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An Online Resource Library on Domestic & Sexual Violence
The purpose of this brief is to provide an overview and discussion of emerging practices and lessons in communities across the country in the management of sex offenders under community supervision.
This guide was developed to assist Safe Havens grantees who want to enhance the safety and well-being of women and children by working more deliberately with abusive fathers who use the centers to visit their children. These interventions are based on the learnings from the Fathering After Violence Initiative, developed by the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) and five current and past SVP grantees with funding from the Office of Violence Against Women (OVW).
Contents include:
"In a recent Issues article entitled Thinking about batterers as fathers: Reconceptualizing and rethinking policy and practice, we raised the question 'Are we (individuals, community agencies, policy makers, etc.) willing to work with batterers to help them become better fathers?' In this article we consider some of the programming and curriculum issues related to working with batterers as parents."
The authors confirm that community notification efforts protect and inform residents, thereby serving the purpose that policymakers intended, but at the cost of increased public anxiety, hindered reintegration of offenders into society, and increased labor burdens on service providers. In documenting community resident responses and expectations, Zevits and Farkas acknowledge the need to educate the public about what notification laws can and cannot accomplish.
Washington State's Community Notification Law: 15 Years of Change by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy (2006)
In 1990, Washington became the first state to authorize the release of information regarding sex offenders to the public. Since then, the law has been amended numerous times to expand its application, increase uniformity across counties, and increase citizen access.
Violent and sexual felony recidivism by sex offenders in Washington has decreased since passage of the 1997 statute. The causal link to notification laws is not proven by this research, but the drop in recidivism rates by sex offenders is clear, and the influence of community notification laws cannot be ruled out.
As part of this evaluation, the Institute contracted in 1997 with the Social and Economic Sciences Research Center (SESRC) at Washington State University to conduct telephone interviews with a sample of Washington State residents regarding the community notification provisions of the Community Protection Act. In 2007, the Institute again contracted with SESRC to conduct a nearly identical survey and learn how responses may have changed.
The purpose of this study was to examine public perceptions about sex offenders and community protection policies. Data were obtained from a sample of 193 residents in Melbourne, Florida. It was hypothesized that the public holds some inaccurate beliefs about sex offenders, and that there is strong public support for community protection policies. It was found that community members believe that sex offenders have very high recidivism rates, view sex offenders as a homogeneous group with regard to risk, and are skeptical about the benefits of sex offender treatment.
This policy and practice brief examines the differences in state laws regarding community notification and explores some innovative approaches to notification and education in place across the United States.
