Understanding what works in the police management of child sex offenders in the community

Abstract

Police are becoming increasingly responsible for monitoring convicted child sex offenders in the community. A Rapid Evidence Assessment was undertaken to capture ‘what works’ and what ‘shows promise’ in existing and emerging, innovative policing practices. A total of 920 searches were performed across five databases, spanning the last 5 years. After removal of duplicates and those that did not meet inclusion criteria, 61 articles were analysed. Two key strategies, with sub-strategies, emerged: (1) formalised, targeted management and (2) technology-assisted management. An adapted ‘EMMIE’ framework presents the ‘effects’, the overarching ‘mechanisms’ and ‘moderators’ of success, and ‘implementation’ considerations for effective practice.

Keywords

Law enforcement sex offender registration child sex offender community

Introduction

There is growing recognition of the extent and impact of sexual violence across the globe (Mathers et al., 2009; World Health Organization, 2014), which has spurred investment into sexual violence prevention and responses. While preventing sexual violence from occurring in the first place is the best outcome, the elimination of sexual violence is likely impossible. This means that effective efforts to respond to and prevent recidivism are necessary and important. Although law enforcement has traditionally played a central role in the investigation and arrest of perpetrators, over time police have become routinely responsible for the monitoring and management of convicted child sex offenders in the community.

With the increase of convicted offenders living in the community, the way child sex offenders are managed by law enforcement has changed (Day et al., 2016). Policing roles and subsequent public policies have been implemented across most Western jurisdictions in an effort to manage the behaviour of known sex offenders in the community (Day et al., 2014a). This has shifted the focus from traditional policing duties and philosophies regarding investigation and arrest, towards risk, case, and resource management approaches more akin to their probation and parole, health, and community support colleagues (Cubellis et al., 2016; Day, 2014; Kewley, 2017a, 2017b; Nash, 2016).¹

Embodied within this change in duties, law enforcement is accountable for upholding community safety, while balancing the protection of registered sex offenders’ rights (Gaines, 2006). Tensions between traditional police practices and those required to operate community based child sex offender registries require exploration to ensure community mandated management of this offender population is optimised to minimise risks, and prevent further victimisation. This is particularly important when costs continually inflate with the increase of offenders on the register and respective monitoring (Smallbone and Wortley, 2000), suggesting an ongoing intensification of resources required to manage an expanding cohort of convicted child sex offenders in the community.

Purpose of study and research questions

The scale of issues relating to the police management of child sex offenders in the community is substantial and growing (Day et al., 2016). For example, between 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 in Australia, sexual assault and related offences had the largest percentage increase (11%) in defendants finalised in the courts, behind weapons/explosives and robbery/extortion offences (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019). Given the growing scale and emerging complexities, there is a strong need for evidence-based policing. Accordingly, this rapid evidence assessment (REA) was undertaken to inform policing in this field, with the aim of examining the current evidence in police management practices with convicted child sex offenders in Western society. Specifically, the following research questions were addressed: (1) ‘what works’ in the police management of child sex offenders in the community?; and (2) what ‘shows promise’ in the police management of child sex offenders in the community? The second research question sought to capture emerging, innovative approaches. The practical implications of these findings should enhance police management of convicted child sex offenders in the community across Western jurisdictions, to reduce offending, and increase public safety.

Method

Data sources and search strategy

Using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (Moher et al., 2009), an electronic search across key databases, spanning the last 5 years, was performed to locate, assess, and review the most up-to-date literature on the police management of convicted child sex offenders in the community. A REA was employed, in which the authors: (1) searched the literature as comprehensively as possible within the time constraints; (2) collated descriptive outlines of the available evidence and critically appraised it; (3) removed studies of poor quality; and (4) provided an overview of the evidence. Microsoft Excel software was used to store search results at each stage in the search strategy.

As indicated in Figure 1, a total of 920 searches were conducted across five databases (PsychNET, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science). These five databases were systematically searched using strategically designed combinations of key words, with Boolean operators of: police, child, sex*, offend*, community, manag*, molest*, paedo*, pedo*, risk, intelligence, info*, supervision, monitor*, situation*, resourc*, regist*, indigenous, native, aboriginal, ethnic*, elder*, youth, adoles*, juvenile*, teen*, women, female, procedur* justice, probation, parole, release, residential, and re-entry or reentry. This generated 28,938 document references.

Figure 1.

PRISMA flow diagram of literature search and document selection (Moher et al., 2009).

Articles were included if they were: (1) published in English between 1 January 2014 and 20 June 2019; (2) available in full-text; and (3) studies that directly related to, or informed, the police management of child sex offenders in the community. The following results were excluded: (A) articles regarding pre-conviction management of alleged sex offenders in the community; (B) articles that related to sex offender treatment programs; and (C) articles specific to countries with significant cultural, policy, or police structure differences to Western jurisdictions. Any disagreements throughout pertaining to eligibility were overcome through discussions among the authors during the screening process.

Duplicates were removed across the 28,938 document references, and the results from each database were then combined yielding 5,976 titles. Data was then sorted for ‘document type’ and books, book chapters, literature reviews, assessment tools, news articles, editorials, and commentary were removed, leaving 3,968 articles, which were screened for inclusion in the review.² Subsequent manual scans of document titles and abstracts, and text searching for the terms police, community, regist*, reentry, re-entry and manag*, resulted in 3,638 further documents being excluded. Articles were excluded on the basis of being wholly focused on criteria A to C above, or were otherwise off-topic (e.g., exclusively focused on non-sexual offenders or did not focus on sexual offenders being managed in community settings). One researcher conducted each step of the document capture process, which was reviewed and endorsed by the chief researcher at each step. As another form of validation, articles excluded during this process were later manually reviewed by title and abstract to ensure all articles were correctly excluded.

Of the remaining 330 articles, 181 were excluded due to lack of relevance to the two research questions. The remaining 149 articles were manually scanned by title and abstract; 101 were excluded based on closer application of the exclusion criteria (A to C), resulting in 48 articles. An ancestry approach was then applied, and 13 articles and grey literature were identified via the reference lists of the identified articles, and by policy, practice, and academic knowledge of researchers, resulting in a final sample of 61 papers. The final set of articles and grey literature were again reviewed by the chief researcher by title and abstract, and endorsed for inclusion. In terms of methodological quality, the current review comprised 15 case studies or narrative reviews, 3 clinical practice guides, 20 case controlled studies, 19 comparative cohort studies, and 4 meta-analyses or systematic reviews.

