Families of SOs Community Group
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A great article about CoSA and reintegration.
The article basically asks this question:
"Then again, shouldn’t it be evident that an approach that shuns and ostracizes is doomed from the start? Can anyone “re-integrate” when viewed as a pariah?"
The article basically asks this question:
"Then again, shouldn’t it be evident that an approach that shuns and ostracizes is doomed from the start? Can anyone “re-integrate” when viewed as a pariah?"
I agree - there are a couple paragraphs where they mention the idea that lower risk offenders are easier to manage:
Perhaps most encouraging is the story of a small community in Florida called "Miracle Village", home to over 100 registered sex offenders — none of whom have reoffended. Its residents actively support each other in their attempts to build new lives and work to establish themselves as functioning members of their community.
Of note, the village does not accept those who have been diagnosed with pedophilia or convicted of violent sex crimes against strangers. Some say it is made up of lower risk ex-offenders who are easier to rehabilitate.
http://www.gq.com/story/sex-offender-community
That's a good question, for me I definitely consider myself low risk, I was given a low risk by my psychologist and my static 99 score is a zero. But I still see this article applying to me because it is a positive step in the discussion of sex offenders in general. It is moving the needle to where we eventually need to go. This sex offender hysteria has snagged a lot of people that made some terrible decisions but are not the monsters that society envisions people on the registry to be. These lower level offenders and all offenders in general will benefit when we can change the dialogue from more draconian laws to lets focus on less victims.
When the focus is on less victims, I think you may say the registry get pruned back a little bit. Right now the registry is bloated, you have truly dangerous people blending in with people like me who made a horrendously terrible stupid decision as a young teenager, or you in your situation (if you want to share that info I won't). So in order to watch those truly dangerous people you need to get the less dangerous folks off the registry. They need to be reintegrated back into society, we need to maximize the chance they won't offend again and research shows reintegration works a lot better than making sex offenders pariahs.
You then have a tier down process to get people off the registry eventually after they have shown themselves to not be a danger. I am open to specifics, but maybe 5-10 years on each tier, and completing sex offender therapy.
Pruning the registry has the benefit of allowing more attention placed by law enforcement on the more dangerous predators and it allows lower level offenders to move on which also reduces their chance to recidivate. Win win.