For immediate release November 27, 2009

EXPERTS URGE PREVENTIVE DETENTION FOR SEX OFFENDERS

Sending sex offenders back to prison after their sentences have expired is only a short-term solution, say experts.

A new book on sex offenders launched this week challenges contemporary opinions about how society should address the risk presented by released sex offenders.

Sex Offenders and Preventive Detention: Politics, Policy and Practice by Monash University Professor Bernadette McSherry and Bond University Professor Patrick Keyzer points out that;

w Reoffending rates for sex offenders are considerably lower than many other offences;

w Most sex offences are committed by men who are known to the victim;

w The archetypal predatory paedophile or rapist is rare;

w Most sex offenders who have served a term of imprisonment will not be convicted for another sex offence.

The new book considers government policy responses to the challenge of managing sex offenders in a number of different countries and concludes that the approach taken in some Australian states is problematic.

Bond University Professor Patrick Keyzer said, ”Sending sex offenders back to prison after their sentences have expired is a short-term solution to the problem of rehabilitating sex offenders that has been tried in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia and has been plagued with problems.

“The new systems have not been properly funded. There have been significant problems with inter-agency cooperation. It is very likely that people in the community have been placed at greater risk because accommodation, social services and treatment programmes have not been made available to released offenders,” he said.

Australian Research Council Federation Fellow and Monash University Professor Bernadette McSherry said, “Focussing our attention on convicted offenders means we are placing resources into managing a small group of sex offenders when resources could be better expended on measures that could target the majority of offenders, most of whom are not charged and go untreated.”

The academics’ research indicates that the Department of Corrective Services in Queensland has struggled to cope with the increased demand for treatment program and community transition planning, with the result that many sex offenders have been released from Queensland prisons in the last six and a half years to environments where risk factors have been heightened.

Professor Keyzer said, “The Victorian Government’s proposal to introduce a regime of preventive detention for sex offenders is likely to encounter the same problems unless social services and inter-agency collaboration are considerably strengthened.

“The Victorian proposal is almost certainly inconsistent with the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities. These laws inflict double punishment. They are inconsistent with Australia’s international human rights obligations,” he said.

The new book compares Australia’s approach to preventive detention with models in the United States of America and Scotland. It concludes that the Scottish approach of orders for lifelong restriction made at the time of sentence is preferable to orders for detention or supervision made after the expiry of a sentence.

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