Data synthesis

To provide a tangible review for policy and practice professionals, the research was informed by a ‘realist evaluation’ framework (Pawson and Tilley, 1997), focused on understanding the context and mechanisms of change, in addition to outcomes. This was operationalised via an adapted version of the ‘EMMIE’ framework (Johnson et al., 2015). EMMIE has become a common approach guiding systemic reviews in the crime prevention field, including for examining ‘what works’ in policing (see Bowers et al., 2017; Crime Reduction Toolkit, College of Policing, 2017). EMMIE is an acronym for Effects, Mechanisms, Moderators, Implementation, and Economic Value (Johnson et al., 2015). ‘Effects’ refer to the overall effectiveness of a crime prevention strategy. ‘Mechanisms’ refer to the way that a strategy produces the effect; that is, the mechanisms of change. ‘Moderators’ are the internal or external conditions that might impact the strategy outcomes; these are the conditions that are either critical for, or are a barrier to, the success of the strategy. ‘Implementation’, in turn, refers to how the strategy should be delivered. Finally, ‘Economic value’ (outside the scope of the current study) refers to the costs associated with the delivery of the strategy. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the current evidence in police management practices of child sex offenders in the community using the EMMIE framework. As the realist approach offers policy and practice professionals insight into the theory behind strategies and the various complexities involved, this study offers great practical relevance to enhance the management of convicted child sex offenders in the community, to reduce reoffending and improve public safety.

Results

Two key strategies were identified in the literature on the police management practices of child sex offenders in the community: (1) formalised, targeted management and (2) technology-assisted management. The results of the REA are presented as follows. First, a brief summary of the two key strategies are provided, followed by the known ‘effects’ of these strategies. The overarching ‘mechanisms’ across the two strategies are provided, then the ‘moderators’ across the strategies are discussed. This section finishes with a discussion on ‘implementation’ considerations. While this review is comprised of predominantly contemporary work, earlier influential work is also discussed and referenced within scope articles. Table 1 summarises the results discussed below.

Table 1.

Strategies presented via EMMIE framework.

	Formalised, Targeted Management	Technology-Assisted Management
Effects overall effectiveness	Prioritisation of high risk offenders through risk assessment: Predictive ability of risk assessments identifies those of high risk Police oversight through sex offender registration: Reduces frequency of reoffending and increases public safety	Electronically monitored bracelets: Reduces recidivism and enhances compliance Polygraph: Increases significant disclosures and reduces denials Linguistic technologies: Enhances intelligence gathering, supervision and monitoring Computer scans onsite: Increases surveillance penetration and saturation, reduces backlog of forensic examination and increases device processing Remote monitoring software: Saves time and resources and acquires intelligence
Mechanisms how effects are produced	Prioritised and targeted management enables planning for higher risk offenders thus enhancing efficiencies to maximise resource effectiveness and reduce reoffending according to principles of RNR Targeting interventions enhances successful community reintegration and rehabilitative opportunities Specific and general deterrence through guardianship, disruption and reducing opportunity to offend Information gathering identifies offending behaviour, crime and suspects, enhances truthful disclosure, future investigations and guardianship and informs risk assessment and management Relationship skills enhances information gathering and surveillance skills and expediates pre-operation preparation
Moderators conditions that might impact the strategy outcomes	Heterogeneity of the child sex offender population Law enforcements’ perceptions, rapport, and interview skills Community characteristics Law enforcements’ training, supervision, and resources Information sharing among professionals
Implementation considerations for implementation	Individualised and contextual responses A focus on law enforcements’ capability, needs, and insights

Summary of strategies

Formalised, targeted management

Formalised, targeted management was identified as an overarching key strategy in the literature, and comprised two sub-strategies: (1) prioritisation of high risk offenders through risk assessments and (2) police oversight through sex offender registration (see Table 1). First, risk factors relating to the recidivism of child sex offenders has received a lot of research attention, with categorisations around static and dynamic factors associated with recidivism (Willis and Grace, 2009). Through the implementation of risk management tools, police can distinguish between lower and higher risk groups, directing specialist resources to manage offenders, with high-intensity services and management devoted to high risk offenders. Second, sex offender registration schemes are diverse, target a range of offender types, and may include elements of residence restrictions (e.g., not to reside near schools, playgrounds, or day care centres; Stucky and Ottensmann, 2016) or community notification where members of the public have limited access to offender related information. Through police oversight (i.e., formal guardianship), sex offender registration attempts to control known sex offender behaviour in the community (specific deterrence) and deter potential offenders (general deterrence).

Technology-assisted management

Technology-assisted management appears to be an emerging area of development for the management of child sex offenders in the community, evidenced by promising research findings. Technology-assisted management comprised five sub-strategies: (1) electronically monitored bracelets, (2) polygraph, (3) linguistic technologies, (4) computer scans on site, and (5) remote monitoring software. Electronically monitored bracelets locate an offender’s whereabouts using satellite tracking global positioning systems (GPS), providing travel patterns and real-time tracking (Lilley, 2016). Polygraphs record physiological activity associated with central nervous system arousal. However, despite being used to monitor sex offender compliance since the 1970’s, a widespread post-conviction supervision/treatment tool in 1990’s, and now a mandatory requirement of release in many United Kingdom (UK) cases (Lilley, 2016), there is a lack of research into post-conviction recidivism (Vess, 2011).

With increased opportunities for accessing child abuse material online (Garrington et al., 2018), linguistic technologies may be an appropriate strategy for monitoring online offenders and mixed offenders (those who engage in online and contact offences). Linguistic technologies can equip undercover police to more accurately impersonate potential online child sexual abuse victims using computer mediated discourse analysis of linguistic features such as grammar, lexis, punctuation, and mode of production (MacLeod and Grant, 2016). Through the creation of a software tool, linguistic models are generated from transcripts, expediting pre-operation preparation. It is suggested that the benefits of this tool are translatable to monitoring child sex offenders in the community.

Regarding computer scans on site, a memory stick performs a fast scan of computer contents to establish if it merits seizure for full forensic laboratory examination (Lilley, 2016). It flags certain words, high image to text ratios, high ratio of flesh coloured pixels, and ‘fuzzy’ (close) matches, and can be configured to search particular areas of a computer (Lilley, 2016). Finally, remote monitoring software is installed on offenders’ devices and runs constantly in the background, monitoring their use for inappropriate images, words, and phrases held in predefined libraries related to child abuse material and grooming (Lilley, 2016). If suspicious activity is detected, it takes a screen-shot and sends it to a secure server that officers can monitor remotely (Lilley, 2016).

