In the morning of Tuesday 30 November, the partners of the Criminal Justice Platform Europe (CJPE) (EuroPris, CEP and the European Forum for Restorative Justice) organised a webinar on the management of sexual offenders.
Managing the reintegration of persons convicted of a sexual offence in the community is challenging for probation professionals, prison staff as well as restorative justice experts. Reintegration of so-called sex offenders in the community still can cause a lot of commotion and professionals have to deal with this from day to day.
However, in recent years valuable research has been done on effective management and treatment. Nowadays we know much more about ‘what works’. Specific programmes such as Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) have been developed and successfully implemented. And even recently, recommendations have been adopted at a European level (Committee of Ministers, Council of Europe) regarding the assessment, management and reintegration of persons accused or convicted of a sexual offence. This document shows that being better prepared to respond to sexual violence in prison and probation should serve to improve the reintegration of sexual offenders into the community and eventually reduce victimisation rates.
Equal attention should also be paid to victims and tailor the support offered by the justice system to their needs as a means to address their harm. While restorative justice is not widely offered in these cases yet, where applied, it shows positive effects in the offender reintegration as well as in the victim’s healing process. Still, restorative justice has to be delivered taking into account the specific harm caused in these cases.
