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46 How. J. Crim. Just. 1 (2007)

handle is hein.journals/hjcj46 and id is 1 raw text is: The Howard Journal Vol 46 No 1. February 2007 ISSN 0265-5527, pp. 1-15 Circles of Support and Accountability: Engaging Community Volunteers in the Management of High-Risk Sexual Offenders ROBIN J. WILSON, ANDREW McWHINNIE, JANICE E. PICHECA, MICHELLE PRINZO and FRANCA CORTONI Robin J. Wilson is Professor and Program Co-ordinato Humber Institute of Technology and Applied Learning, Toronto, Canada; Andrew McWhinnie is Director Andrew McWhinnie Consulting Services, Victoria, British Columbia; Janice E. Picheca is Psychologist, Correctional Service of Canada; Michelle Prinzo is Psychological Associate, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada; Franca Cortoni is Director of Programs Research, Correctional Service of Canada Abstract: The release to the community of a sexual offender is frequently accompanied by intense coverage in the news media. Too often, the type of coverage these releases receive serves only to force many offenders into hiding or out of one community and into another. Forced to move to another community, the scapegoating process starts all over again. It is well known that secrecy and isolation are critical elements in sexual offending behaviour. Thus, forcing offenders into hiding does nothing to increase community safety or offender accountability and, arguably, increases the risk that new victims will be created. The most problematic releases are those in which sexual offenders arrive in a community with few or no links, and with little access to appropriate treatment and supervisory services. This article outlines a restorative approach to the risk management of high-risk sexual offenders in Canada using professionally-facilitated volunteerism. The Circles of Support and Accountability model grew out of an ad hoc, faith-based response to a situation much like that described above in South-Central Ontario, Canada. The resultant pilot project has since reached its twelfth anniversary and the model has proliferated both nationally and internationally. In the summer of 1988, a notorious sexual offender, Joseph Fredericks, succeeded in achieving a conditional release allowing him to serve the remainder of his sentence in the community under supervision. He subsequently kidnapped, raped, and killed eleven-year-old Christopher Stephenson. Fredericks, himself, was later murdered in jail. Although other tragedies had occurred around about the same time, the Stephenson 1 0 2007 The Authors journal compilation 0 2007 The Howard League Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ UK

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