Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers

A REASONED
APPROACH:
RESHAPING SEX OFFENDER POLICY
TO PREVENT CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

Joan Tabachnick
Alisa Klein

Acknowledgements
This project was made possible through a generous grant from the
Ms. Foundation for Women. We would like to thank them for their support
and for their foundation’s long-standing investment in preventing the sexual
abuse of children.
This report would not have been possible without the solid project management
skills, the incredible editing, and the insightful direction and comments
provided by Maia Christopher, Executive Director of the Association for the
Treatment of Sexual Abusers. The authors send Maia a deep and heartfelt
thank you for everything she invested to make this happen.
The authors would also like to thank the many readers of this paper.
From within ATSA, the Executive Committee reviewed the paper and
provided invaluable feedback. This project also provided an opportunity to
reach out to colleagues who represent key areas of expertise. We thank these
readers for their insights: Karen Baker, Joyce Lukima, Marci Diamond,
Jill Levenson, and Pat Stanislaski.

A Reasoned Approach

Executive Summary

2

Introduction

6

Historical Background: Waves of Change

8

First Wave: Growing Awareness
Second Wave: Increased Media Attention and Policy Responses
Third Wave: Comprehensive Understanding and Response to
Child Sexual Abuse

What Is Known about Sexual Abuse
and Those Impacted By It
Measuring Declines in Incidence and/or Reporting
The Diversity of People Who Sexually Abuse Children
Risk and Protective Factors for Sexually Abusive Behavior
Understanding Risk Assessments
Policy Impact on the Hidden Cases of Abuse

Encouraging Prevention Through Evidence-Based
and Community-Informed Sex Offender Policy
Legislative Policy Trends
Efficacy of Current Legislative Policy
The Unintended Consequences
Growing Critique of Current Legislative Sex Offender Policy

8
8
9

12
13
14
16
17
18

20
21
23
25
27

Positive Trends in Sex Offender Policy
The Use of Research to Inform Policy
Community Accountability and Restorative Justice
Returning to the Community
Reaching Abusers Not Known to the Criminal Justice System

28

Recommendations

34

Design and implement evidence-informed policy
Develop community policies that encourage responsibility for prevention
Integrate what is known about perpetration into prevention programs,
victim services, and public education

34

Conclusion

42

Appendix A: Current Sex Offender Legislation

44

References

45

28
30
32
32

37
39

Executive Summary
It is only in the last 30 years that society has begun to fully recognize
child sexual abuse as the devastating problem that it is, to portray
the trauma of sexual abuse in the media, and to seek ways to prevent
and eliminate sexual violence.

 It is only in the last 30 years that

society has begun to fully recognize
child sexual abuse as the devastating
problem that it is, to portray the trauma
of sexual abuse in the media, and to
seek ways to prevent and eliminate
sexual violence. As communities
have begun to demand a response to
sexual abuse, legislators have passed
an increasing number of policies
directed at the people who sexually
abuse. In 2007 and 2008 alone, more
than 1500 sex offender-related bills
were proposed in state legislatures
and over 275 new laws were enacted.
Nearly all of these laws and policies
follow two key trends: 1) they increase
the length of sex offender incarceration
and 2) they monitor, track, and restrict
individuals convicted of sexual offenses
upon their return to communities.
While the intent of these laws is to
protect communities from those
who abuse, to improve responses

2 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

to allegations of abuse, and to
prevent child sexual abuse, the
broad application of these laws has
unintended consequences which may
make our children and communities
less safe. Research from the last decade
has highlighted some of the unintended
negative impacts these laws may be
having on our ability to prevent sexual
abuse before it is perpetrated and
to prevent re-offense by individuals
returning to communities:
■ Since those who abuse are often
portrayed publicly as “monsters,”
people may be less likely to recognize
the warning signs of sexual behavior
problems in siblings, parents,
children, cousins, or others to
whom they are close because they
do not see them as “monsters.”
■ Someone who suspects abuse
within the family may be less likely
to seek resources and assistance,
fearing that it will result in the public
exposure and humiliation of everyone
involved, including the victim.

■ When a convicted abuser returns

to a community, current sex offender
management policy may cause the
offender to face housing, employment,
and financial instability, as well as
social isolation and despair — all risk
factors for re-offense. The resulting
instability may also reduce the ability
of law enforcement and probation and
parole systems to supervise the offender
and ensure that s/he has access to the
specialized treatment and services
necessary for full accountability.
In creating a legislative policy
environment that may inhibit the
willingness of individuals, families,
and communities to face, prevent,
and respond to child sexual abuse,
our society does a disservice to its
children. If no hopeful, rehabilitative
solutions are available and made
publicly known, people who witness
signs of risk for victimization and/or
perpetration may be less motivated
to take the steps necessary to prevent
child sexual abuse, intervene in
situations of risk, and come forward
when a child is sexually abused.
Experts agree that a criminal justice
response alone cannot prevent sexual
abuse or keep communities safe. Yet,
tougher sentencing and increased
monitoring of sex offenders are fully
funded in many states, while victim

services and prevention programs are
woefully underfunded. Furthermore,
with the majority of child sexual
abuse unreported (report rates are as
low as 12 percent), laws and policies
are unable to ensure accountability
for those who abuse or to address the
needs of victims. Even with these
concerns there is reason for hope.

Even with these concerns
there is reason for hope.

Emerging research about people who
sexually abuse has begun to inform
new policies. Innovative state-based
policies, and policies and programs
within organizations and communities,
are taking a comprehensive approach
toward safety by focusing on the
prevention of the perpetration of
child sexual abuse, encouraging a
range of options for holding abusers
accountable, and offering incentives
for abusers and families to reach
out for help. And new collaborative
models encourage cross-disciplinary
professional partners to work together
to craft new policies that prevent abuse
before it is perpetrated and re-offense.

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 3

Many of these community-based and
organizational policies and programs
have been evaluated as effective
approaches that offer holistic and
hopeful responses to child sexual
abuse for families and communities.
Key to the success of these policies and
programs is their recognition of the
diversity of those who sexually abuse
and the implementation of different
tools and responses that address the
needs of different individuals (e.g.,
responses to children and adolescents
differ from responses to adults). Also
central to these successful approaches
are the use of emerging research
about risk and protective factors in the
development of primary prevention
programs and the employment of
actuarial risk assessment instruments
in making treatment and management
decisions for adult offenders. The
involvement of community members
and of people directly affected by
child sexual abuse in ensuring that
policies and programs address the
unique cultural, ethnic, spiritual,
and other perspectives of each
community is also key to success.
Thirty years of remarkable social
changes have gone a long way toward
breaking down the barriers that have
kept the topic of child sexual abuse
out of the public domain. However,
now, with a growing body of research
and evaluative information of existing

4 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

public policies available to us, we have
an opportunity to continue to make
positive change toward the prevention
of child sexual abuse before it is
perpetrated and to prevent its re-offense.
The success of emergent community and
organizational policies and programs
can guide us in making this report’s
recommendations. Among those
recommendations are the following:

1. Design and implement

evidence-informed policy:
Today, there is a growing body of
research that examines factors that
may increase or decrease offenders’
likelihood for re-offense, assesses
the effectiveness of existing policies,
suggests which risk and protective
factors can be incorporated into
prevention programming, and delineates
how to motivate the prevention of,
and intervention in, situations of child
sexual abuse. Policies will be most
effective when they are informed by
this growing body of research.

2. Develop successful community

policies that expand the notion of
what constitutes abuser accountability;
encourage community responsibility
and healing; and provide safety,
restitution, healing, and avenues
for input for victims: To create
sustainable change that can stop the
cycle of abuse within communities
and families, the people affected by

child sexual abuse must have a hand
in designing the policies that will
affect them. When communities
hold offenders accountable in
thoughtful ways that prevent
re-offense, they increase the likelihood
that others will get the help they need
before they perpetrate sexual abuse.

3. Integrate what is known about
perpetration into prevention
programs, victim services, and
public education: By incorporating
perpetration prevention efforts
into their work, organizations and
communities can shift societal
understanding about those who
abuse and make it more possible for
individuals, families, and communities
to address and prevent situations
of risk for child sexual abuse.
Society is at a unique point in time.
With the recommendations outlined
in this paper, society can create a
new wave of legislative, community,
and organizational policies that can
effectively prevent re-offense and
engage individuals, families, and
communities in primary prevention. ■

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 5

Introduction
When will our consciences grow so tender that we will
act to prevent human miser y rather than avenge it  ?  
Eleanor Roosevelt, “My Day,” February 16, 1946

 Child sexual abuse is an intimate

and complicated form of harm. The
anger that victims, victims’ families,
and their communities are likely to
feel in response to child sexual abuse
is deep and understandable. It is only
in the last few decades that society has
begun to recognize it as a significant
problem, to portray the trauma of sexual
abuse in the media, and to seek ways to
prevent and eliminate sexual violence.
Despite the centuries of silence and
denial that have surrounded the sexual
abuse of children, the attention of the
last 30 years has begun to change the
ways in which victims can access help,
family and community members can
intervene before a child is harmed, and
society can work toward solutions to
the problem of child sexual abuse.
In an attempt to decrease the harm
caused by people who sexually abuse,1

in the last several years, legislators have
introduced increasing numbers of policies.
The key trends of these legislative policies
have included increasing the length of sex
offender 2 incarceration and monitoring,
tracking, and restricting individuals
convicted of sexual offenses. However,
after nearly 20 years of implementation,
emerging research indicates that many
of these legislative policy initiatives have
not had the intended or desired effects.
The majority of legislative policies
have been built upon stories of “stranger
danger,” which now keep society
from looking at the more typical and
predominant cases of child sexual abuse
that are perpetrated within the family
and at the broader societal solutions
for preventing child sexual abuse.
Additionally, the broad application of
these legislative policies to every adult,
many adolescents, and even children
convicted of sexual abuse has created
unintended negative consequences:

Whenever possible, the authors use the term “adults, adolescents, and children who sexually abuse” to describe the people who perpetrate
child sexual abuse. While this term is cumbersome, it begins to articulate the diverse group of people who engage in these behaviors. For the
sake of brevity, this may be shortened to the term “sexual abuser.” Terms such as “child molester,” “perpetrator,” “sexually violent predator,”
“pedophile,” “child rapist,” and others are not used because they are either a subset of the broader term “sexual abuser” or they are misleading
because of their emotional and mixed use by the public and media.