Effects

Formalised, targeted management

Prioritisation of high risk offenders through risk assessments

While the predictive ability of risk assessment tools is undermined by the underreporting of criminal behaviour in general, and conservative recording of charges and convictions, particularly for sexual offences (Jung, 2018), a few risk assessments can reliably classify and predict risk. High quality risk assessments are imperative through the way they can inform decision making – and prioritisation – assisting the management of child sex offenders in the community. As individual patterns of offending provide the best guide for identifying risk, experts in the management of sex offenders in the community cite concern regarding over-reliance on Static-99, RSVP, Stable2007, and Acute2007 risk measurement tools, and emphasise the importance of conducting assessments that include both static and dynamic factors (Day et al., 2014b). While the Static2000R is often shown to out-predict the Static-99 for sexual, violent and general recidivism, and demonstrates excellent inter-rater reliability for Canadian police information, it assesses general, violent, and sexual reoffending differentially, and more or less accurately for different populations; it also has not been normed for child sex offender populations (Jung, 2018; Jung and Wielinga, 2019).

The Risk Matrix 2000 (RM2000) is a statistically derived risk assessment tool that helps classify potential recidivism of registered sex offender groups and is widely used (Day et al., 2016; Kewley and Blandford, 2017; Powell et al., 2014; Whitting et al., 2017). In fact, the RM2000 is the industry standard throughout the criminal justice system in the UK and, in particular, provides the police with direction on coordinating resources (Kewley and Blandford, 2017). Data from six international studies demonstrated the RM2000 had better predictive ability than comparable measures (Hanson and Morton-Bourgon, 2009). Day et al. (2016) found very few ‘low’ risk offenders assessed using the RM2000 had reoffended (2%) compared with those assessed as medium, high or very high (recidivism range: 53 to 58%), highlighting its predictive ability. However, in one Australian study that attained perceptions of police who operate the sex offender registry, the police described the RM2000 as crude because it did not take dynamic factors into account such as living conditions, social support and case management, and circumstances particular to the offence (Powell et al., 2014).

Dynamic factors are important as ‘risk’ is not just a probability that remains static over time. Lussier and Gress’s (2014) longitudinal study of Canadian sex offenders (n = 169) found it is pivotal that risk management considers dynamic factors that may be triggered during the community re-entry phase and lead to reoffending. Some dynamic factors are more stable than sexual interest in children, sexual arousal to violent stimuli, and intimacy deficits (Kewley et al., 2020). Protective factors, namely strengths that support desistance of offending, are also an emerging area of interest (Kewley, 2017a; Ward, 2017), despite being central to social work approaches, and Child Protection legislation and practice guidelines (Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services, 2015). One example is the Active Risk Management System (ARMS). ARMS is used throughout all police areas in England and Wales. It rates static (RM2000), dynamic risk, and protective factors to generate an overall risk rating, summarises risk and reasons, and develops a comprehensive risk management strategy considering past and present circumstances, likely scenarios and SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound) actions to be taken (Kewley and Blandford, 2017). Despite the promise of more accurate and in-depth risk analysis and planning that dynamic factors offer, some academics caution that there is some disconnection between dynamic factors and theoretical work (Ward and Beech, 2015).

Police oversight through sex offender registration

The many forms of sex offender registration schemes do not all appear to have the same level of effectiveness. For example, while some research has noted the benefits of residence restrictions, particularly the decreases in sex crimes against adults (Socia, 2012), such restrictions can result in obstructed access to treatment and limited residential availability (Barnes et al., 2009), resulting in concentrations of sex offenders in socio-economically deprived areas.

The research on community notification appears mixed. In one Texan study, Bouffard and Askew (2019) analysed data across 1977 to 2012 and found no effect for community notification schemes on sexual assault generally (n = 10,118), no effect for child sex offences (n = 32,888), nor for crimes by repeat offenders (n = 23,011). Prescott and Rockoff (2008) found sexual recidivism was increased by community notification due to financial, psychological, and social costs of it, with criminal activity becoming more attractive. Similarly, research regarding the impact of Oklahoma’s Megan’s Law revealed higher rates of sexual crime associated with community notification (Griggs, 2015).³ In addition to the fiscal costs (Levenson et al., 2016), several scholars have concluded that community notification reduces time to fail measured by rearrest, reconviction, or reincarceration (Duwe and Donnay, 2008; Freeman, 2012).

There may, however, be some positive impacts in community notification. Agan and Prescott’s (2014) nine-year study in the United States (US) found that notification appears to reduce victimisation risk; risk for rape by almost 8% and for sex offences against children by more than 6%. They speculated these effects may be the result of precautions taken by parents given their knowledge of known child sex offenders in the area through community notification. Agan and Prescott (2014) suggested these effects could also be the result of community notification deterring potential offenders from offending in the area, and/or that more intensive policing in neighbourhoods with registered sex offenders deters or displaces child sex offending, or makes it more difficult to perpetrate.

Prescott and Rockoff (2008) found that police oversight, monitoring, and apprehension reduced the frequency of sex offences within local communities by 13% (with law enforcement having access to information on local sex offenders). They also found that notification schemes deterred first-time offenders because of the awareness of registration and notification programs and associated perceptions of higher risk of future detection and apprehension. Further, they did not find any evidence of crime displacement (i.e., increased victimisation of strangers), but nor did they find any evidence of a deterrent effect for registration schemes alone (Prescott and Rockoff, 2008). Although, other (some larger) studies have found no effect on deterrence, overall offending rates, or recidivism (Sandler et al., 2008; Vásquez et al., 2008).

Registration, which does not extend to notification, that involves sex offenders registering their details (such as residential locations) with the police (which is kept confidential), appears effective from police officers’ perspectives. Australian and US studies found police working in the area of sex offender registration held the view that it was better to have a sex offender register than not in terms of its contribution to public safety (Cubellis et al., 2016; Masters and Kebbell, 2019; Powell et al., 2014; Veri, 2016). Such police oversight through the register has been suggested by police officers to assist in identifying suspects, gathering general intelligence, and enhancing future investigations (Masters and Kebbell, 2019).

Technology-assisted management

Electronically monitored bracelets

Of the limited evidence, one evaluation conducted in England and Wales found tracking may help protect the public from high risk violent offenders (Shute, 2007), although, this evaluation did not report on sex offenders specifically. One study conducted in the US on high risk sex offenders, found sex offenders who were subject to satellite tracking had better outcomes regarding recidivism and compliance (Gies et al., 2012). In fact, Gies et al. (2012) found those not subject to satellite tracking had a sex-related violation three-fold to the tracked group. While bracelets may deter or interrupt child sex offenders, they cannot stop child sexual abuse occurring (Lilley, 2016). They foster suspicion and anxiety, offer false reassurance about safety, and do not promote positive behaviour or reintegration, although, they may be appropriate for offenders triggered by geographical opportunity (Lilley, 2016).

