The Role of the Victim and Victim Advocate in Managing Sex Offenders
A Training Curriculum

During the course of the last few hours, we have spent time talking about the merits and benefits of a victim–centered approach to sex offender management, what we know about sexual assault and the impact that it can have on victims, the various kinds of sexual assault advocates operating in our communities, and the services and support they can offer victims.

All of this has been preparation for what we will spend some time discussing now: how we can enhance victim involvement in sex offender management and how the services and the information victim advocates can provide can contribute to the more effective management of sex offenders. In this next session, we will look at some specific ways that sexual assault and other victim advocates can assist us in our work, with everything from day–to–day management issues to policy development, professional training, and community education. We will talk about what victims need when they become involved in supervision, and about the most effective ways to interview victims.

Learning Objectives
(5 minutes)

At the conclusion of this section, participants will be able to:

• Identify specific strategies for involving victim advocates and victims in sex offender management;
• Understand the needs and concerns of victims that probation and parole staff should take into account when developing strategies for victim involvement or when contacting or interviewing victims;
• Identify the information needed by the interviewer and the victims during the pre–sentence investigation; and
• Identify the information that should be provided to the victim at the pre–release phase.

Working With Victim Advocates to Enhance Victim Involvement
(15 minutes)

We’ve talked about victim advocates, the importance of involving them in your victim-centered approach to managing sex offenders, and the various contributions that different types of victim advocates can make to our work and to victims in our communities. By now we’ve established that involving victim advocates increases our ability to effectively manage sex offenders. Advocates have legitimacy with sexual assault victims in ways that many of us do not, as we are often identified with the system that is associated with the offender. Advocates have different insights and knowledge as a result of their training and experience, and in many cases they will have already established trust with the victim. When we implement a victim-centered approach, it is in our best interest to enlist the advice and support of the system–based and/or community–based advocates that serve our communities.

There are many different ways that advocates can be involved in the community supervision of sex offenders. It might be helpful to consider victim advocate involvement at two different levels: day–to–day case management and policy levels. You and/or your agency may decide to involve advocates on one or the other, or both levels.

What Advocates Can Do With and For You

With their specialized knowledge and training, and their credibility with victims, victim advocates are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of implementation strategies. Some of these activities will be conducted best by community-based advocates, whose position may allow them to work with non-reporting victims, secondary victims and with victims whose cases are no longer in a particular part of the system. Other activities are more typically within the purview of system-based advocates who have direct access to system personnel and information. It is important to meet with the various advocates in your community to determine how the above occurs.

Victim advocates often maintain frequent and direct contact with victims of sexual assault. This makes them well positioned to assist with the daily activities of sex offender management. When discussing possible opportunities for collaboration with advocates, keep in mind that advocates can help to do the following:

In the Area of Day–to–Day Offender Management

• Identify victims’ most important needs and concerns;
• Explain community supervision and treatment programs to victims, and discuss the ways they are designed to hold offenders accountable, protect past victims, and prevent future victimization;
• Work with supervision officers and treatment providers to determine whether and how to offer assistance to any new victims if offenders disclose crimes with new victims during supervision or treatment;
• Address victimization issues of family and friends of offenders. This assistance can be instrumental in halting intergenerational violence and other dysfunctional behavior;
• Provide support and information to victims, work to ensure that victims’ wishes are heard, and act as a liaison for victims with criminal justice system professionals and other victim service providers. For example, advocates can work with victim–witness specialists to assist victims in developing victim impact statements for pre–sentence investigation reports and in obtaining state victim compensation;
• Make sure that victims are informed of changes in offenders’ status in the criminal justice system, especially release from custody, and conditions of supervision;
• Communicate with criminal justice system agencies, treatment providers, and other stakeholders (e.g., those conducting physiological tests, schools, social services, and employers) on behalf of victims;
• Facilitate victim input regarding supervision and treatment plans (e.g., assisting them in sharing concerns with supervision officers and making recommendations about probation conditions, victim empathy education, and restitution);
• Help to identify when routine offender re–assessment might be called for and help to identify appropriate changes to case management plans;
• Accompany supervision officers on field visits to offer an additional and unique victim-centered perspective on the risk issues associated with the particular offender, the impact of the offender’s actions on his family and acquaintances, and other observations that can provide insight into offender behavior, as well as provide support to family and other primary and secondary victims;
• Discuss with the case management team how specific interventions that are utilized or proposed serve the best interest of the victim and the community as well as the offender (recognizing that what is in the best interest of victims and the community is also in the best interests of offenders);
• Help treatment professionals to provide victim empathy programs;
• Participate in case review meetings and share information (with victims’ consent) to promote informed case decisions that promote victim protection;
• Assist victims in intra-familial sexual abuse cases in family reunification and, if reunification is to occur, monitor the process to ensure safety;
• Explain victims’ core rights to them (see Section 3 of this curriculum for more information about core victims’ rights), and provide them with options and opportunities to exercise these rights in accordance with law;
• Provide victims with guidelines about their right to submit a victim impact statement (VIS)—orally or in writing—to the court and/or paroling authority that provides them with the opportunity to discuss the physical, emotional, financial and spiritual impact of crime on them and their families; and provide assistance, if needed, in completing the VIS;
• Provide victims with information about their right to seek restitution and other financial/legal obligations, such as child support; and help then document their financial losses for the purposes of restitution; and
• Talk to victims about any concerns they may have relevant to their personal safety and security, and advocate for their protection through: seeking orders of protection, ensuring that sex offender management team members are aware of any safety concerns or relevant threats, and helping the victim to develop a comprehensive safety plan.