1

2
When discussing legislative policies, the term “sex offender” is often used and refers to a person who has sexually abused and who has been
prosecuted within the criminal justice system.

6 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

The broad application of
legislative policies to adults,
adolescents, and even children
convicted of sexual abuse
has created unintended
negative consequences.
■ Since those who abuse are often
portrayed publicly as “monsters,”
people may be less likely to
recognize the warning signs of a
sexual behavior problem in siblings,
parents, children, cousins, or others
to whom they are close because they
do not see them as “monsters.”
■ Someone who suspects abuse
within the family may be less
likely to ask for help and subject
family members, including
victims, to public exposure.
■ When a convicted abuser returns to
the community, he/she is subjected to
many of the current legislative policies.
The resulting housing and job
instability, loss of income, and isolation
may increase the risk to re-offend.
The instability may also reduce the
system’s ability to monitor the offender

and hold him/her accountable.
As a result of these unintended
consequences, it is clear that the broad
application of these laws does not
make communities safer places for
children, protect victims, or encourage
the prevention of child sexual abuse.
But there is reason for hope:
emerging research about people
who sexually abuse has begun to
inform new policies within states,
communities, and organizations.
This report will discuss the trends,
impact, and unintended consequences
of current legislative policies that may
make children less safe in their homes
and communities. It will also provide
an overview of the new research
about adults, youth, and children who
sexually abuse and the innovations
in policy that are grounded in this
newly established research. Finally,
the report will offer suggestions about
how to shift our current approaches
to sex offender policy to create
incentives for primary prevention
(before abuse is perpetrated) and,
ultimately, offer new opportunities
to create safer communities. ■

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 7

Historical Background: Waves of Change
First Wave:
Growing Awareness
 Before the 1970s, child sexual
abuse was largely ignored. Few
resources were allocated to preventing
abuse, responding to the needs of the
victims, or addressing the behavior
of the abusers. Isolated cases may
have been mentioned in the news;
however, widespread societal
attention was not focused on the
problem. Beginning in the 1970s and
1980s, adult survivors of child sexual
abuse began telling their stories and
describing their trauma publicly.
Through the emergence of these
personal accounts, it became clear,
and was later confirmed by research,
that child sexual abuse is perpetrated
within every community, every class,
and every race in the United States.

As a result of these survivors’
compelling stories, many people
began to grapple with the question of
how to better protect children from
sexual abuse. Clinical approaches
to working with victims began to
change. Professionals such as Florence
Rush challenged Freudian theories of
children as the “seducers” of adults,
and Judith Herman wrote the first

3

popularized book about the problem of
father–daughter incest. An important
turning point for working with people
who sexually abuse began with a
grant from the National Institute of
Mental Health. Beginning in 1977,
the grant provided funding for the
continued study of sexual behavior
problems and for the development
of five national conferences and a
newsletter to facilitate the exchange
of knowledge and research about
sexual abuse in the U.S.

Second Wave:
Increased Media Attention
and Policy Responses
 In the 1990s–2000s, a second wave
of response to child sexual abuse began.
Legislators initiated new laws such
as the 1994 Child Abuse Prevention
and Treatment Act (CAPTA), which
created a clearinghouse on child abuse
and neglect, mandatory reporting
for professionals, 3 and educational
programs to teach children how
to protect themselves from sexual
abuse. As well, the awareness that had
resulted from the survivor stories of
the 1970s–1980s grew into nearly daily
media coverage of child sexual abuse.
Television dramas, best-selling books,

“Mandatory reporting” is a federal requirement that professionals working with children report to authorities any disclosure or suspicion

of child sexual abuse.

8 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

and even Academy Award-winning
movies utilized sexual abuse storylines.
Sensationalistic news coverage
of rare, horrific child abductions
made the headlines, understandably
frightening people and fueling
public alarm about sexual abuse.
The horrifying crimes perpetrated
against Jacob Wetterling, Megan
Kanka, Jessica Lunsford and Adam
Walsh framed discussions of sexual
abuse in the media and politics. Each
of these children was abducted while
engaged in an everyday activity and
either disappeared without a trace
or was murdered. Much of the sex
offender-related legislative policy
enacted in the United States during
the last two decades has been shaped
around the tragic losses of children
like Jacob, Megan, Jessica, and Adam.
Legislators have constructed a series
of laws to isolate, control, and punish
those individuals who abduct and
offend against strangers, often called
“sexual predators” by the media. And
yet, not one of these traumatic stories
represents the majority of situations of
child sexual abuse in the U.S. Research
and thousands of victims’ stories have
established that most child sexual
abuse is perpetrated by someone within
the child’s ongoing circle of trust.

Public focus on the most rare and extreme
cases of sexual violence against children
has resulted in a “one size fits all” approach
to creating new laws for punishing and
managing individuals who have sexually
abused. Adults, adolescents, and children
have been grouped under the singular term
“sex offender,” increasing the public’s fear
without assessing the realistic risk that an
individual may pose to the community. In
addition, these laws and policies have not
provided any tools for communities to deal
with child sexual abuse perpetrated within
a home, when members of the family
choose not to make an official report.

Third Wave:
Comprehensive
Understanding and Response
to Child Sexual Abuse
 New research about the effectiveness
and consequences of existing sex
offender legislation and policies has
caused professionals to raise questions
about the broad application of these laws
and policies to every adult, adolescent,
and child who has sexually abused.
Victim advocacy organizations have
questioned the large expenditure of
funds on sex offender management
tools that may not really protect
communities, while resources and
services for victims are being cut.

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 9

Victim advocacy organizations
have questioned the large
expenditure of funds on sex
offender management tools
that may not really protect
communities, while resources
and services for victims
are being cut.

Individuals and organizations are
beginning to ask for resources geared
to addressing the full range of sexually
problematic and abusive behaviors
and to preventing future situations
within families and communities.
In this current climate, historically
divergent professional disciplines
are discovering in each other a deep
commitment to essentially the same
core values and goals: community safety;
participation of victims and survivors
in the criminal and restorative justice

Similarity of Goals and Strategies:
A National Victim Advocacy Policy Organization and a Sex Offender
Treatment and Management Organization

National Alliance to End Sexual Violence

Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers

NAESV believes that policies formulated to manage
sex offenders must:

ATSA promotes empirically based assessment,
practice, management, and policy strategies
that will:

• Prevent future sexual victimization;

• Reduce sexual recidivism;

• Hold sex offenders accountable while providing
support and safety for victims and their families;

• Protect victims and vulnerable populations;

• Be grounded in research and assessed critically
and routinely to ensure their effectiveness;

• Enhance community safety;
• Promote empirically based approaches;

• Include multi–disciplinary and
multi–agency collaborations; and

• Transform the lives of those caught in
the web of sexual violence; and

• Support primary prevention policies and practices.

• Illuminate paths to prevent sexual abuse.

10 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

processes; policy informed by research;
responses tailored to children and
adolescents who have sexually abused
that differ from responses to adults
who have sexually abused; and an
investment in prevention research,
strategies, and programming.
Equally important to an understanding
of the dynamics of sexual abuse
and effective policy responses is the
growing body of knowledge about
three distinctly identified groups
needing distinctly different policy

responses: adults who sexually
abuse, sexually abusive adolescents,
and children with sexual behavior
problems. Research has made clear that
brain and personality development,
social functioning, and sexuality are
very different for young children,
adolescents, and adults. Research also
indicates that adolescents and children
are more open to behavior change than
adults: the earlier the intervention,
the greater the chance that a child or
teen will live a healthy and productive
life free from sexually abusing. ■

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 11

What Is Known about Sexual
Abuse and Those Impacted By It
There is no such thing as a dispensable person anywhere
in this country. We must quit treating them as such.
David Keenan, Former Chief, Teslin Tlingit Council

 Interviews with those who

have been impacted by child
sexual abuse have consistently
revealed a deep desire for hope:
■ hope that, although their lives
have been forever changed, survivors
will receive support to heal and live
safe, healthy, productive lives;
■ hope that adults, adolescents,
and children who have sexually
abused can learn to control and be
accountable for their behaviors so
they can be safe, healthy, productive
members of society; and
■ hope that communities, though
harmed by sexual abuse, can become
stronger, healthier, and better
able to protect children (Klein &
Tabachnick, 2002; Yantzi, 1998).
Yet, the prevalent societal messages
related to child sexual abuse emphasize
hopelessness. The myth that “abusers
can never change” sends a message
to parents of teens and children
with sexual behavior problems and
individuals who sexually abuse
that nothing can help them.