Polygraph

Despite the issues with sensitivity and accuracy, along with its limited evidence base (Vess, 2011), in some countries the polygraph is widely used as a supervision tool. It facilitates increases in significant disclosures, reduces denials, and increases reporting of high risk behaviour, all of which allow better risk assessment and targeting of interventions (Madsen and Addison, 2013). In one study, Gannon et al. (2014) investigated the mandatory UK polygraph trial and found a higher proportion of community-supervised sex offenders subject to the polygraph made disclosures (76.5%) in contrast with the comparison group (51.2%). Most of the disclosures related to the polygraph session itself, indicating the influence of the polygraph on the offenders. Polygraphed sex offenders made more than twice the amount of clinically relevant disclosures than non-polygraphed offenders, and those disclosures were mostly made during the polygraph session (Gannon et al., 2014). They found that while one-third of offenders, most of whom were higher risk, failed their first test with ‘deception indicated’, this prompted clinically relevant disclosures (Gannon et al., 2014). They also found sex offender register police were more likely to take action with regard to these disclosures and considered the polygraph a useful supervision tool (Gannon et al., 2014). The polygraph could, however, be perceived as coercive, thereby undermining treatment and/or reintegration (Lilley, 2016). Given the stigma attached to child sex offenders (Tewksbury et al., 2014) and child sex offenders being less likely to disclose than other offenders (Read et al., 2014), tools that facilitate disclosures amongst this population are considered important elements of treatment and supervision.

Linguistic technologies

When it comes to offenders who may also perpetrate online child sex offences, linguistic technologies have widespread police use. However, there is no evidence to date to suggest linguistic monitoring reduces internet based or other forms of child sex offending. Instead, this research focuses on a single case in which undercover officers attempted to impersonate a teenage female victim during a training task, with reference to the historical instant messaging logs (MacLeod and Grant, 2016). While this research is still in its infancy, linguistic technologies show their potential in the community management of child sex offenders as they are low cost, less resource intensive tools that can be usefully applied in the community on a needs basis for risk assessment and planning, and can be used for intelligence gathering, supervision, and monitoring.

Computer scans onsite

This software is relatively low cost, is designed for use by non-specialists, and can be used on any computer, and in various situations, such as home visits (Lilley, 2016), including the monitoring of child sex offenders. During the pilot of these devices, five UK police forces reduced their backlog of devices waiting forensic examination by 60% and increased device processing by 90% (Police Professional 2012 in Lilley, 2016). Lawton (2011) evaluated eight commercially available triage tools and found their effectiveness ranged from 36% to 82% against weighted criteria (including keywords related to child abuse material, hash set of indecent images, and time taken).

Remote monitoring software

One-third of UK police forces use this software to manage some child sex offenders in the community (Lilley, 2016). A modest UK study found remote management saved time and resources, there was little increase in workload, and intelligence acquired helped build a valuable picture of offender behaviour (Elliott, 2008). Offenders reported that the software was preferable to home visits (i.e., less obtrusive than onsite scans), acted as a specific deterrent, and allowed them to evidence good behaviour (Lilley, 2016).

Shared mechanisms of key management strategies

Four shared mechanisms were identified when synthesising the literature. This section provides a discussion of these overarching mechanisms: (1) prioritisation and enhanced efficiencies, (2) community reintegration and rehabilitation, (3) guardianship, deterrence, and disruption, and (4) information gathering and relationship skills. While further research is required, technology-assisted management is suggested to bring about the effects of preventing reoffending through each of these mechanisms, whereas formalised, targeted management effectiveness predominantly operates through mechanisms of guardianship (including deterrence) as well as prioritisation (targeting of resources to those of highest risk) and enhanced efficiencies. Collectively, these mechanisms operate to maximise police effectiveness and offender rehabilitative opportunities to successfully reduce child sexual offending and increase public safety.

Prioritisation and enhanced efficiencies

The New Penology logic focuses on efficient risk management and system control, including the sorting, classifying, and managing of dangerous groups efficiently (Feeley and Simon, 1992). Accurate and meaningful offender risk assessment allows police to prioritise and develop appropriate management plans and allocate limited resources to the highest need offenders while not interfering with lower risk offender’s reintegration into society. Efficiency preserves limited resources by targeting management activities and responses. Prioritisation and enhanced efficiencies contribute to formalised, targeted management and technologically assisted management in several ways. The highest levels of supervision, monitoring, and treatment are prioritised to those offenders presenting with the highest risk. This is underpinned by risk, needs and responsivity (RNR) principles (Andrews et al., 1990).

Regarding technologically assisted management, computer scans onsite enhance efficiency by targeting resources towards those offenders for whom there is evidence of offending behaviour. For law enforcement, remote software monitoring enables prompt and targeted action in real-time and does not need specialist skills to use. This tool enhances efficiencies in terms of minimising police training requirements and targeting offender management responses. This of course depends on police resourcing to monitor, track and review data generated in real-time as well as periodically.

Community reintegration and rehabilitation

Rehabilitation is a well-established principle of sentencing in Western criminal justice systems. Sentencing principles, such as rehabilitation, can guide decision making throughout the criminal justice system when decisions are made relating to the offender. Community reintegration has also been recognised as an essential feature of just and fair criminal justice systems since the Middle Ages and has been associated with offender rehabilitation since the 1840’s (Hanser, 2010). Psycho-social factors such as shame, stigma, stress, social alienation, and hopelessness, and sociological factors such as homelessness and unemployment, impede community reintegration, and are associated with increased reoffending (Jennings et al., 2012; Lasher and McGrath, 2012). These findings are consistent with Braithwaite’s (1989, 1995) work with restorative justice which draws upon theories of social learning, anomie/strain, social disorganisation and social bonding to explore correlations between criminal labelling, criminal self-concept and increased likelihood of future crime, and remorse and crime prevention. In particular, Maruna (2001) highlights the relationship between self-narratives and desistance. Individuals create self-narratives (accounts of what and why they have done something) to explain their behaviour (Maruna and Copes, 2005). These self-narratives are argued to guide and shape future behaviour because individuals act consistently with the narratives they hold of themselves (Maruna and Copes, 2005). Therefore, desistance – including reintegration – is likely to be impeded when individuals hold negative self-narratives about themselves. This research highlights the importance of external forces in reintegration and rehabilitation.

