Promoting Effective Sex Offender Management: An Overview of OJP Initiatives

• In Event: Policy Panel: Advancing Evidence-Based Sex Offender Management: Policy and Research Perspectives

Abstract

In 2010, DOJ’s Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART), launched a comprehensive initiative to evaluate the state of current knowledge concerning effective sex offender management practices, and to conduct a national needs assessment among agencies engaged in this challenging field of work. As an outgrowth of this, DOJ has funded a range of research and evaluation initiatives, including those aimed at testing and refining methods of risk assessment for both adult and juvenile populations, evaluating the efficacy and scalability of new reintegration models, and studying the operational dimensions and uses of sex offender registry systems as information-sharing tools. This presentation will provide an overview of sex offender management initiatives being carried out by the SMART Office and the Office of Justice Programs, as well as a look ahead to future initiatives.

Author

• Scott Matson, U.S. Department of Justice