12 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

The myth that victims are forever
damaged tells them that they will
never be able to heal from the trauma.
And when some institutions do
not take full responsibility for the
abuse perpetrated by their leaders,
the lack of action sends a message
that no accountability is possible,
even when hundreds of victims
come forward to disclose abuse
by people in positions of trust and
power (generationFIVE, 2007).
As an incest survivor, if you
decide to live it’s because you
know it is going to get better.
Tina (Survivor of child sexual abuse)

When individuals, families, and
communities acknowledge the
full scope of child abuse and have
the courage to face the pain, anger,
disbelief, and shame that comes with
it, feelings of hopelessness can be
transformed into hope and positive
change. Key to this transformation is
having accurate information about the

adults, adolescents, and children who
sexually abuse. With this information,
more effective policies can be created,
and families and communities will
be empowered to find their role in
preventing child sexual abuse.

Measuring Declines
in Incidence and/
or Reporting
 Most people are now aware of the
prevalence of child sexual abuse, but
fewer are familiar with the research
that shows that the majority of sexual
abuse remains unreported. One
study indicates that only 12 percent
of child sexual abuse is ever reported
to the authorities (Hanson, Resnick,
Saunders, Kilpatrick, & Best, 1999).
Over the last few decades, researchers
have explored the reasons why many
survivors of child sexual abuse, and
their family members, have not
reported the abuse. Victims have been
threatened with physical violence or
blackmail to stop them from telling
about the sexual abuse (ECPAT
International, 2008). Children may feel
that they need to protect the abuser,
particularly if it is someone they love
or depend on. Family members may
feel they need to protect the family
structure, or they may be dependent
— financially or otherwise — on the

person who has abused. Victims
and their family members may
feel shame at their inability to stop
the abuse, or shame that someone
they love is capable of abusing.
Communities of color and immigrant
communities may face particular
challenges in reporting child sexual
abuse. Having suffered historical,
institutionalized, and systemic
misunderstanding and abuse by law
enforcement, child protective services,
and other social and educational
institutions, they are unlikely to
seek assistance from these sources.
Marginalized individuals’ lack of trust
and belief in intervening authorities
will, justifiably, make it very difficult
for them to report abuse or ask for
help. As generationFIVE (2008), a child
sexual abuse prevention and antioppression organization, explains:
“Many communities are not willing
or able to address child sexual abuse
precisely because of the pressures
of systemic oppressions such as
racism, anti–immigrant sentiment,
homophobia, sexism, economic
exploitation, as well as poverty.”
Analysis of the number of substantiated
cases of child sexual abuse between the
years 1992 and 2008 shows a decrease
from 150,000 to 60,749 cases (U.S.
Department of Health and Human
Services, Administration for Children

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 13

and Families, Administration on
Children, Youth and Families, Children’s
Bureau, 2010) — a decline of 58 percent
(Finkelhor, Jones, & Shattuck, 2010).
Finkelhor and Jones, who brought to
national attention this decline in cases,
highlight the effectiveness of “two
decades of prevention, treatment, and
aggressive criminal justice activity.”
In their 2004 analysis of the decline,
they also discuss the possibility that a
decrease in reported and substantiated
cases may be different than a decrease
in the incidence of child sexual abuse.
They offer six different hypotheses for
this decline, one being that the public
and professionals have become more
reluctant to report child sexual abuse
due to negative publicity surrounding
cases and other types of “backlash.”
Finkelhor and Jones add: “The
uncertainty about the meaning of this
trend [the decline in numbers of cases of
child sexual abuse] … underscores how
much remains to be accomplished … to
determine future policy … [I]t would be
useful to know whether policies of more
aggressive prosecution, incarceration,
and treatment have played a role.” It is
important to consider whether or not the
legislative policies currently enforced to
manage known sex offenders might play
a role in reducing the reporting of sexual
abuse as opposed to there being an actual
decline in the incidence of child sexual
abuse.

14 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

It is important to consider
whether or not the legislative
policies currently enforced to
manage known sex offenders
might play a role in reducing
the reporting of sexual abuse
as opposed to there being an
actual decline in the incidence
of child sexual abuse.

The Diversity of
People Who Sexually
Abuse Children
 The majority of child sexual abuse
is perpetrated by someone known to
the victim, whom the victim may love
or depend on. One study indicates
that 34 percent of people who sexually
abuse children are family members
and 59 percent are acquaintances
(Snyder, 2000). Beyond these basic
facts, existing research is very clear
that there is a great deal of variation
in the way that sexual offenses against
children are perpetrated. There can
be significant differences in the
relationships with the victims whom
sexual abusers target, the methods
used to avoid detection, and the degree
of “intrusiveness” of the offense.

There is also a wide variation in the
characteristics of sexual abusers
themselves. The majority of people who
sexually abuse children are adult men,
and the majority of people they abuse
are known to them. Some women also
abuse, but their numbers are fairly
small in comparison (Smallbone,
Marshall, & Wortley, 2008). Individuals
who sexually abuse represent different
races, cultures, and economic classes.
Differences in factors such as age,
criminal background, social history,
attitudes toward sexuality, and sexual
arousal also distinguish sexual
abusers one from another. In fact,
there is no single need that compels
individuals to sexually abuse: most
individuals do so for multiple reasons.
Thirty to fifty percent of those who
sexually abuse a child are children or
adolescents themselves (Barbaree &
Marshall, 2006; Knight & Prentky,
1993; Finkelhor, Ormrod, & Chaffin,
2009). As with adults, there are multiple
factors that contribute to an adolescent
or a child sexually abusing another
individual. Adolescents and children
are more likely to abuse younger
children, less likely to abuse within
the home, but more likely to abuse
within a school setting and in groups.
While some youth will continue to
sexually abuse others into adulthood,
treatment programs have been shown
to effectively reduce sexual re-offense,
and children and adolescents are

more likely than adults to stop their
abusive behaviors and live safely in the
community (Finkelhor et al., 2009).
The percentage of youth who perpetrate
sexual abuse is consistent with the
percentage of children and adolescents
who commit other crimes (U.S.
Department of Justice, Federal Bureau
of Investigation, 2009). However
unlike policies toward other crimes
perpetrated by youth, current laws
pertaining to sexual offending are
often applied to adolescents without
taking into account how these youth
are different than adult sex offenders.
These policies risk labeling adolescents
and children as “sex offenders” for
life, making it much more difficult
for them to develop safe, healthy,
and productive lives. There is little
evidence that these policies protect
children from sexual abuse.
Understanding the research on the
diversity of individuals who sexually
abuse can be tremendously helpful
in creating policies that are effective

Understanding the research
on the diversity of individuals
who sexually abuse can be
tremendously helpful in
creating policies that are
effective and not overly broad.

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 15

and not overly broad. A single policy
that applies to all people sanctioned
for illegal sexual conduct — a nude
sunbather, a 14 year old sending a
sexual picture by phone, a parent who
sexually abuses his/her child, and a
sexually violent stranger abductor
— is not an effective way to stop
abusive behaviors. Applying greater
understanding of the motivations
behind behaviors, it is possible to match
the appropriate type of accountability,
treatment, and management to
each individual when necessary.
Understanding this heterogeneity is also
valuable because it helps distinguish
adults who sexually abuse from children
and adolescents who may exhibit
sexually abusive behaviors, but within
a very different developmental context.

Risk factors are often examined within
the framework of a social–ecological
model, which considers risk at four
contextual levels: individual, family,
community, and society. Individual
risk factors include poor coping skills,
low self-esteem, and sexual attraction
or sexual preoccupation. Familylevel risk factors include difficulty
establishing and/or maintaining
appropriate intimate relationships and
a chaotic, unstable, or violent home
environment. Community–level risk
factors include difficulty developing
meaningful peer networks or a
community presence. At a society level,
factors include attitudes and beliefs
about sexuality and children that may
be reinforced by the popular media
(Kaufman, 2010; Whitaker et al., 2008).

Risk and Protective
Factors for Sexually
Abusive Behavior

Although elevated levels of sexual
victimization can be found in the
histories of people who sexually abuse,
it is not, by itself, a risk factor for
developing sexually abusive behaviors.
It remains true that the vast majority
of those who survive sexual abuse
do not go on to abuse others.

 In the last 20 years, there has been
a growing understanding of the factors
that put someone at risk to sexually abuse,
as well as the protective factors that can
decrease the likelihood of sexually abusive
behaviors. The presence of risk factors
does not mean that abusive behaviors
are certain to happen. It is this balance
of risk factors and protective factors that
can impact the development of sexually
abusive behaviors and affect the likelihood
that an individual will sexually abuse.
16 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

It remains true that the
vast majority of those who
survive sexual abuse do not
go on to abuse others.

The study of protective factors with

The study of protective factors with
sexually abusive behaviors is relatively
new and conducted primarily with
child and adolescent populations.
Gilgun (2006) observes that the
single most important protective
factor in children and adolescents
is emotional expressiveness. Other
vital protective factors include having
a confidante, a strong desire not to
harm others, a favorable sense of self,
the ability to do something positive,
the ability to self-soothe when faced
with difficult situations and emotions,
a sense that gender and/or ethnicity
is valid and important, and a sense
of hope. Bremer (2006) also notes
the importance of overall behavior,
regular school attendance, social
adjustment, emotional adjustment, an
ability to maintain healthy boundaries,
education about sex and sexuality,
sexual interests in age-appropriate
sexual activities, caregiver stability
and support, and the ability to
cooperate with concerned adults.
Understanding risk and protective
factors for an individual, family,
and community can help guide
interventions and be an essential
building block for prevention programs
and policies (Graffunder, Lang, &
Mercy, 2010). Reducing risk factors
allows the individual, family, and
community to work together in a
proactive way that focuses on safety.
Knowledge of protective factors

enables professionals to quickly
identify and support the opportunities
— especially in children and
adolescents — to build on individual,
family, and community strengths
and to support safety. In addition,
this knowledge may offer insights
into preventing the development
of sexually abusive behaviors.