All identified effects of technologically assisted formalised and targeted management strategies impact rehabilitation and community reintegration. For example, The polygraph is suggested to assist the management of child sex offenders in the community through eliciting truthful disclosures, particularly given self-report among child sex offenders is often unreliable (Levenson, 2009). It is suggested that truthful disclosures could facilitate offender insight and awareness into their offending patterns, thereby enhancing opportunities for rehabilitative progress. Computer scans onsite and remote monitoring software may facilitate a smoother reintegration for the offender in the community, particularly as research indicates the importance of the internet to elicit social capital, social inclusion, and empowerment for registered offenders (ten Bensel and Sample, 2019), thereby maximising the offenders’ rehabilitative opportunities. These mechanisms align with Braithwaite’s (1989) argument that re-entry and reintegration include moral inclusion (symbolic elements) for it to be meaningful, rather than merely physical settlement (see Braithwaite, 1989; see Maruna, 2011).

Guardianship, deterrence, and disruption

The prioritisation of high risk offenders through risk assessments and police oversight through sex offender registration aim to bring about the effect of preventing reoffending in various ways. Routine Activity Theory states that three factors are required for a crime to occur: a motivated offender; an available victim; and absence of a guardian. Guardianship is therefore considered a critical feature of crime reduction, thereby contributing to successful community reintegration and rehabilitation, and is a key feature of situational crime prevention (Peled-Laskov and Gimshi, 2014). Guardianship (e.g., through offender registration) works to reduce offending by increasing effort and risks of apprehension, reducing rewards associated with offending, reducing access to potential victims (opportunities) and reducing excuses and justifications (Cornish and Clarke, 2003). Deterrence is the fear of receiving certain, swift and proportionate punishment (Akers et al., 2017) which reduces offender motivation to offend, and is closely linked to effort, risk, reward, and opportunity elements of guardianship. Disruption occurs when opportunities to offend are avoided or reduced, similarly reflecting effort, risks, rewards, and access elements of guardianship. Deterrence and disruption can further lead to an ongoing reduction in motivation to offend through processes of social learning (Akers et al., 2017), reducing overall risk.

Police oversight delivers formal guardianship as convicted child sex offenders are required by law to regularly report their residential and work addresses and other contact details to police (Day, 2014; Powell et al., 2014; Sandler et al., 2008). Police awareness of residential composition, work locations, and use of offender contact details is thought to facilitate risk assessment and management to minimise opportunities to offend and enhance offender perceptions of guardianship. Through police oversight, registration schemes attempt to control known sex offender behaviour in the community. The idea here is that through enhanced guardianship, the mere availability and monitoring by police can deter offenders from participating in criminal behaviour (Hollis-Peel et al., 2011). Such oversight works by creating a sense of certain, swift and proportionate punishment within the offender, deterring them from offending despite opportunities to do so. In addition to registration motivating known offenders to not reoffend via principles of specific deterrence, it acts as a general deterrent for potential offenders due to awareness of the ongoing burden of registration schemes for child sexual offenders (Drake and Aos, 2009).

Despite less compelling evidence on residence restrictions and community notification, both aim to reduce reoffending through both specific and general deterrence. Community notification has been suggested to bring about the effects through stimulating communities to implement protective behaviours (guardianship) to prevent victimisation (see Lieb and Nunlist, 2008; Phillips, 1998). Protective behaviours such as increased supervision and monitoring of children, and increased reporting of suspicious behaviour, reduces offender access to potential victims, increasing effort required, and increases perceived risks while reducing opportunities to offend (Cornish and Clarke, 2003). Residence restrictions diminish offending opportunities by preventing residential proximity to schools and childcare centres, thereby reducing routine exposure to potential victims, reducing access to victims, and increasing effort required to offend (Cohen and Felson, 1979).

Electronically monitored bracelets can act as a specific deterrent by monitoring an individual’s location and ensuring individuals adhere to their curfew. They are suggested to disrupt or deter child sex offenders from perpetrating further offences through police tracking travel patterns and attaining real-time updates; that is, the electronically monitored bracelets are suggested to restrict geographical opportunity (Lilley, 2016). Remote monitoring software enables the offender to maintain access to a computer, while removing their perception of anonymity (Lilley, 2016), elevating the perceived risk of apprehension with guardianship. Depending on resourcing, law enforcement can monitor, track, and review data in real-time as well as periodical data. As for onsite computer scans, this delivers specific deterrence while facilitating compliance with registration requirements, community reintegration, and rehabilitation associated with internet access.

Information gathering and relationship skills

Police attitude research suggests that the collection of registerable information assists police with investigating new crimes, thereby minimising further offending by known and previously unknown offenders through speedy identification of offending behaviour, crime, suspects, and apprehension (Cubellis et al., 2016; Powell et al., 2014). This mechanism mostly concerns technology-assisted management. For example, the polygraph is suggested to elicit truthful disclosures (see also Community reintegration and rehabilitation discussion above; Levenson, 2009), and as truthful disclosures enhance identification and understanding of past patterns and current behaviours of these offenders, it is suggested that agencies are then better equipped to assess risk and identify appropriate treatment (Levenson, 2009). The use of polygraph is seen to thereby also contribute to building rapport (discussed further below) and rehabilitative success (discussed above).

Remote software monitoring is also suggested to bring about the effects through the facilitation of evidence collection (information gathering). The analysis of an individual’s linguistic behaviour in the areas of vocabulary, pragmatics, and topic control provided by linguistic technologies can equip undercover police to pursue proactive investigations. While this tool is used in the investigation stage, it is suggested that the benefits are translatable to monitoring child sex offenders in the community in two ways: through being able to better impersonate offenders; and through studying alternative identities to better equip undercover officers to investigate potential recidivists. Both of these strategies enhance the risk of apprehension and reduce offence rewards and opportunity elements of guardianship, while facilitating evidence collection.

Relationship skills are also recognised as important for purposes of information gathering, offender management and liaison with other criminal justice related agencies and are enhanced by the use of technological tools, and equally moderated by resource limitations. For example, regarding offender management, research suggests a parolee’s preparedness to obey their parole conditions is associated with the quality of their parole officer’s relationship (Chamberlain et al., 2018). Supportive rapport may be conducive to the parolee engaging in help-seeking when required and these parolees being more forthcoming about their needs (Chamberlain et al., 2018). Such findings could translate to police who have the important role of gathering information during offender management.

Shared moderators of key management strategies

When synthesising the literature, shared moderators of success were identified across the key strategies. As such, this section provides a collective discussion of identified moderators. Five moderators were identified: (1) heterogeneity of the child sex offender population, (2) law enforcements’ perceptions, rapport, and interview skills; (3) community characteristics, (4) law enforcements’ training, supervision, and resources, and (5) information sharing among professionals.

Each moderator, including its constituent issues, is seen to potentially impact the effects of formalised, targeted management and technology-assisted management by way of their intended or unintended influence on all related mechanisms. For instance, socially disorganised communities undermine community reintegration, rehabilitation and offender willingness to disclose truthfully, thereby impacting information gathering, undermining risk assessment and correct selection and targeting of interventions. Deficits can combine to then destabilise the potential of formal and informal guardianship, disruption, and deterrence. The likely negative impacts of these moderators affirm the importance of considering their relationship with each strategy, and associated mechanisms.

