Usefulness of the United Kingdom's Rehablitation of Offenders Act

The Rehablitation of Offenders Act 1974 has been put in place to ease offenders back into society and also make sure that offenders’, that are given under a 30 month prison sentence, convictions are spent. Therefore employers of the recent offender are not allowed to discriminate against that person, allowing the offender more opportunity to gain employment. This briefing note outlines the strengths and weaknesses of rehabilitating sex offenders. By analysing the literature and statistics surrounding rehabilitating sex offenders there is clear evidence that treatment programmes are effective. Punishment, Rehabilitation, Deterence and Incapacitation are the four main objectives for the Criminal Justice system.

In the past, sex offenders treatment programmes included surgical treatment, pharmacological treatment and psychological treatment. Nowadays, however, surgical and pharmacological are deemed unethical and the emphasis on psychological treatment are more prominent features in the criminal justice system. Although surgical procedures were deemed unethical, it was recorded as a 1% reoffending rate which can be portrayed as remarkable. However, as citied by D. Perkins et al (1998) there was a 33% increase, after surgical treatment, in non- sexual violent crime committed by previous sex offenders.

A growing number of sex offender treatment programmes are being put into place in the UK. The programmes aim to reduce relapse once entered back into society which in turn benefits society. However, the treatment of sex offenders is something which can be seen as a very controversial topic, as some believe that they should not be given the opportunity to go through treatment programmes in order to enhance their life after imprison...

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Those offenders choosing not to admit their offences pose a bigger risk to society, as they did not accept their need for treatment

The offenders that did not victimise someone in their own family unit were recorded more likely to reoffend

It is also suggested that those of ‘high risk’ cases should be subjected to a longer treatment period

Liimitations

Although these implications have arisen from the investigation, this study had 41% of offenders victimising a child in their own family, which is a high proportion. Therefore, as none of those offenders were reconvicted, it shows an overall decrease of reconviction. Also, suggesting that there has been an increase in offences being carried out to outside family members, which also contributes to the overall reconvition rates declining, which could be looked upon as misleading.