Understanding Risk
Assessments
 Over the past 15 years, research
studies have identified different personal
characteristics and factors most strongly
related to adult males who re–offend
sexually. Risk factors for re–offense
tend to fall into the categories of abuserelated sexual interests, pro-offending
attitudes (e.g., believing children
enjoy sexual interactions with adults),
poor interpersonal functioning, and
impulsive or antisocial lifestyles. With
an increased understanding of these
characteristics and factors, researchers
have developed evidence-based actuarial
risk assessment instruments (ARAIs)
for adults. These tools estimate the
likelihood of sexual re–offense based on
particular combinations of risk factors
that are associated with different risk
levels. Although these risk assessment
tools do not predict whether a specific
individual will commit a new sexual
offense, they are currently the most

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 17

reliable method of identifying adults
with particular characteristics that may
lead to a higher risk of being re–arrested
or re–convicted of a sexual offense.
In conjunction with an evaluation
that identifies the unique situational,
environmental, and individual factors
that contribute to an individual’s risk
to re-offend, use of ARAIs provides
an opportunity to apply the most
rigorous interventions and policies
to those who need the most intensive
level of supervision, treatment,
and other external restrictions.
Unlike for adult males, actuarial risk
assessment tools are not validated for
adolescents who sexually abuse and
are not available for children with
sexual behavior problems. However, a
comprehensive assessment identifying
the unique factors and characteristics
related to the sexual behavior(s)
provides essential information
for developing treatment and risk
management plans. Professionals
working with younger populations
find that a more balanced approach
emphasizing the strengths of the
adolescent or child while addressing the
specific controls needed to maintain a
safe environment is the most effective
way to ensure that community safety
concerns are addressed (Prescott,
2008). If treated with methods that
are developmentally appropriate, the

18 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

prognosis for living a healthy and
productive life is much higher because
most children and adolescents who
sexually abuse do not continue that
abuse into adulthood (Alexander, 1999;
Caldwell, 2002).

Policy Impact on the
Hidden Cases of Abuse
 The research regarding risk
assessment and etiology of sexual abuse
has increased greatly over the past
ten years. However, it is important to
remember that the best information
currently available about people who
sexually abuse is derived from those
who have been caught, prosecuted, and
convicted. Most of the current
public policy — and especially
legislative policies — are directed
toward this population of known sex
offenders. Given the significant underreporting of this crime, public policy
and community response must also
include the impact of new initiatives
on the larger population of adults,
adolescents, and children who never
enter the criminal justice system.

100 Incidents of Child Sexual Abuse
(100%)

10  –18 Incidents Reported to Authorities
(10  –18%) 4

6 Perpetrators Go to Trial
(6%) 5

3 Perpetrators
Convicted
(3%) 6

A significant challenge for public,
organizational, and communitybased policy–makers is to recognize
the impact of policies on this larger
population. Going forward, the
challenge wil l be to understand this
impact and find policy approaches that
4

will keep communities safer,
encourage families to prevent
child sexual abuse before
it is perpetrated and s e e k
h e l p , and promote healing
for victims and all those
affected by sexual abuse ■

London, K., Bruck, M., Ceci, S. J., & Shuman, D. W. (2005). Disclosure of child sexual abuse: What does the research tell us about the ways

that children tell ? Psycholog y, Public Policy, and Law, 11(1), 194–226.
5

Stroud, D. D., Martens, S. L., & Barker, J. (2000). Criminal investigation of child sexual abuse: A comparison of cases referred to the

prosecutor to those not referred. Child Abuse and Neglect, 24, 689–700.
6

Abel, G. G., Becker, J. V., Cunningham-Rathner, J., Mittleman, M. S., Murphy, M. S., and Rouleou, J. L. (1987).

Self-reported crimes of nonincarcerated paraphiliacs. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2, 3–25.

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 19

Encouraging Prevention Through
Evidence-Based and Community-Informed
Sex Offender Policy
Good laws are almost never produced in the cauldron of public passion. The fact
of the matter is that when we are angry, when our primary motive is punishment
we are impulsive and very rarely smart. The Sicilians have a wonderful line which
captures the essence of that: “Revenge,” they say, “is a dessert best eaten cold.”
Passing a piece of legislation with a particular victim or, for that matter,criminal
in mind is bound to prove less than satisfactory over the long haul.
Ted Koppel, Address Unknown: Well-Intentioned Legislation Doesn’t Always Produce Good Laws!,
Nightline (2004, February 5)

 Due to recent research on topics
related to child sexual abuse and the
people who perpetrate it, there is now
a body of knowledge with which to
evaluate current policy and practice and
to inform the development of sound
public policy approaches for prevention.
However, much of this knowledge
is just beginning to be incorporated
into public policy. Historically, sex
offender policy had been devoted
primarily to implementing legislative
initiatives that manage known sex
offenders. These legislative policies
have most commonly focused on

20 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

the incarceration, surveillance, and
monitoring of abusers who have
been reported to law enforcement,
prosecuted, and convicted. Typically,
far fewer resources have been used to
develop policy and programs aimed
at preventing child sexual abuse.
Yet, based on the emerging research
about the effective prevention of
child sexual abuse and the successful
management of people who have
sexually abused, new community
and organizational policies offer a
range of options for holding offenders

accountable in ways that encourage
community involvement in primary
prevention. New attention is being
paid to how victims, families, and
communities can receive the help they
need to prevent future abuse and to
heal from sexual harm. This section
will examine the trends in policy —
both problematic and hopeful — that
have been developed legislatively and
organizationally over the last two
decades to respond to child sexual
abuse and the people who perpetrate it.

Legislative
Policy Trends
 Over the last two decades, interest
in legislating policy responses to
known sex offenders has seen a
marked increase. Between 2007 and
2008, no fewer than 1,500 sex offenderrelated bills were introduced in state
legislatures, and over 275 new laws
were passed and enacted (VandervortClark, 2009). There are currently
two leading trends in sex offender
management policy. One focuses on
incarceration of sex offenders and
includes legislative mandates for longer
and mandatory minimum sentences,
as well as civil commitment — the
detention of an offender deemed to
be a “sexually violent predator” after

completion of his prison sentence.
The other trend is that of intensified
surveillance and monitoring of sex
offenders returning to communities.
This includes enhanced registration
requirements that, among other
provisions, increase the length of
time sex offenders must register with
law enforcement; expanded public
notification on t h e l o c a t ion of
offenders; residence restrictions that
limit where an offender can l i v e ;
and the use of electronic monitoring
technology to track the movements
of offenders. (See Appendix A.)
However, evaluative research on
many of these legislative policies has
not shown them to be effective when
applied broadly to all sex offenders.
For example, experts in Kansas and
California (Kansas Sex Offender
Policy Board, 2007; California Sex
Offender Management Task Force,
2007) have found that the electronic
monitoring of sex offenders poses a
number of issues, including the high
cost to states and local jurisdictions;
dependence on sometimes unreliable
satellite coverage; ability to track an
offender’s movements only after they
have occurred; and inability to prevent
offender contact with possible victims
within approved zones (Larivee, 2009).
The legislatively mandated California
Sex Offender Management Board

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 21

(CASOMB) has expressed that there
is “very little statistical data to support
the effectiveness” of global positioning
systems (GPS) to prevent re-offense
by known sex offenders. Despite a call
from CASOMB (2010) to “[p]rioritize
the use of GPS monitoring primarily
for serious and high risk sex offenders,”
the state continues to use GPS
tracking with all sex offenders. The
application of electronic monitoring,
as well as other surveillance policies,
to all sex offenders regardless of
level of risk to re-offend is extremely
costly and, overall, may be harmful to
public safety since it can reduce the
ability of sex offender management
professionals to focus their efforts on
the most dangerous of offenders.
Lengthy mandatory sentencing broadly
applied to all sex offenders has also
come into question as a useful tool in
making communities safer. According
to the national victim advocacy policy
organization the National Alliance
to End Sexual Violence (2008):
“Long mandatory minimum sentences
can have a number of negative
consequences that serve to decrease,
rather than increase, public safety.
For example, lengthy mandatory
minimum sentences sometimes result
in prosecutors not filing charges or
filing charges for a lesser crime than

22 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

a sex offense, as well as increased
plea bargains down to a lesser crime.
Similarly, judges or juries may be less
inclined to convict a defendant on a
sex offense because of the mandatory
minimum sentence. Long mandatory
minimum sentences can also keep
victims who were assaulted by someone
they know from reporting the crime.”
Although the intention of policymakers
to protect the public from sex offenders
is well-intentioned, there is an
ongoing need for them to incorporate
evidence and expert direction into
policy. With cross-disciplinary and
community input, well-designed
sex offender management policy
can serve to encourage community
involvement in the prevention of
child sexual abuse. Currently, laws
lacking evidence of effectiveness
continue to be passed and enacted at
the local, state, and federal levels.
For instance, in 1994, despite a dearth
of research on sex offender public
notification, the State of New Jersey
passed Megan’s Law to mandate sex
offender community notification. In
turn, and with no empirical analysis
of the impact of this state-based law,
in 1996, Congress crafted similar sex
offender registration and notification
(SORN) legislation that compelled all

states to create public registries of sex
offenders. Despite growing evidence
that these types of laws were not
effective in reducing re-offense rates of
known sex offenders, in 2006, Congress
enacted an even more comprehensive
sex offender public notification law
— the Sex Offender Registration
and Notification Act (SORNA) of
the Adam Walsh Child Protection
and Safety Act (AWA) of 2006 — and
extended the mandate to all U.S.
jurisdictions, including Indian tribes.7
Jessica’s Laws and sex offender
residence restriction laws have followed
similar trajectories to that of SORN
laws. Although the federal government
has not created a mandate for U.S.
jurisdictions to enact Jessica’s Laws
or residence restriction statutes, since
2005, over 30 states and hundreds of
local jurisdictions have embraced
the concepts behind these policies
and enforced such laws (Velázquez,
2008). California’s 2006 Jessica’s Law
is a typical example: among other
provisions, it requires mandatory
minimum sentences of 25 years to life
for sex offenders who abuse a child
under the age of 14 and lifetime GPS
monitoring of registered felon sex
offenders released to parole. It also
prohibits registered sex offenders
(RSOs) from living within 2,000

