Release and Relapse: Understanding Sexual Recidivism in a sample of US Men

• In Event: WCCJ Panel 4 – Expressions of Masculinities

Abstract

Introduction: Dangerous Sexual Offender legislation exists in many Western jurisdictions and provides for the continuing (or post-sentence) detention of individuals convicted of repeated sexually violent offences. Civil Commitment (or Preventative Detention) has existed in some form in the United States since 1957, beginning in Massachusetts with the establishment of the Massachusetts Treatment Center (MTC). Objective: This presentation examines the phenomenon of recidivism as it was experienced by a sample of more than 30 North American men who were referred for civil commitment at the MTC after having been determined “sexually dangerous.” The study considers the changing experience of community re-entry for men who were released from custody between the 1970s and the early 2000s. Results: Their interviews contained rich narratives of condemnation and contamination and suggested that the more recent re-entry experiences were far more negatively impacted by the increasingly restrictive registration and notification policies to which they are subject in the United States. Discussion: An important innovation of this work is the application of a developmental and life course perspective which allowed for consideration of within individual continuity and change over time.

Author

• Danielle Arlanda Harris, Griffith University