Heterogeneity of the child sex offender population

Given that child sex offenders are a heterogenous group, the effects of these strategies may vary across this population. For example, there are specific risk assessment challenges in managing older sex offenders, including: those in residential aged-care which often accommodates vulnerable residents and visitors; impacts of disclosure to aged-care practitioners; and dementia and associated memory loss and sexual disinhibition (Bows and Westmarland, 2018).

In their large aggregate (n = 7,740) 20 year Canadian study, Hanson et al. (2014) found that the risk of sexual recidivism was highest during the first few years of release and decreased substantially the longer offenders remained offence free in the community. This is important for risk assessment, particularly as the registered sex offender population ages, where offence history is a valid, but time dependent, indicator of propensity to reoffend. The risk posed by juveniles who perpetrate sexual offences is another area hotly debated in terms of the limits of normal childhood curiosity, sexual experimentation and poor judgement, parental rights, and individual rights to expression (Pollack, 2018).

These strategies may also see disparity in effectiveness across ethnicities, including Indigenous people. For example, Babchishin et al. (2012) found that the Static-2000R had lower predictive accuracy for Canadian Aboriginals, suggesting that some items on the Static-2000R scale are not as predictive of Aboriginal sex offenders as non-Aboriginal sex offenders (Babchishin et al., 2012). To rely on a risk assessment tool for the prioritisation of resources and to ensure community safety, the tool’s validity and reliability needs to be normed on local populations and tested for validity of use with minority populations. Research also reveals that those with previous sexual convictions are more likely to reoffend than first-time offenders (Rettenberger et al., 2015). This differing rate of recidivism suggests there may be different effects of intervention and monitoring strategies across these groups.

Unintentional bias has the potential to influence decisions regarding the use and application of recommended strategies, and thereby potentially impact the effects of formalised, targeted and technology-assisted management, and all related mechanisms, affirming the importance of accurate and ongoing offender assessment. The heterogeneity of the child sex offender population, combined with variability of effects and mechanisms dependent on offender and contextual characteristics, further emphasises the need for careful and thorough empirical testing and monitoring of strategies implemented to manage child sex offenders in the community, particularly for organisations mandated to minimise risk and ensure public safety.

Law enforcements’ perceptions, rapport, and interview skills

Police knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs shape their practice, and critically impacts their potential for success, particularly with regard to specialist areas such as child sex offending (Tidmarsh, 2016). Law enforcements’ views of child sex offenders are important to understand, considering that sex offender registration efficacy requires police to work closely with sex offenders to support their successful reintegration into the community. Police acknowledge relationship-building, and risk assessment and management is required to implement and maintain sex offender registration, and is a different skill set to that used in regular policing (Nash, 2016; Tidmarsh, 2016). They identify good listening, curiosity, awareness of risk factors, ability to ask sensitive and potentially embarrassing questions, and bare the relentless subject of sexual offending as specialised skills required for the role (Nash, 2016; Tidmarsh, 2016).

Despite this awareness, police have found the nature of sex offender registration interviews to develop rapport and enable truth telling and disclosure, as challenging given the secretive nature of offending and high levels of offender denial (Nash, 2016). Australian sex offender registration police perceived that the relationship with the offender enhances the likelihood that they will actively prevent their own reoffending, and that they will provide information about other sex offenders (Powell et al., 2014).

Common concerns as to where to draw the line in terms of surveillance and monitoring have been noted (Powell et al., 2014). This indicates the need for an increased understanding of how to develop and use the therapeutic relationship to challenge, guide and empower clients while maintaining professionalism and integrity (Dowling et al., 2018). The contrast between traditional and more modern policing roles signifies the importance of specialist training and support for those willing to undertake this type of work.

Interviewing is the core skill set for gathering information regarding sexual crimes, where disclosure is often the only available evidence (Tidmarsh, 2016). Similarly, the success of sex offender registration police’s attempts to gather information for the purpose of risk assessment and planning, and to prevent and identify possible sexual crime, is utterly dependent on their approach to interviewing sex offenders. Thus, law enforcements’ interview skills are considered a significant moderator in the management of child sex offenders in the community. Promisingly, Read et al.’s (2014) investigation into the application of best practice protocols for interviewing Australian and UK child sex offence suspects found areas of skilled practice, indicating vast improvements on practices from 20 years ago. However, some interviews demonstrated gaps between guidelines and practice, including limited transparency regarding the interview process, failure to follow a logical or appropriate sequence regarding introduction of allegations and disclosure of evidence, unsuitable questioning techniques, inappropriate manner of interview delivery, and were difficult to follow (Read et al., 2014). Further evidence and analysis of impacts regarding police interview skills and rapport development is discussed below.

Community characteristics

It is important not to underestimate the role of the community on the successful reintegration of child sex offenders. In one study, Mustaine et al. (2014) found clear indications that child sexual abuse in Florida is partially the product of community characteristics such as economic disadvantage, household crowding (by way of increased opportunity), and violent neighbourhood crime, and not just individual or family resources or stress. In addition to social and economic disadvantage, an emerging area of research is the lack of collective efficacy in these neighbourhoods. Informal social control, and thereby guardianship, deterrence and disruption may be compromised in such contexts (e.g. Socia and Stamatel, 2011). In areas where community members rarely interact with each other and are less familiar of each other, there is minimal collective efficacy – the ability to work through problems formally or informally (Sampson et al., 1997). This is important as guardianship, deterrence, disruption, community reintegration and ultimately rehabilitation depend on the strength of informal avenues of social control. These avenues can also be rich sources of information needed to inform offender assessment and plans.

Some of the best explanations for crime have been suggested to draw from constructs of social disorganisation theory (Shaw and McKay, 1969). It is undeniable that successful community reintegration is empirically associated with desistance from offending (Göbbels et al., 2012; Levenson et al., 2007; Tewksbury and Jennings, 2010; Whitting et al., 2014). As Cullen (1994) proposed, and was later supported by Colvin et al.’s (2002) findings, the emotional, material and social assistance provided by group relationships, namely ‘social support’ – as opposed to social alienation – prevents crime and lowers victimisation. The centrality of social support to successful community reintegration and rehabilitation, and its juxtaposition with traditional policing roles, highlights the need for specialist support and guidance for police practitioners in this field.