7

feet of schools and parks and creates
more stringent guidelines for the
state’s civil commitment program.
In the 2007–2008 legislative session
of state legislatures, 214 residence
restriction bills were proposed in 46
states, and 22 new laws were passed
(Vandervort-Clark, 2009). By 2008,
30 states had enacted some form of
statewide sex offender residence
restriction laws (Meloy, Miller, &
Curtis, 2008). Even more striking are
the thousands of local jurisdictions
— towns, cities, and counties — that
have enacted their own sex offender
residence restriction ordinances in an
attempt to deter sex offenders from
moving in when pushed out of their
homes by less stringent ordinances
(Zandbergen, Levenson, & Hart, 2010).

Efficacy of Current
Legislative Policy
 Evaluation of most current
legislative sex offender policy points
to its inadequacy in accomplishing
what it has been implemented to do:
keep children safe from sexual abuse.
As policy analysts and researchers
Levenson and D’Amora (2007) write:
“Many sex offender policies do not
appear to be evidence-based in their
development and implementation

SORNA lays out exactly how all sex offenders must be registered and how information about them must be made accessible to the public.

With the passage of this law, all sex offenders are now subject to public Internet notification without the benefit of a credible risk assessment
process that can serve as a tool to predict individuals’ likelihood for re-offense

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 23

because they are founded largely on
myths rather than on facts. Little
empirical investigation has been
conducted to evaluate sex offender
policies, but extant research does
not suggest that these policies
achieve their goals of preventing
sex crimes, protecting children,
or increasing public safety.”
For instance, in a study published in
early 2010, Tewksbury and Jennings
conclude that sex offender registration
and notification laws have not
reduced sex offender recidivism and
that these results are “in line with
those reported by previous studies
… [that show that SORN policies
appear] to have virtually no impact
on sex [ual abuse] recidivism.”
Another inadequacy of SORN policy
stems from the fact that the vast
majority of victims of child sexual
abuse know the person who abused
them. Because of this, one of the
central justifications for sex offender
notification laws — the need to inform
the public of the whereabouts of
released sex offenders — is misguided
(Wright, 2008). Since the victim and
the victim’s family know the sex

24 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

offender under notification, they
may be re-traumatized by the public
notification process. Nor does this
process give the community tools
to understand what to do to prevent
further harm or to support the victim.
Sex offender residence restrictions,
broadly applied to all sex offenders, also
appear to be limited in their ability to
prevent the sexual abuse of children.
In tracking the re-offense rate of a
group of released sex offenders, the
Minnesota Department of Corrections
concluded that “not a single reoffense would have been prevented
by an ordinance restricting where sex
offenders could live” (Duwe, Donnay,
& Tewksbury, 2008). They advised that
blanket policies restricting sex offender
residency are unlikely to benefit
community safety. In other research,
the Colorado Department of Public
Safety (2004) concluded that residence
restrictions are unlikely to deter sex
offenders from committing new
crimes, and that such policies should
not be considered viable strategies
for the protection of communities.

Residence restrictions, broadly
applied to all sex offenders
appear to be limited in
their ability to prevent the
sexual abuse of children.

The Unintended
Consequences
 The prevailing trends in sex
offender management legislative policy,
specifically public notification and
sex offender residence restrictions,
appear to have far-reaching unintended
and harmful consequences. As
researchers Zevitz and Farkas (2000)
note regarding public notification
on sex offenders, “When community
members are notified of sex offenders’
presence in their communities, there
are likely to be barriers erected to
full and successful integration of
such offenders into the community.”
When residence restriction laws
prohibit adults and youth who have
sexually abused from returning to
their homes and compel them to find
housing in increasingly distant and
remote areas, they are unlikely to
have access to the specialized services
and supervision that they may need
to reduce their personal risk factors
for re-offending. When stripped of
a sense of connectedness to family
and community support systems,
offenders may be more likely to return
to the harmful behaviors that these
policies are attempting to deter.

Experts who work with adolescents
and children who have sexually
abused also attest to the fact that
public notification and residence

restriction laws are “counterproductive
to the goal of these youth developing
the capacity to live successfully in
a pro-social environment” (Ryan,
2000). Further, many sex offender
policies, when applied to children
and adolescents, are contrary to the
core values of the American juvenile
justice system and may interfere with
needed treatment and management
practices (Association for the
Treatment of Sexual Abusers, 2007).
The broad application of sex offender
policies to adolescents and sometimes
children, and the lifelong implications
of being convicted of a sex offense,
may well decrease the willingness of
parents to report or seek help for their
child’s sexually abusive behaviors.
These kinds of policies may even
contribute to raising offenders’ risks
for re-offense. Multiple studies have
shown that sex offenders who are
subject to public notification and
residence restrictions suffer from
significant stress factors, such as the
loss of a job or home, harassment, and
physical assault. A majority of offenders
experience chronic difficulty finding a
place to live and are frequently forced
to move far away from the support
and resources that may keep them
stable. Most experience employment
instability (e.g., Colorado Department
of Public Safety, Division of Criminal
Justice, Sex Offender Management

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 25

Board, 2004; Kruttschnitt, Uggen, &
Shelton, 2000; Petersilia, 2003; Tonry,
2004; Uggen, 2002). These personal and
psychosocial stressors may serve as risk
factors for re-offense and re-arrest.
Research has consistently shown
that offenders who have positive
support systems, social bonds to the
community, and stable housing and
jobs, and whose basic human needs
are met, have significantly lower
recidivism rates. Furthermore, it is well
documented that the family members
of sexual abusers often struggle
with the stress, shame, and stigma
associated with having someone close
to them exposed as a sex offender (e.g.,
Farkas & Miller, 2007; Tewksbury
& Levenson, 2009). Tewksbury and
Levenson (2009) report that of the
584 family members of registered sex
offenders they surveyed, the majority
attested to frequent feelings of stress,
loss, loneliness, and isolation, as well
as avoidance of social activities due
to shame and embarrassment.
Researchers explain that family
members’ difficulties are “likely to add
yet more challenges and additional
barriers to RSOs’ [registered sexual
offenders’] successful (i.e., non–
criminal) community re-entry” (e.g.,
Farkas & Miller, 2007; Tewksubry &
Levenson, 2009). Since family members
are often the most likely people to

26 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

provide released offenders with a
foundation from which they can reenter the community, it is important for
these families to be stable themselves.
When they are experiencing stress,
angst, and stigmatization, family
members may be less likely to provide
the offender with the kinds of resources
and consistency necessary for living
safely in the community. Families may
also be less likely to keep a watchful
eye on the member of the family
returning from prison. Policies that
isolate family members from their
larger communities sacrifice a critical
component of sexual abuse prevention.
As offenders’ families and communities
experience the anger that is often
behind sex offender policies, they may
be unwilling to come forward when
they suspect that people they know
and care about are committing abuse
or are at risk to sexually abuse. As sex
offender policy causes offender despair,
isolation, and stigmatization, offenders
may feel they have increasingly less
to lose. Current policy reinforces the
belief that there is no help available
and that prevention and intervention
efforts will result only in incarceration,
punishment without rehabilitation,
ostracization, and shame for everyone
involved. When this is the perceived
outcome, these kinds of policies
become active deterrents to prevention.

In creating a policy environment
that may inhibit the willingness of
individuals, families, and communities
to face, prevent, and respond to
child sexual abuse, our society does
a disservice to its children. If no
hopeful, rehabilitative solutions are
available and made publicly known,
people who witness signs of risk for
victimization and/or perpetration
may be less motivated to take the steps
necessary to prevent child sexual
abuse, intervene in situations of risk,
and seek help when a child is sexually
abused. With unwillingness comes
hopelessness — a sense that child sexual
abuse is inevitable and unpreventable.

If no hopeful, rehabilitative
solutions are available and
made publicly known, people
who witness signs of risk for
victimization and/or perpetration
may be less motivated to take
the steps necessary to prevent
child sexual abuse, intervene in
situations of risk, and seek help
when a child is sexually abused.

