This paper considers what legal and practice arrangements exist in England and Wales to monitor sex offenders following release from prison and comments on the limitations and implications of such ‘tracking’ in the community. Recent developments in the USA are also reviewed. The authors argue that ‘tracking’ should be seen in the wider context of the political economy of risk, which emphasises both the proactive ‘management’ of knowledge about offenders and the production of compensatory measures.

‘Tracking’ Sex Offenders

International research has suggested that rapist criminal histories can be predicted from certain offence behaviours. Ninety-six solved stranger rape cases were examined to determine if there was consistency in a New Zealand sample. Rapist behaviours during the offence were compared with criminal convictions prior to the rape. The primary statistical technique used was likelihood ratio stepwise binary logistic regression. Predictive utility of the results was limited, due to significant correlation coefficients between the criminal history variables. Nevertheless, the current study reflected the general findings of similar descriptive international research. These outcomes were: the majority of stranger rapists had prior criminal convictions, and the majority of those convictions were for property offences not sexual offending. Furthermore, ethnic minorities were over-represented among the offenders, and the majority of stranger rapists started committing their first known rapes in their mid- to ...

Profiling stranger rapists: Linking offence behaviour to previous criminal histories using a regression model

Only a very small percentage of papers on homicide deal with multiple killers in spite of their intrinsic and theoretical interest for forensic clinicians. It is argued that prediction of future violent behaviour is one of the most important aspects of forensic psychiatry and psychology, particularly for mental health review tribunals (MHRTs) and for administrative officials. This article presents an analysis of interpersonal violence in terms of three broad interrelated concepts: ‘internal’ motivation, self-control and environment. Factors which predispose individuals to interact violently with their environment raise the probability of the occurrence of a particular piece of behaviour so that a range of precipitating factors will produce the behaviour. In other contrasting instances the precipitating or ‘trigger’ factors are pre-eminent in the understanding of the genesis of the behaviour. Attacks are dichotomized as premeditated and unpremeditated, and these two contrasting styles are describe...

Mentally disordered attackers and killers: Towards a taxonomy

From criminal complaint records all incidents of sexual misbehaviour resulting in charges in three North East Scotland courts during 1981 and 1982 were traced. Of the 80 alleged offenders, 75 were followed up for 10 years using current criminal records. Offending behaviour ranged from obscene telephone calls to rape. Half the offenders made no physical contact with their victims. These “hands-off” offenders were compared with “hands-on” offenders and were found to show a higher prevalence of sexual convictions both before the index offence and in the follow-up period. Those offenders who removed their victims clothes or had sexual intercourse with their victims were found to have the lowest prevalence of sexual reoffending. Degree of intrusiveness was inversely related to sexual recidivism in this sample and there was no evidence of progression over time to more intrusive offending.

Offending histories and offending behaviour: A Ten year follow-up of sex offenders tried by Sheriff and District Courts in Grampian, Scotland

Sexual abuse and sexual violence perpetrated against women and children in the United States are social problems that need to be addressed. The United States is one of the most sexually violent societies in the world, having one of the highest rates of any industrialized country of rape and sexual violence (Stewart, 2002). Although any type of sexual victimization is problematic, sexual violence in particular can have particularly devastating effects for the victim. We urgently need to know why some adults sexually abuse and assault (Cannon, 2001). Examination of the psychosocial antecedents of sex offender criminality and violence will add to the research literature that has explored the predictors of criminality and violence in sex offenders. These results will be useful in developing assessment instruments and treatment programs for sex offenders and developing preventive interventions for individuals who are at risk to commit criminal, violent and sexual offenses. The major predictors of sexual offense recidivism have been found to be factors related to previous specific sex crimes and to a lesser extent previous crimes in general (Hanson, 2000). Criminal and sexual offense history along with other static predictors of recidivism among sex offenders have been used by clinicians and researchers to predict a likelihood that a sexual offender will reoffend and if they will reoffend violently. The literature also suggests that exposure to violence and sexual maltreatment in childhood is a major predictor of sexual offending in that it encourages the continuation of abuse to the victims' own children and general members of the public in the form of criminal behavior (Falshaw, Brown & Hollin, 1996). There is constant pressure from the legal system for psychologists to make predictions concerning the likelihood for an individual sex offender to reoffend. Legal and ethical considerations mandate that the psychologists' opinions are guided by empirical evidence (Campbell, 2000). In this study, psychosocial antecedents of sex offender criminality and violence will be examined.

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Psychosocial antecedents of sex offender criminality and violence.

The common subdivision of sex offenders into rapists' and child molesters ignores the nature of the sexual act involved, classifying solely by age of victim. Using a sample of 100 convicted and imprisoned sex offenders, comparisons were made between those who had imposed sexual intercourse on their victims and those found guilty of other forms of sexual assault. Rapists were found to be younger and to have a less repetitive pattern of offending than those who did not rape their victims, irrespective of whether their victims were adults or children. This suggests that the type of sexual behaviour engaged in might be a useful guide to the understanding and management of sex offenders.

Katharine J. Mair

Papers

The Nature of the Act: A Neglected Dimension in the Classification of Sex Offenders