Section 1: Supervision of Sex Offenders
in The Community:
An Overview of The Training
3 hours, 45 minutes
TOPIC: THE NEED FOR A TRAINING CURRICULUM ON THE MANAGEMENT OF SEX OFFENDERS IN THE COMMUNITY
(10 minutes)
 | THE PRESENCE OF SEX OFFENDERS IN THE COMMUNITY |
Despite legislative changes and sentencing practices that increase the likelihood and length of incarceration for those convicted of sex offenses, many offenders are supervised in the community. A recent U.S. Department of Justice study reports that approximately 265,000 sex offenders are under the care, custody, or control of correctional agencies in the United States. Of those, almost 60 percent were under some form of community supervision.1 In fact, most sex offenders will be released into the community at some point—either directly following sentencing, or after a term of incarceration in jail or prison. These offenders present myriad challenges to probation/parole agencies that are primarily responsible for supervising them on a daily basis.
| CONSEQUENCES OF RE-OFFENSE TO THE VICTIM AND THE COMMUNITY |
Because of the often volatile community response to sex offenses and the irrefutable harm that a re-offense would cause potential victims, the many issues surrounding the community supervision of sex offenders and how best to ensure public safety are of critical importance to both criminal justice agencies and the public.
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GOALS OF THIS CURRICULUM |
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Note: Trainers may want to take this opportunity to quickly walk through the participant materials with the audience.
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Responding to its legislative mandate and the request of numerous agencies in the field, the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice sponsored CSOM's development of this curriculum. The curriculum has been developed to achieve several goals:
- It articulates the variety of challenges involved in supervising sex offenders in the community, particularly the ways in which they differ from other populations under supervision.
- It synthesizes the experiences of and lessons learned by many agencies that have developed innovative approaches to sex offender supervision.
- It provides guidance for probation/parole officers, supervisors and policy makers, treatment providers, polygraph examiners, and others who work with supervision agencies to ensure the safe and effective supervision of sex offenders in the community.
There is little empirical evidence to establish the efficacy of the emerging set of supervision practices explained and described herein. However, the experiences of numerous agencies and the practical lessons emerging lend credence to such approaches. Significant evaluation research is currently underway to document more thoroughly the implementation and impact of the supervision practices that we will be covering.2
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Refer to handout: Cite or draw participants'
attention to NIJ Research in Brief, 