Growing Critique of Current
Legislative Sex Offender Policy
 A cross-disciplinary array of
organizations and individuals has
expressed concerns about current
sex offender policy and offered
suggestions for alternative policies
and approaches to responding to
sex offenders and preventing child
sexual abuse. The National Alliance
to End Sexual Violence (2008) writes
in a position statement, “States and
communities across the nation are
developing measures to manage adult
sex offenders with the express purpose
of increasing safety for victims and
communities. Unfortunately, not all
measures currently being enacted
do, in fact, increase safety. Some put
communities at higher risk, while
others create a false sense of security.”
Professionals in the field of human
rights cite the ways in which sex
offenders and their families have
been harmed and point to the state’s
failure to protect its citizens against
harassment and vigilantism (Carey &
Human Rights Watch, 2005). The field
of public health calls for policies “that
alter developmental trajectories leading
to initial perpetration of violence” as
opposed to the exclusive use of afterthe-fact responses (National Center

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 27

for Injury Prevention and Control,
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 2009). Extensive
research within the field of juvenile
justice speaks of the responsiveness of
juveniles who have committed a sexual
offense to rehabilitative approaches
and the harmful consequences
of surveillance, monitoring, and
stigmatization (Petteruti & Walsh, 2008;
Tofte, 2007). The legal field has taken
notice as well. One legal scholar writes,
“Today, public outrage and political
risk-aversion have driven these [sex
offender] laws to the outer boundaries
of constitutionality” (Agudo, 2008).
Even some legislators who have passed
sex offender policies are concerned.
As the Council of State Governments
states in its 2010 report on sex offender
management, “Some state leaders have
expressed concern that the urgency
of efforts to strengthen sex offender
management policy is prohibiting
lawmakers from fully considering
the range of long-term impacts such
policies will have.” This widespread
concern with society’s current response
to the people who cause sexual harm is
significant. The moment has arrived in
which people, including professionals,
affected by child sexual abuse are

28 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

ready to craft new policies to prevent
re-offense and to prevent child sexual
abuse before it is perpetrated.

The moment has arrived in which
people, including professionals,
affected by child sexual
abuse are ready to craft new
policies to prevent re-offense
and to prevent child sexual
abuse before it is perpetrated.

Positive Trends in
Sex Offender Policy
The Use of Research
to Inform Policy
 One positive trend at the state
level is the creation of specialized
commissions or boards tasked with
examining the research relevant to
the formation of effective sex offender
management policy. Sex Offender
Management Boards (SOMBs) are
designed differently from state to state,
but often fulfill a legislative or other

mandate to develop and recommend
evidence-based policy, including
standards and guidelines for the
assessment, treatment, and monitoring
of sex offenders. These boards and
research commissions are composed of
experts from a variety of professional
fields concerned with sexual violence
prevention and response. In states
with SOMBs, policymakers and the
public have access to the cuttingedge research that can best guide the
crafting of effective sex offender and
perpetration prevention policies.
Another noteworthy trend in
sex offender management is the
development and implementation of
actuarial risk assessment instruments
(ARAIs) to examine the risk for reabuse by adults who have previously
abused. The knowledge and theoretical
foundation underlying risk assessment
is a cornerstone to the successful
management of adult sexual offenders.
As researchers Hanson and MortonBourgon (2007) write in their metaanalysis of 79 risk assessment accuracy
studies, “The effectiveness of [sex
offender management] policies rests on
the ability of evaluators to accurately
differentiate the offenders according
to risk level.” And as the results of

their meta-analysis attest, “For the
prediction of sexual recidivism, there
is strong evidence supporting the
reliability and validity of [actuarial
risk assessments].” Currently, states
such as Oregon and California use
risk assessment tools to determine
community supervision standards for
sex offenders on probation or parole.
Arizona uses an actuarial assessment
to make decisions about how to create
the most effective specialized treatment
plan for each sex offender. Minnesota
currently employs a risk assessment
process to determine which offenders
will be placed on the public Internet
registry. Using ARAIs allows public
officials to match each released sex
offender with the management tools
that best suit the level of risk the
offender poses to the community.

Another noteworthy trend in
sex offender management is the
development and implementation
of actuarial risk assessment
instruments (ARAIs) to examine
the risk for re–abuse by adults
who have previously abused.

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 29

Community Accountability
and Restorative Justice
There was a fundamental conf lict
between what the justice system does
with offenders and what the community
needed to do … We don’t label people.
We understand that the decisions that
we make today will affect our people for
several generations.
Berma Bushie, Co-founder of
Community Holistic Circle Healing, 1999
 Victims and their families are rarely
asked what their perception of justice
might be or what kind of disposition
they would want for the person who
harmed them. Often, assumptions
are made that victims desire harsh
punishment and tight surveillance of
the perpetrator. Victims, survivors,
and the people who surround them
do indeed express their need for the
abuse to stop and for the perpetrator
to be held accountable, but the range
of their desires for how this can be
accomplished is frequently much wider
than allowed for by current policy. As
Pennsylvania-based victim advocate
Mary Achilles (as cited in Brazemore,
1998) explains, “Victims frequently
want longer time for offenders because
we haven’t given them anything else.
Or because we don’t ask, we don’t
know what they want.” When given

30 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

a wider set of options for addressing
child sexual abuse, those affected by
it may be much more likely to choose
restorative solutions. One survivor
of child sexual abuse tells about her
needs for healing and justice:
I believe there is an assumption that
victims of sexual abuse want only harsh
punitive responses for their perpetrators.
The criminal justice system and others
speak on our behalves as they push
for stricter sentencing, community
notification, and other punishments that
probably don’t keep us safe anyway. A
few years after I was sexually abused as a
youth, I went to see a lawyer and I asked
him, “What are my options? What should
I do?” And he said, “Well that depends.
Let’s look at what justice looks like for you
in response to this situation. Since you
are in no danger right now, take time to
think. What do you need to happen? Think
short term and long term.” Grappling
with those questions was the most
important thing I could do for myself. I
think if a different lawyer had presented
me with punitive options rather than
these questions, I would have just chosen
those options without thinking about
whether that would make anyone safer or
whether that was what I really wanted.
When the conventional criminal
justice system is the only option
offered to families, it has the potential

to deter justice and reduce offender
accountability. For instance, once
a report of child sexual abuse has
been made to authorities, the current
criminal justice process in the United
States provides few, if any, incentives
for the person accused to admit to the
crime. Due to the adversarial nature of
the criminal justice system, when a state
presses charges, the person accused of
perpetrating child sexual abuse is most
often advised by defense attorneys to
plead innocence. In contrast, victims
have consistently reported that when
the abuser takes responsibility for his
or her crimes, this response can be a
cornerstone to the healing process.
Some communities that have suffered
from and grappled with abuse —
from both outside the community
and within it — have learned that a
punitive response alone to the person
who has abused is not an adequate
solution. Through a restorative
process, the abuser is given a clear
understanding of the impact of his
or her actions on the victim and on
the entire community. If the abuser
is able to accept responsibility for
the abuse, he/she is given support to
make restitution to the victim and the
community, desist from perpetrating
further harm, and eventually
reintegrate fully into the community. 8
8

These alternative modes of holding
abusers accountable create incentives
for individuals, families, community
members, people at risk to abuse, and
even those who have abused to come
forward to heal and prevent future
situations of child sexual abuse. There
are a number of successful examples of
this approach. The Community Holistic
Circle Healing (CHCH) project of the
Hollow Water First Nation in Manitoba,
Canada and New Zealand’s Family
Group Conferencing Program both use
a contract that requires that everyone
affected by a crime take responsibility
to keep a compassionate yet watchful
eye on the offender, be supportive of the
victim, and bring about changes to their
relationships that will minimize the risk
of future abuse. The premise behind this
healing and accountability process is that
every individual is a whole being, not just
a victim, an abuser, or a bystander with
no role to play. This response encourages
the entire community affected by the
abuse to be involved in changing the
norms that allow and even promote
abuse.9 The ten–year evaluation of the
CHCH program captured its remarkable
success in preventing sex offender
recidivism. Of 107 individuals who had
participated in the program — a number
of them considered at high risk to re–
abuse — two re–offended (Couture, 2001).

The field of restorative justice (sometimes called transformative justice) is well–developed and is used successfully as an alternative or

complement to the traditional criminal justice system. For more information on restorative justice generally, the work of Howard Zehr is key.
9

For additional information on the Community Holistic Circle Healing program, see the books Returning to the Teachings by Rupert Ross

and The Ethic of Traditional Communities and the Spirit of Healing Justice by Jarem Sawatsky.

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 31

Returning to the Community
 Most adults who are sent to jail for
sexual abuse are eventually released
back into the community. Currently,
over 700,000 registered sex offenders
live in communities throughout the
United States (National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children,
2010). Yet, with legislative attention
focused almost solely on surveillance
and monitoring of released sex
offenders, little support, such as jobs,
a place to live, specialized treatment,
and assistance with skill-building, is
made available to them. Additionally,
their communities typically lack
the skills to effectively hold former
offenders accountable, interact with
them, and ensure that the community
remains safe for children.

In some communities, however,
innovative programs that focus on
holding sex offenders accountable,
monitoring their behavior, and helping
them control abusive behaviors have
been implemented with success. These
communities are also integrating what
is known about abusers into child
sexual abuse prevention programs.

32 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

Reaching Abusers Not Known
to the Criminal Justice System
 Working with abusers who have
been reported to the system is essential,
but it is only a small part of how our
society needs to respond to keep
children safe and encourage prevention
before a child is harmed. Because only
12 percent of all cases of child sexual
abuse are reported to authorities
(Hanson, Resnick, Saunders,
Kilpatrick, & Best, 1999) and few
perpetrators are ultimately convicted
(e.g., Abel et al., 1999), policies designed
to prevent child sexual abuse and to
respond to the people who perpetrate
it must reach beyond the small number
of offenders who enter the system.
Policies must address the much larger
number of individuals who are never
reported, prosecuted, or convicted.

To address those unreported
individuals who have perpetrated
child sexual abuse, as well as those
who may be at risk to sexually abuse
a child, a small number of models
have been created. The Prevention
Project of Dunkelfeld, based in the
city of Berlin, Germany, developed a

program that offered treatment and
pharmaceutical options to anyone
who stepped forward to seek help
with sexually abusive behaviors.
Even with a limited public outreach
campaign, between 2005 and 2008,
over 800 individuals contacted the
program. Approximately 400 of these
individuals traveled to the program’s
outpatient clinic for a full assessment,
and 200 were invited to participate
in a one-year treatment program.

