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9 Legal & Criminological Psych. 1 (2004)

handle is hein.journals/legadclpy9 and id is 1 raw text is: Legal and Criminological Psychology (2004), 9, 1-10 © 2004 The British Psychological Society www.bps.org.uk Sexual offenders discharged from prison in England and Wales: A 21-year reconviction study Jenny Cann*, Louise Falshaw and Caroline Friendship Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, Home Office, UK Purpose. This study examined the reconviction rates of a cohort of sexual offend- ers released from prison in England and Wales during 1979. A 21-year follow-up period was used and sexual, violent and general reconvictions assessed. Method. The sample consisted of all adult male sexual offenders discharged from prison in England and Wales during 1979 (N = 419). Criminal conviction histories were obtained for the sample from the Offenders Index and sexual, violent and general reconvictions were calculated, over a period of 21 years (1979-2000). Results. A quarter (24.6%) of the sample received a reconviction for a sexual offence over the 21-year follow-up period, 21.7% received a violent reconviction and 61.8% received a general reconviction. A proportion of the sample received their first sexual reconviction 5, 10 or 15 years after being discharged from custody, thus remaining at risk of reconviction for many years. Conclusions. The findings from this study give a unique insight into the long-term offending of discharged sexual offenders in England and Wales and have implications for the supervision of such offenders. Follow-up studies of convicted sexual offenders released from prison custody have examined subsequent offending behaviour using a variety of outcome measures and time periods. In England and Wales, research has focused on sexual reconviction (as a proxy for sexual reoffending). The most commonly used definition of this is that described by Furby, Weinrott, and Blackshaw (1989): 'The conviction of another sexual offence during a specified follow-up period'. For research purposes, conviction data are relatively easily accessed as they are officially recorded (Friendship & Thornton, 2002). In contrast, North American studies mainly use recidivism to evaluate sexual reoffending among an offender population and this can refer to a number of different behaviours. Maltz (1984) identified nine different indicators of recidivism *Correspondence should be addressed to Jenny Cann, Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, Home Office, Room 41I, Horsefery House, Dean Ryle Street, London SWIP 2AW, UK (e-mail: jennifer.cann@homeoffre.gsi.gov.uk).

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