Law enforcements’ training, supervision, and resources

The success of these strategies may be moderated by the training and supervision of law enforcement officers. For example, the literature notes that a common experience of sex offender registration police is feeling unqualified to conduct risk assessments (Kewley, 2017b; Masters and Kebbell, 2019; Powell et al., 2014). In their study, Kewley et al. (2020) found large gaps in completed assessments by police. Many (18%) did not include the static risk assessment (RM2000); only 13% provided a rationale for overall risk level to support resources required; 22% failed to provide a level of risk at all; 38% did not provide enough evidence to support the level of risk management made; and 31% were not reviewed by a supervisor (Kewley et al., 2020). The result of unfinished or incomplete assessments has significant implications. There might be an unintentional assessment result of increased risk where low risk offenders are subjected to over-treatment/monitoring. Conversely, high risk offenders may go unintentionally under-treated, under-supervised, and under-monitored (Kewley et al., 2020).

Tidmarsh’s (2016) study of police interview skill development identified the unique skill set required to perform child sex offender interviews: good communication and investigative skills, patience, open-mindedness, and empathy. Tidmarsh (2016) further identified that retention and application of newly acquired interview and rapport skills markedly declined after 6 months. As the interviewer evaluation literature highlights the high degree of specialisation required for effective interviewing and rapport building and gaps between actual field performance and best practice, the need for intensive and ongoing training is reiterated (Read et al., 2014).

A lack of resources can also impact the effectiveness of the strategies. Researchers and industry leaders observe that the value of registries largely depend on the ongoing accuracy of data recorded, which is best verified by in-person contact with sex offenders (Rush-Burkey, 2015; Vess et al., 2014). While in-person verification of information is resource intensive, particularly for confirming sex offender residential address through the conduct of home visits, there is strong support for prioritisation of risk to better allocate limited resources (Kewley and Blandford, 2017; Powell et al., 2014; Rush-Burkey, 2015). In this way, the highest risk offenders could be subject to home visits as a form of intensive supervision matched to risk. Child protection literature advocates for scheduled as well as unannounced home visits to better inform risk assessment, case management planning, and client engagement (Ferguson, 2018). This technique could enhance not only guardianship, deterrence and disruption mechanisms, but information gathering, risk assessment, and rapport.

Information sharing among professionals

The most frequently cited failure in inquiries into tragedies is a lack of effective inter-agency communication (Day et al., 2014b; Reder and Duncan, 2003). Poor intra-agency and inter-agency communication, and lack of timeliness of information sharing, has also been repeatedly identified as a barrier to effective management of sex offenders in the community (e.g., Cubellis et al., 2016; Day, 2014; Day et al., 2014a). While police rely on their criminal justice colleagues to help monitor and manage their registrants (Walfield et al., 2017) and while perceptions of sex offender management policies vary across professions (Call and Gordon, 2016), information sharing between agencies involved in offender community reintegration is essential for successfully managing risk. Poor information sharing between law enforcement agencies, particularly from prisons and courts, leads police to feel under-informed when a sex offender arrives in their jurisdiction, undermining their ability to effectively risk assess or manage them (Veri, 2016).

To address these shortcomings, the literature suggests existing information sharing protocols be enhanced through formalised arrangements. Despite concerns about collateral consequences of information sharing (see Kovalchik et al., 2016), strategic partnership with other professional groups to help interpret risk and tailor offender management strategies accordingly has been emphasised (Day et al., 2014a; Powell et al., 2014). Within forensic environments it is broadly acknowledged that sharing historical, third party and collateral information held by discrete criminal justice organisations is important to ensure accuracy and credibility of assessment planning, testing of rival hypotheses of behaviour, and for confirming and challenging offender statements during interview (Heilbrun et al., 2002; Melton et al., 1996). Further, compared to approaches that solely rely on monitoring and supervision, collaboration counters negative attitudinal and philosophical barriers to effective practice and increases effectiveness of community responses to preventing sexual reoffending (Day et al., 2014a). This suggests that extending information sharing to include routine consultation and collaboration with external experts or routine information holders would enhance police effectiveness in collecting information to support their management of known offenders, thereby ameliorating recidivism risks and improving public safety.

Shared implementation considerations

Like the shared mechanisms and moderators, when synthesising the literature, key considerations for implementation were identified across the strategies. This section offers a collective discussion of the two key implementation considerations: (1) individualised and contextual responses and (2) a focus on law enforcements’ needs and insights.

Individualised and contextual responses

Foremost, there is a clear need for individualised and contextual responses regardless of the strategy. That is, local offender profiles and contexts need to be considered to ensure success. For example, the evidence-based correctional literature, industry leaders, practitioners, researchers, academics, and sex offenders themselves, call for sex offender registration schemes to more explicitly identify and manage risk, tailor interventions to individual offender needs, and inform both these approaches by research (Day et al., 2014a; Kewley, 2017b; Levenson, 2018; Masters and Kebbell, 2019; Vess et al., 2014). These functions are reliant on information being shared from other agencies and professionals who share responsibility for managing offenders and minimising offending in the community, as discussed in the moderators above.

A focus on law enforcements’ needs and insights

Training and supervision

The literature revealed a key consideration for implementation is the need for professionals to have intensive and regular training to establish and maintain the specialised skill set required to effectively implement many of these strategies. Also, to better inform risk assessment, planning, management, offender engagement (i.e., rapport building and strong interview skills) and detection of new crime, a chorus of research recommends that sex offender registration police should have in-depth knowledge of the sex offender population; and should receive specialised, intensive, regular and ongoing training, grounded in academic knowledge and applied in nature, to carry out their responsibilities effectively (e.g., CSOM, 2008; Cubellis et al., 2016; McCartan et al., 2018; Veri, 2016; Vess et al., 2014). Overall, there is strong and broad support for ongoing training among law enforcement specific to sex offenders and the use of risk assessment tools that robustly identify risk and plan management (e.g., Day, 2014; Kewley, 2017b; Oxburgh et al., 2015).

Law enforcements’ resources

Regardless of the strategy, workload and resources need to be considered in the implementation – and upkeep – of the strategies to ensure success. Police practitioners, academics, and industry experts support the establishment of ongoing specialist teams. Currently, the international research indicates that where sex offender registration operates in conjunction with more generalist investigative duties the burden of responsibility for dual roles limits opportunities to follow-up offender disclosures.

Law enforcements’ perspectives

Along with attention to law enforcements’ attitudes towards the strategies (Flynt, 2016; Mustaine et al., 2015), gaining insight into how they believe strategies best operate, and how the strategies might be able to be improved, prior to implementation, is important to formulate what best practice looks like. In attaining their views, the impacts of strategies can be better understood along with major concerns held by law enforcement (Whitting et al., 2017) and a deeper awareness of contextual issues impacting implementation and effectiveness. It is therefore important to continue to hear the voice of law enforcement on their experience across the strategies, to allow for implementation enhancements to be considered, developed, and evaluated.