In a pilot program sponsored by Stop It
Now! Vermont, between the years 1995
and 1999, over 100 people, nearly all
adolescents, voluntarily came forward
for help with sexually abusive behaviors
and acts (Tabachnick & Dawson,
2000). Concurrent with the program’s
media outreach campaign, the juvenile
justice system in Vermont sponsored
a pre-sentence alternative program
for adolescents and children who had
perpetrated sexually abusive acts.

In the United States, two similar
programs were tested. Prior to changes
in mandatory reporting laws, the Johns
Hopkins Sexual Disorders Clinic
tracked the number of abusers who
voluntarily came forward for treatment.
When such reporting became
mandatory, the rate of self-referrals
dropped from approximately 7 per
year (73 over a 10-year period) to 0. The
rate of voluntary disclosures during
treatment also dropped to 0. According
to Dr. Fred Berlin (1991), the change
in laws may have prevented the clinic
from constructively interceding in the
lives of children who may still be at risk.

The enormous response to all of
these programs’ outreach campaigns
clearly demonstrates that the offer
for accountability through treatment
and other forms of non-punitive
management constitutes a hopeful
and successful approach to addressing
sex offenders and individuals at risk to
sexually abuse (Beier et al., 2009). ■

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 33

Recommendations
Should you think that I am soft on violent and sexual crime, let me assure you
that there is a dark painful part of my soul that wants people who hurt other
people to never take another comfortable breath. However let us be intelligent.
Given that we are a society of law, let us demand that the laws we do enact
achieve their intended mission. Let us stop creating a false sense of security
and wasting our precious resources on laws that simply do not work.
Andrea Casanova, Founding Director of the ALLY Foundation

Design and implement
evidence-informed policy.
 When the current trends in sex
offender legislation began, not much
was known about the people who
sexually abuse or about how best
to prevent ch i ld sex ua l abuse.
Today, there is a growing body of
research that examines factors
that may increase or decrease
offenders’ likelihood for re-offense,
assesses the effectiveness of existing

34 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

policies, suggests which risk and
protective factors can be incorporated
into prevention programming, and
delineates how to motivate the prevention
of, and intervention in, situations of
child sexual abuse. Policies will be most
effective when they are informed by
this growing research. Individuals,
families, and communities are most
likely to take action to prevent child
sexual abuse when policies based on
valid research, offender accountability,
and victim involvement de-stigmatize
offenders and offer a range of
possible actions and responses.

. 1. Establish Sex Offender
Management Boards (SOMBs) or
other comparable models for sex
offender management and research
purposes; prioritize their funding
at the federal and state levels:
Sex Offender Management Boards
serve as expert panels tasked
with establishing standards for
the assessment, treatment, and
management of different sex offender
populations. SOMBs can commission,
conduct, and analyze research about
sex offenders, integrate it into effective
sex offender policies, and make
recommendations to legislatures.
SOMBs should be comprised of
cross-disciplinary partners, including
professionals from the fields of
victim advocacy, public health, sex
offender treatment and management,
law enforcement, criminal justice,
restorative justice, juvenile justice,
and corrections. The interdisciplinary
nature of the SOMB model allows for
the cross-fertilization of expertise
and perspective necessary to conduct
research and establish policy in
an unbiased and comprehensive
manner. The SOMBs in California
and Colorado, among others, can
serve as models for other states,
tribes, and territories that would
like to design their own SOMBs.

2.

Match responses to the sex
offender’s assessed risk to
re-offend; ensure that actuarial
risk assessment instruments are
used to assess adult sex offenders:
The growing knowledge base
underlying risk assessment is a
cornerstone for creating the most
effective policies and practices for
sentencing and managing adults
who have sexually abused. The broad
application of policies in a “one size
fits all” approach does not utilize what
has been learned about people who
sexually abuse. Policy must be designed
to take into consideration offenders’
level of risk to re-offend in order to
use criminal justice, corrections,
treatment, and community-based
management resources where and
when they are most necessary for public
safety. Actuarial risk assessments
should be utilized to inform every
level of decision-making regarding
how adult sex offenders should
be supervised to prevent their reoffense. Approximately 25 states are
now using validated risk assessment
tools to make effective treatment and
management decisions for high to
low risk sex offenders (Daly, 2008).

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 35

3.

Ensure access to state-of-the-art
specialized sex offender treatment for
incarcerated and released offenders:
One of the most important tools for
the prevention of sex offender reoffense is specialized treatment that is
based on empirical investigation and
theoretical development. Specialized
sex offender treatment is designed
to prevent the recurrence of sexually
abusive and aggressive behavior by
helping offenders identify and change
thoughts, feelings, and actions that
may lead to sexual offending. It also
assists individuals to develop strategies
and plans to avoid and control, or
productively address, their risk factors
to perpetrate sexual harm and to
develop strengths and competencies to
avoid re-offending (Association for the
Treatment of Sexual Abusers, 2008).
4.

Establish policies tailored
to adolescents and children with
sexual behavior problems:
Because children and adolescents
have enormous potential to respond
to interventions and change
their behaviors, some states have
implemented policies specifically
designed for youth. These alternative
policies include required education
for caretakers and professionals
working with this population, separate

36 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

treatment standards for adolescents,
and exemption of youth from public sex
offender notification procedures. These
adolescent – and child-specific policies
should be developed in conjunction
with experts from fields such as child
and brain development, juvenile justice,
victim advocacy, and education.
5.

Create funding streams to
support research:
Quality research is the foundation
of effective sex offender assessment,
treatment, management, prevention
programming, and policy. As the
people who cause sexual harm are
further researched and understood,
individuals, communities, and
institutions will be able to more
effectively prevent and intervene
in child sexual abuse. State
and federal institutions must
prioritize funding for research
on child sexual abuse prevention,
victimization, and perpetration.

Develop community policies
that encourage responsibility
for prevention by expanding
the notion of offender
accountability, destigmatizing
offenders, and providing
safety, restitution, healing, and
avenues for input for victims
and the people who support
them.
 To create sustainable change that
can stop the cycle of abuse within
communities and families, the
people affected by child sexual abuse
must have a hand in designing the
policies that will affect them. Their
experience as the people who know
and care about the people who abuse
and those who have been abused will
enable them to produce a range of
options that are most appropriate for
their community. When communities
hold offenders accountable in
compassionate and thoughtful ways
that prevent re-offense, they increase
the likelihood that individuals will
get the help they need before they
perpetrate sexual abuse again.

Communities can design solutions
that care for victims of child sexual
abuse in ways that encourage optimal
healing for everyone involved.
1.

Expand community-based
policies and programs that employ
transformative and restorative
justice-based principles to address
offender accountability and
healing for everyone affected
by child sexual abuse:
Develop and implement communitydriven programs that train volunteers
to provide offenders returning to
communities with assistance and
support in reintegrating safely. Teach
compassionate vigilance in keeping
tabs on the offender, support victims,
and model relationships based on
mutual respect and appropriate
physical and sexual boundaries. Just
as other countries have invested in
alternative forms of community
accountability and justice, the United
States can offer support and incentives
for the development of communitybased programs that utilize alternative
approaches to the traditional criminal
justice and public safety models of
responding to child sexual abuse.

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 37

2.

Incorporate into
existing legislative policies
incentives for living safely:
Existing surveillance and monitoring
policies for adult and youth offenders
must be replaced with or include
developmentally and culturally
appropriate opportunities and
incentives for sex offenders to live safe
and productive lives. For example,
Levenson (2007) and others have
outlined criteria by which a sex
offender can request an exemption
from sex offender registration,
community notification, and residency
restrictions when the offender:
1) is assessed with a validated
risk assessment tool as posing a
low risk to the community;
2) has successfully completed an
adult sex offender treatment program;
3) has lived in the community
offense-free for at least five years; and
4) is clinically evaluated based
on input gathered from the victim
or victim advocate. Such a policy
would still hold accountable those
who have sexually abused but would
create evidence-based incentives for
law-abiding behavior and expand
opportunities for sustainable and
safe re-entry to the community.

38 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

3.

Allow communities to take
the lead in developing programs to
respond to child sexual abuse and its
perpetrators:
Community members and the
people affected by child sexual
abuse bring a unique perspective to
the development of prevention and
protection programs. Successful
programs listen to and address their
personal experiences and unique
cultural, ethnic, spiritual, and other
perspectives that affect their needs
and desires regarding child sexual
abuse and the people who perpetrate
it. When communities design their
own programs, they are more likely to
implement them and make them work.
4.

Involve cross-disciplinary
professional advisors in the planning,
design, and implementation of
community-based policies and
programs:
In order to design programs that
incorporate knowledge about
successful sex offender treatment
and management, victim advocacy,
and child sexual abuse prevention,
it is imperative that communities
draw upon professionals’ expertise
in program development and
implementation and their
knowledge of relevant research.

5.

Create funding streams to
support and broadly disseminate
information about successful
community-based policies and
programs:
Communities across the United
States have developed faith-based,
public health, and restorative and
transformative justice-based programs
to respond to and prevent child sexual
abuse. As the body of evaluative
research documenting the success
of these programs grows, public
forums need to discuss, share, and
expand these approaches. National
organizations addressing sex offender
treatment and management, victim
advocacy, criminal justice, and sexual
violence prevention can play a unique
role in focusing national attention
on these emerging success stories.
In order for communities to have
the capacity to develop, implement,
and evaluate culturally appropriate,
comprehensive, and effective policies
to respond to sex offenders and prevent
child sexual abuse, it is essential that
federal, state, and local governments
provide them with funding to do so.

