Back to Basics: Empirical Support for the Importance of Release Planning in Reducing Sex Offender Recidivism

Abstract

Research on the factors underlying sex offender recidivism has focussed limited attention on release planning. This article reports findings from a series of empirical studies investigating whether poor release planning might contribute to sex offender recidivism. A coding protocol was developed to measure the comprehensiveness of release planning which included items relating to accommodation, employment, pro-social support, community-based treatment, and the Good Lives Model (T. Ward and C.A. Stewart, 2003) secondary goods. The protocol was retrospectively applied to groups of recidivist and nonrecidivist child molesters, matched on static risk level and time since release. As predicted, overall release planning was significantly poorer for recidivists compared to nonrecidivists. The accommodation, employment, and social support items combined to best predict recidivism, with predictive accuracy comparable to that obtained using static risk models. Results highlighted the importance of release planning in efforts to reduce sex offender recidivism. Implications for policy makers and community members are briefly discussed.