The Rehabilitation or Oppression of Dangerous Offenders? Balancing Offender's Rights with Community Protection

• In Event: Oppression of Dangerous Offenders

Abstract

Criminal laws, which address the sentencing, detention and post-sentence reintegration of designated dangerous offenders have encountered significant changes over the past few decades, reflecting challenges in balancing offender's rights with policy demands for over-criminalization in the pursuit of better community protection. Laws aimed at improving public safety in North America have included preventive detention schemes designed to detain or monitor designated dangerous offenders, after the completion of their sentence. Despite recommendations by Courts and Committees that rehabilitative measures should be preferred, the North American criminal justice system continually implements oppressive sentencing practices. This paper seeks to engage in a critical reflection on the state of dangerous offender laws and how they have developed in light of normative values, from a rehabilitative to an increasingly punitive approach. This provides an apt starting point for critical reflection of whether safeguarding our communities necessarily means leaving the principle of rehabilitation by the wayside. My presentation suggests that little space has been created to critically reflect on current legislative schemes, and their impact on correctional outcomes. Gaps in empirical evidence are addressed. Ultimately, I argue that the practice of protecting the community needs to engage a wider space of understanding.

Author

• Alison M. Yule, University of British Columbia