Integrate what is known about
perpetration into prevention
programs, victim services,
and public education.
 Over the past several decades,
there has been a divide between the
professionals who work with victims
of child sexual abuse and those who
work with abusers. This lack of
communication and collaboration
mirrors the sense of isolation and
separation often experienced by
victims. The body of knowledge that
has been developed by both of these
groups can make programming for
preventing and responding to child
sexual abuse more comprehensive.
By incorporating perpetration
prevention efforts into their work,
organizations and communities
can shift societal comprehension
about perpetrators and make it
more comfortable for individuals,
families, and communities to
address and prevent situations
of risk for child sexual abuse.

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 39

1.

Design and promote
curricula that include perpetration
prevention approaches to the
prevention of child sexual abuse:
As research reveals more about
the risk factors for, and patterns of,
perpetration of child sexual abuse,
especially abuse perpetrated by
children and adolescents, organizations
and communities can design programs
focused on preventing the development
of sexually abusive behaviors.
Information about the continuum
of problematic sexual behavior, ageappropriate and developmentally
and culturally appropriate sexual
behaviors, and strategies for talking
about healthy sexual development and
relationships should be incorporated
into new perpetration prevention
programs. Materials created by many
programs, including the Sexuality
Information and Education Council of
the United States (SEICUS), the Kempe
Center, and the National Center on
Sexual Behavior of Youth, can serve
as building blocks for new curricula.

40 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

2.

Communicate the growing
knowledge about perpetration to the
public:
Because policy is often created
in response to public demands,
sharing accurate and evidencebased information with the public
will increase the likelihood of
public demand for appropriate and
effective policy for sex offenders
and for preventing child sexual
abuse. Involving the media in the
dissemination of accurate and nonsensationalized stories about child
sexual abuse and its perpetrators
and victims will also help shift the
public’s response to sex offending
and motivate the community’s desire
to prevent child sexual abuse.

3.

Create and offer opportunities
for adults and youth to get the
help they need to control or
prevent sexually inappropriate
and abusive behaviors:
Multiple programs have proven that
when help is offered to individuals who
are at risk to sexually abuse or who
have sexually abused, and when the
help is linked to community-focused
accountability, a significant number
of individuals will come forward to
take responsibility for their actions
and gain access to treatment services.
In the current political climate toward
people who sexually abuse, the most
feasible of these programs seem to
be those that offer opportunities for
youth to take responsibility for the
harm they have caused through abuse
and to work toward rehabilitation.
In some cases, these programs
have been linked to alternative and
deferred sentencing programs that
include community accountability
and service components, in addition
to a required treatment component.

4.

Increase the funding for
prevention and for positive
youth development:
Policy debates about sex offenders
have only recently begun to consider
the staggering costs of broadly applied
policies such as GPS monitoring,
increased community notification,
and other initiatives. At the same time,
studies have demonstrated that small
investments in community-based
prevention efforts have demonstrated
substantial returns and produced
significant public savings. Government
funding to keep children safe from
sexual abuse would do well to focus
on the creation of prevention efforts
and programs that promote positive
child and adolescent development. ■

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 41

Conclusion
 The United States is at a unique

point in time with regard to its potential
responses to child sexual abuse and
the people who perpetrate it. Possibly
for the first time, there is widespread
access to the information necessary
for a more realistic and holistic
understanding of the problem of child
sexual abuse. This understanding has
developed out of the very real stories
and experiences of sexual abuse that
communities face every day. This
awareness and deeper understanding
is also built upon a growing body of
research about the adults, adolescents,
and children who sexually abuse, the
children who are victimized by sexual
abuse, and the impact of sexual abuse
on the families and communities
of the victim and the abuser.
Given the complexity of the issue
and the diversity of communities
facing sexual abuse, an essential
change has begun. There is a growing
understanding that the simple solutions
offered by legislative policies broadly
applied to every offender have not been
effective in keeping children safe or
preventing sexual abuse. Furthermore,
the isolation and stigmatizing effect of

42 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

legislation on sex offenders and their
families have generated a number of
unintended consequences that limit
family, community, and societal ability
to prevent sexual abuse in the first
place. Tough restrictive policies are
needed for the most dangerous sex
offenders in society. But these policies
are applied broadly and typically
do not recognize the continuum
of behaviors of sexual abuse, the
range of ages of those who sexually
abuse, and the range of risk posed
by sex offenders to re-offend. At the
community level, where solutions are
informed by the realistic stories and
experiences of sexual abuse and the
full impact on the families of victims
and abusers, communities have created
a continuum of solutions to respond
to and prevent child sexual abuse.
Recent research into the assessment,
treatment, and management of
individuals who sexually abuse has
helped inform these communitybased solutions. The emerging
research offers hope to communities,
as it is clear that youth are particularly
responsive to treatment and the
frequency of re-offending is reduced
given appropriate interventions.

State-of-the-art treatment, recent
policy initiatives, and promising
management practices, such as
actuarial risk assessment for adults
and the establishment of Sex
Offender Management Boards,
reflect more hopeful and effective
responses to the continuum of
behaviors that are sexually abusive.
The most successful solutions
recognize the importance of involving
victims, families, and communities in
holding those who abuse accountable
for the harm caused. These solutions
also recognize the importance of
seeking opportunities to support and
offer incentives to those who abuse and
can learn to live healthy and safe lives
in communities. Current legislative
policymakers have the opportunity
to learn from these communitybased solutions, which involve the
entire family and community as a
resource for accountability, support,
and healing. When society begins
to invest in offering a continuum of
solutions that mirrors the continuum
of sexual violence, society can retain
the sanctions necessary for those
individuals who cannot or are not

willing to change; there will be an
assumption that adolescents and
children will be offered a chance
to live healthy productive lives;
and individuals and families may
be more willing to reach out for
help to prevent child sexual abuse.
With this access to information and
new solutions, policymakers can
transform the prevailing responses
of silence and fear toward a society
of hope and prevention. ■

ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH | 43

Appendix A: Current Sex Offender Legislation
Type of Legislation

Description

Intended Purpose

Civil Commitment

Legislation that provides a legal mechanism
for the confinement of adult sexual
offenders in secure treatment facilities
after their sentences are completed and
when a court determines that they are
“sexually violent predators,” i.e. likely to
engage in future acts of sexual violence.

To provide a safeguard to communities
by incapacitating a high-risk
subgroup of sex offenders.

Mandatory Minimum
Sentencing

Policy that mandates that people convicted
of certain crimes must be punished with at
least a prescribed number of years in prison.
Judges do not have discretion to determine
a sentence, and sentencing cannot take
into account any mitigating factors.

To ensure that people who are
convicted of certain sex offenses are
punished uniformly and adequately.

Sex Offender
Registration

A system that requires people convicted
of sex offenses who are returning to
communities post-incarceration to register
their whereabouts, and in many cases
check in regularly with law enforcement.

To provide law enforcement with a tool
to track sex offenders. Can aid in the
swift location of individuals if they come
under suspicion for a new offense.

Public Registration
(aka Community/
Public Notification)

A process by which the public broadly
and/or a specific community is notified
either passively (e.g., information is made
available via the Internet) or actively (e.g.,
information is made available through
notices in the newspaper or delivered to
homes in a community) about the proximity
and presence (i.e., residence, job, or
school location/s) of a sex offender.

To encourage community members
to keep themselves and others safe
from sexual abuse by knowing that a
person previously convicted of a sex
offense is in the vicinity of their homes.

Residence
Restrictions

State law or local ordinance that restricts
where sex offenders can live. Examples
include 500 to 2,500 feet from places
where children/minors might congregate,
such as schools, playgrounds, day
cares, parks, and recreation centers.

To prevent sexual recidivism by keeping
sex offenders away from children; to
reduce the number of sex offenders in
a particular community (Lester, 2009).

Electronic Monitoring
and Global Positioning
System (GPS) Tracking

The application of technological devices
to track the movements of someone
previously convicted of a sex offense
who has returned to the community.

To give parole agents and/or law
enforcement a computerized record
of a sex offender’s movements
and to alert them to movement
to a prohibited location.

Jessica’s Laws

Jessica’s Laws are not uniform from
state to state but do tend to include
similar components across states. These
components include, but are not limited
to, increased sex offender registration
requirements and penalties for failure
to register, guidelines for mandatory
sentencing and residence restrictions,
and the establishment of electronic
monitoring of certain adult sex offenders.

To create a comprehensive,
state–wide policy response to sex
offenders returning to communities.

44 | ATSA | A REASONED APPROACH |

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About the Authors
Joan Tabachnick is nationally recognized for her expertise in sexual
violence prevention and social marketing. Over the past 20 years, she has
developed award –winning educational materials and innovative programs
for a wide variety of national, state, and local organizations. Her most
recent work includes a National Sexual Violence Resource publication
titled Engaging Bystanders in Sexual Violence Prevention and a blog by the
same name. Visit www.joantabachnick.com for more information.

Alisa Klein serves as the Public Policy Consultant to the Association
for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. Her areas of expertise include the
development of public policy approaches and strategic plans for the
prevention of, and response to, sexual violence; public health prevention of
interpersonal violence; sex offender policy; and preventing and responding
to sexual violence in disasters. She has served as a consultant to the National
Sexual Violence Resource Center, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, and other local and state-based victim advocacy organizations.
She can be contacted at alisaklein@comcast.net.

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