinical risk assessment reports. The findings described a group of demonstrably dangerous men who exhibited an early onset of sexual offending and complex psychiatric presentations, with a high prevalence of sexual deviance and antisociality. Their developmental histories were characterised by early exposure to multiple vulnerability factors such as abuse, illicit substance use, and social dislocation. Their complex and varied needs require a comprehensive treatment approach. The early onset of their offending suggests that well resourced early intervention services, such as those offered by mental health professionals, can play a critically important role in any effort to alter offending trajectories such as those exhibited in this sample. The third study empirically evaluated the standard of risk assessment practice amongst experts retained in preventive detention proceedings. Eighty-six court-ordered forensic evaluation reports prepared by 23 mental health professionals were obtained and analysed. Overall, the findings were mixed. Positively, valid structured risk assessment tools were commonly utilised. Also, there was good agreement between experts on the final risk assessment outcome, suggesting a consensus in relevant areas relating to risk assessment. However, a number of concerning results were also found (e.g., some evaluators adopted invalid risk assessment methodologies; others incorrectly applied and interpreted otherwise valid risk tools). Taken together, the findings suggest that the standard of practice of risk assessment must be raised. Recommendations for best practice were proposed.

Discusses post-sentence detention and supervision options for high-risk sexual and violent offenders, preventive detention, risk assessment and management.