Individuals who commit sexual offenses

This webinar is the first in a series designed for professionals working to prepare individuals convicted of a sexual offense to return to the community. The webinar presents criminal justice professionals and practitioners with an overview of statistics and understandings about the sex offender population, the barriers and challenges to reentry faced by this population, and a framework for professionals responsible for assisting sex offenders with transitioning back into the community.

The webinars in this series focus on evidence from state-of-the-art research, knowledge gaps, unresolved controversies, and the implications of key research findings for policy and practice. Topics include the incidence and prevalence of sexual offending; the etiology of sexual offending; sex offender typologies; internet offending; risk assessment; recidivism; treatment effectiveness, and sex offender management including registration and notification.

This policy and practice brief synthesizes the research and other professional literature about women and adolescent girls who commit sex offenses.

The present study qualitatively examined female sex offenders’ offense-related experiences and characterized the internal and external factors that contributed to offending.

This study evaluated if there was an association between static risk factors [as delineated by the Static-99 and Rapid Risk Assessment for Sex Offender Recidivism (RRASOR)] and institutional sexual misconduct for incarcerated female sexual offenders.

Improving on these limitations, we use the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to compare male and female sex offenders among all 802,150 incidents of sexual assault reported to police across 37 states between 1991 and 2011.

This article features an examination of virtually every substantiated child sexual abuse case reported to child protective services in the United States for 2010. Findings detail observed differences between male and female offenders on multiple domains and affirm female sexual offenders to be distinctly different from their male counterparts

This research brief summarizes the Federal Research Division’s (FRD) review and assessment of literature on the potential impacts of sex offender registration and notification policies (SORN) on adult and juvenile registered sex offenders (RSOs). We provide a summary of research findings and a critical analysis of methodologies underlying those findings in five main subject areas: SORN effects on RSO employment and finances; RSO perceptions of SORN; SORN effects on RSO emotional and physical well-being; SORN impacts to families of RSOs; and SORN impacts to juvenile RSOs.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) used criminal history data and prisoner records to analyze the post-release offending patterns of former prisoners both within and outside of the state where they were imprisoned. This is BJS’s first recidivism study on sex offenders with a 9-year follow-up period.

This legislative report presents findings from an examination by the Sex Offender Management Board (SOMB) in the state of Colorado of best practices for the treatment and management of adult sex offenders and juveniles who have committed sexual offenses.

This study examined the extent to which sexual offenders present an enduring risk for sexual recidivism over a 20-year follow-up period.

The author looks at recent empirical evidence for clinical adjustments to actuarial-based risk prediction for sexually violent predators (SVPs).

Chapter 4 in Advances in Forensic Human Identification.
This chapter reviews the information currently available for offender demographics, with a view to aiding our ability to identify and manage high-risk offenders.

This report examines sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization using data from 2011. The report describes the overall prevalence of sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence victimization; racial/ethnic variation in prevalence; how types of perpetrators vary by violence type; and the age at which victimization typically begins. For intimate partner violence, the report also examines a range of negative impacts experienced as a result of victimization, including the need for services.

Recognizing the important role scientific evidence plays, the SMART Office developed the Sex Offender Management Assessment and Planning Initiative (SOMAPI), a project designed to assess the state of research and practice in sex offender management.

After a critical hearing in New York, a spotlight is taking shape on the utility of “therapeutic polygraphs,” a treatment the U.S. probation system has used for decades on sex offenders.

The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, set revised standards for states, territories and certain federally recognized tribes to meet as they modify or establish their sex offender registration and notification systems. SORNA differs from prior federal sex offender registration and notification statutes in that it encompasses a more comprehensive group of sex offenders and sex offenses for which registration is required.

Juveniles adjudicated delinquent for a sex offense can result in lifelong consequences, including sex offender registration. Further, there can be repercussions financially, emotionally, and socially for a juvenile and his/her family that extend throughout the individual’s life. Given the potential negative impact of sex offender registration, it is important to understand the implications of the registry within the larger context of youth development and juvenile justice.

This review examined the recent evidence on the effectiveness of treatment for juveniles who commit sexual offenses.

This publication is divided into seven parts: introduction; the Adam Walsh Act'Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA); individual state registration and notification requirements applied to children; comprehensive chart of SORNA applied to children in the states; individual fact sheets on SORNA applied to children; and Directory of State Sex Offender Registration Administrators.

The effectiveness of a global positioning system (GPS) to monitor high-risk sex offenders (HRSOs) released under parole is examined. This document provides other agencies with information that may lead to a similar strategy for monitoring HRSOs. Sections of this report include: background; methodology; results for baseline characteristics, supervision, outcome analysis, and cost analysis; process evaluation'overview, data sources, program fidelity, GPS monitoring, and summary; and discussion'summary, policy implications, limitations, and next steps.

This research brief summarizes the Federal Research Division’s (FRD’s) review and assessment of literature on SORN (sex offender registration and notification policies) and jurisdictionspecific residency restrictions’ purported impacts to offenders’ housing.

This page highlights a 50-state chart which details the registration obligations that sex offender must meet in each state and under federal law.

This report gives an overview of sex offender registration and notification systems have been established within the United States.

The purpose of this e-supplement is to provide information from GAO's Web-based survey of state sex offender registration and notification offices about their efforts to implement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), challenges associated with doing so, and perspectives on the effects of the law in their jurisdictions.

This report addresses: (1) To what extent has the SMART Office determined that jurisdictions have substantially implemented SORNA, and what challenges, if any, have jurisdictions faced? (2) For jurisdictions that have substantially implemented SORNA, what are the reported effects that the act has had on public safety, criminal justice stakeholders, and registered sex offenders?

This article explores the effects of different levels of treatment intensity on 238 sexual offenders who are on parole.

The University of Cincinnati (UCCI) Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Sexual Offending (CBI-SO) is a structured curriculum intended for individuals who are moderate to high need in the area of sexual offending. This curriculum can be delivered as a stand-alone intervention or incorporated into larger programs, particularly those designed for clients in the correctional system. As the name of the curriculum suggests, this intervention relies on a cognitive-behavioral approach to teach participants strategies for avoiding sexual offending and related behaviors.

To help practitioners, program administrators, and policymakers identify research-supported programs and interventions, the Clearinghouse provides an overview and discussion on the key findings from a review of high quality evaluations on sex offender treatment programs.

The Sex Offender Treatment Intervention and Progress Scale (SOTIPS) is a statistically-derived dynamic measure designed to aid clinicians, correctional caseworkers, and probation and parole officers in assessing risk, treatment and supervision needs, and progress among adult males who have been convicted of one or more qualifying sexual offenses and committed at least one of these sexual offenses after their 18th birthday ' SOTIPS item scores are intended to reflect an individual's relative treatment and supervision needs on each risk factor.

The key focus of the report is on reviewing evidence about reducing re-offending in crimes of violence against women. The research evidence available provides a number of valuable insights into what works to reduce reoffending in the area of violence against women.

This review examined the evidence on treatment effectiveness from both individual studies and synthesis research.

Sexual violence results from a complex interaction of individual, relationship, community, and societal factors. Multiple interventions are required to address these factors not only before, but also after sexual violence occurs as identified in the Social-Ecological Model for Prevention. Intervening with individuals who have committed sexual violence is an important part of this comprehensive sexual violence prevention framework.