How Can Citizens Help Support The
Management Of Sex Offenders In Communities?
It
is important for citizens to understand the role of sex offender
management teams in their communities and support their efforts
to responsibly manage these offenders. Community education
efforts should be designed to help citizens:
- Assist criminal
justice agencies in monitoring am offender's behavior and
actions. This is not to place community members in
a supervisory role, but to empower citizens to participate
in community safety planning and to support the creation
of an environment in which the offender is most likely to
succeed without risk of reoffense.
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Use available
channels for expressing concerns. If community members
have a concern about a particular sex offender, this information
should be brought to the attention of the offender's probation
or parole officer immediately. If there is not a satisfactory
response, citizens should call the officer's supervisor.
Attempts by citizens to confront, harass, or shame a sex
offender into compliance can have unintended, negative consequences.
Citizen concerns should always be addressed through the
official criminal justice system.
-
Accept that
sex offenders will and do live in communities. It
is not feasible for every community to incarcerate all sex
offenders for life. Therefore, we must recognize that
sex offenders will live among us and safety is best served
by responding to that fact.
-
Understand
that safely supervising sex offenders in communities is
complex. The strategies that are emerging as promising
for preventing individual offenders from reoffending are
not simple. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution that
will end sexual assault.
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Citizens should
be encouraged to refrain from ostracizing sex offenders
or their families. When sex offenders or their families
are ostracized, the result can only their progress in treatment
and may in fact jeopardize their willingness to comply with
the very conditions of supervision that are most likely
to reduce their likelihood for reoffense.
-
Encourage each
and every community member to educate him or herself and
loved ones about the dangers of sexual assault and in particular
about child sexual assault (see NCMEC
Child Protection information brochure). As was
discussed previously, many of us hold fears about sexual
assault that are based on misconceptions. In order
for citizens to most effectively protect themselves, it
is important that they clearly understand who is at risk
and how best they can be protected.
Information
contained on this page is reproduced from or links to
the Center for Sex Offender
Management, with permission. Reproduction herein of
this information is for the information and convenience
of the public, and does not constitute endorsement or
adoption by the State of New Jersey, or its officers,
employees or agents.
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