Discussion

This study aimed to examine the current evidence in police management practices of child sex offenders in the community by asking two questions: (1) ‘what works’ in the police management of convicted child sex offenders in the community; and (2) what ‘shows promise’ in the police management of convicted child sex offenders in the community. The REA highlighted two key strategies (each with several sub-strategies): (1) formalised, targeted management (prioritisation of high risk offenders through risk assessments; and police oversight through sex offender registration) and (2) technology-assisted management (electronically monitored bracelets; polygraph; linguistic technologies; computer scans on site; and remote monitoring software). This section provides a discussion of the findings in light of the ‘EMMIE’, and includes limitations, implications, and future directions.

Through the EMMIE synthesis, it was evident that technology-assisted management appeared to answer the question of what ‘shows promise’, based on the evidence regarding its ‘effects’ compared to formalised, targeted management, which addressed the question of ‘what works’.⁴ Despite technology-assisted management having a smaller amount of rigorous studies supporting the strategy, these sub-strategies still appeared to show some capability in the management of child sex offenders in the community. This indicates the need for more research across these sub-strategies to best inform policing in this field. Due to the complexities in implementing some of these sub-strategies, researchers could consider small, individual pilot studies, carefully evaluating the sub-strategies while building the global evidence base in policing.

Broadly speaking, four primary ‘mechanisms’ emerged across the sub-strategies: prioritisation and associated enhanced efficiencies, community reintegration and rehabilitation, deterrence (including guardianship and disruption), and information gathering and relationship skills. For prioritisation, the appropriate targeting of resources to those of high risk is considered to enhance police management and efficiencies as well as facilitate successful community reintegration and rehabilitation. The specific deterrence produced across the strategies is considered to control known sex offender behaviour in the community through the use of prioritisation and monitoring tools. Information gathering is suggested to bring about the effects through identifying suspects, enhancing future investigations, facilitating risk assessment and targeted management thereby contributing to community reintegration and rehabilitative success.

Further, the guardianship that arises across some of the strategies is suggested to reduce anonymity and thereby decrease the likelihood of reoffending. Finally, relationship skills can be enhanced by technology-assisted management at a relatively low cost to improve information gathering, efficiencies, guardianship and the building of rapport, which are seen to potentially facilitate community reintegration and rehabilitation. These mechanisms are thought to meaningfully contribute to potential reductions in offending behaviour and increased public safety. There are some clear inter-relationships between some of these mechanisms, which could provide an enhanced collective power of effectiveness if strategies and sub-strategies were individually optimised.

Several factors appeared to moderate the effect of these strategies. The moderators predominantly concerned law enforcements’ ability – and capacity – across these strategies, along with information sharing among professionals. The importance of effective information sharing, including intra- and inter-agency communication, is emphasised as it is the most frequently cited failure in inquiries into tragedies (Reder and Duncan, 2003). This highlights the deeply contextualised nature and shared responsibility criminal justice agencies have when working with serious offenders in the community.

The effects of various strategies also appear to be moderated by the individual features of the sex offender (due to the heterogeneity of the child sex offender population) and the respective contextual community characteristics. Identifying the key moderators is critical for informing – and extending – evidence-based policing. For example, residence restrictions are suggested to be impacted by obstructed access to treatment and limited residential availability. Thus, one idea for future research is to map the geography of registered child sex offenders to opportunities for environmental or situational interventions.

To further inform this policing role, key implementation considerations were identified: individualised and contextual responses; and a focus on law enforcements’ needs and insights, both of which are dependent on the impacts of the identified moderators. The identification of the key components necessary for successful implementation can have flow-on effects to policy and practice. In particular, there is a clear need to hear the voice of law enforcement when introducing or refining strategies in this emerging field of evidence-based policing to create opportunities for review and reflection to improve continuous practice improvement.

Limitations

This study is not without limitations. First, a REA is not a full systematic literature review, differing in the scope and depth of the searches, and is not accompanied by searching specific journals, or policy and practice documents. However, REA’s have been widely used in recent years on a wide range of policy relevant issues (Belur et al., 2018; Gekoski et al., 2016). Second, the searches depended exclusively on electronic databases and were not accompanied by searching books, literature reviews, investigations, Parliamentary Inquiries, Royal Commissions, policy and practice documents or other documents that may have contributed to the breadth of evidence considered and critical appraisal thereof. Lastly, child sex offender registration literature is overwhelmingly confounded by conflation with notification schemes and sexual offending against adults.

Policy and practice implications and future directions

Despite the potential for these strategies to reduce offending and thereby enhance public safety, it is important to note that the success of the identified strategies may not be entirely transferable to all jurisdictions. This is probable given moderators across the strategies were the community characteristics (e.g., neighbourhood crime, economic disadvantage, public responses) along with the heterogeneity of the child sex offender population (e.g., age, ethnicity). It is therefore important that researchers and practice professionals interested in the effects of the strategies perform their own evaluation of the strategies within their respective jurisdiction. Perhaps also to address the heterogeneity issue, studies could attempt to differentiate between adult and child sexual offences. Through doing so, greater accuracy on the success of current practices can be garnered, informing their future practices and refining practices tailored to the population. With the identified capability in the technology-assisted management key strategy, there is the need for future research to devote further attention to its sub-strategies.

Conclusion

Overall, this study identified ‘what works’ and what ‘shows promise’ in the police management of child sex offenders in the community. Further, by applying the EMMIE framework to analyse the results, a critical discussion of why and how these strategies work was provided. Despite the need for further research, formalised, targeted management answered the question of ‘what works’, while technology-assisted management addressed what ‘shows promise’. The balance of responsibilities of traditional police roles of investigation and arrest, and roles that manage community based child sex offender registries highlights issues regarding differing skill sets and resources required for effective practice. The already substantial scale of the issue is growing and emphasises the importance of ensuring efforts are undertaken to maximise resource effectiveness to avoid the costly and enduring harms associated with this type of offending. With evidence informed recruitment, training and supervision, and jurisdictional offender based research, the balancing of offender rights and community safety issues can be thoughtfully engaged, supported and treated as not necessarily inconsistent with maximising opportunities to reduce reoffending and increase public safety.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article:

The views expressed in this material are the authors own and are not necessarily those of the Queensland Police Service. Responsibility for any errors of omission or commission remains with the authors. The Queensland Police Service expressly disclaims any liability for any damage resulting from the use of the material contained in this publication and will not be responsible for any loss, howsoever arising, from use or reliance on this material.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This project received funding from the Queensland Police Service.

ORCID iD

LS Christensen

Notes

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