The characteristics of registered sexual offenders in an Australian jurisdiction

摘要

Current policies to manage convicted sexual offenders living in the community do not differentiate between those at different levels of risk. This is important if risk management strategies are to be better targeted. However, current methods of categorizing risk bands rely on the application of data from other populations, and thus may lack validity when used in jurisdictions other than those in which the validation data were collected. This study provides a descriptive analysis of cases managed by police in one Australian jurisdiction, presenting the offence histories and risk profiles of this population. The analysis shows that the heterogeneity exists in relation to offence type, level of risk, and victim characteristics, suggesting that more sophisticated systems of offender classification are likely to be required if judgements about risk are to inform offender management and the investigation of new sexual crime.