Victim and citizen perspectives on sexual offender policy

At any point, the "best practices" for managing sexual offenders typically derive from the prevailing social policy regarding such offenders. Social policy perspectives held by victims, citizens in the community, and sexual offender experts often are quite different, with victims, their advocates, and citizens supporting management strategies that are more harsh and restrictive than the strategies recommended by the experts. In this paper, these varying perspectives are discussed, and recommendations are made for ways in which sexual offender experts can be influential in shaping social policy.