In the Area of Policy Development

In order to facilitate effective and consistent management of sex offenders, jurisdictions need both jurisdiction–wide and agency–specific policies. Victim advocates are well positioned by virtue of their work with victims, and with the criminal justice system on behalf of victims, to contribute to these policy development efforts. Advocates and other victim service providers can collaborate with supervision agencies, sex offender treatment providers, and others to:

• Help review the existing policies and practices of the sex offender management system, and assist in exploring and implementing strategies that improve systemic responses to victims;
• Help develop a Victim Advisory Council for the team, including victims/survivors and advocates, that can help develop policies, victim support programs, and victim awareness programming for sex offenders;
• Offer a victim perspective on proposed policy additions or revisions to ensure that changes do not compromise the safety and interests of victims;
• Promote legislation that protects victims and communities and holds offenders more accountable (e.g., when necessary, advocate for changes in state registry and notification laws);
• Help craft policies that broaden coordination among agencies and the continuum of streamlined, coordinated services related to sexual assault; and
• Facilitate involvement of victims and advocates in reentry policy and planning councils to ensure that the voices of victims are heard.

Likewise, advocates can build collaborative relationships and ensure continuity between the work of their agencies and the criminal justice system by involving practitioners from the sex offender management field in assisting in the development of policies and practices related to victim services.

In the Area of Professional Training, Community Education, Information–Sharing, and Networking

Sexual assault victim advocates have received specialized training in the area of sexual assault and are often eager to help share this training and information with others in the community. Many victim advocates and service providers consider community and system education to be a central part of their mission. Victim advocates, along with other victim service providers, can:

• Provide training and information about the nature and prevalence of sexual assault, and the range of resources and cross–training available to respond to victims of sexual assault;
• Enhance the ability of supervision agencies and treatment providers to create effective victim–centered policies and identify victim concerns or potential problems in individual cases;
• Participate in community notification efforts; and
• Provide important input into the support or opposition of legislation related to sexual assault.

It’s important to remember in our training and educational efforts that information sharing is most effective when it works and flows both ways 1) advocates and other victim service providers need a clear picture of how the criminal justice system handles convicted sex offenders in order to help identify areas where victims of these offenders and the public could benefit from their assistance, and 2) while criminal justice professionals need a clear picture of the impact of sexual assault on victims and victims’ families and how that may affect the ability of victims to participate in the criminal justice process, the safety concerns that arise from managing a sex offender in the same community as the victim, and the variety of resources available (or not) to victims to address these needs.

Lessons from Around the Country¹

A few jurisdictions (for example, New Haven, Connecticut) utilize a full–time victim advocate as part of a team that manages sex offenders in their community. Those of you interested in this approach can get a copy of the “Case Studies on CSOM’s National Resource Sites, 2^nd Edition, Revised” publication from the Center for Sex Offender Management.¹ Other jurisdictions around the country have created similar positions or found other ways to draw upon the skills and experience of the victim advocacy community in their jurisdiction. In the example from Connecticut, advocates are supervised by and remain employees of the state community–based advocacy programs, grant funded by community corrections. There are a couple of particular benefits to this approach: A community–based advocate can respond to victims’ needs without being limited to the goals of the justice system. Also, as the advocate in the Intensive Sex Offender Supervision Unit of New Haven, Connecticut, indicates, victims respond better to her once they know that she does not work specifically for the justice system and that her parent organization’s goals are supporting victims in recovery and preventing future victimization.

This is just one example of how other jurisdictions have successfully collaborated with victim advocates to improve services to victims and to more effectively supervise sex offenders in the community. In reaching out to victim advocates in your community, you will want to explore with them all of the options available for successful collaboration as dictated by your local policies, resources, and needs. However you choose to collaborate with victim advocates, you will find your ability to effectively supervise sex offenders enhanced by that collaboration.