Sex Offenders in the Community: Assessing Circles of Support and Accountability

Concerns about sex offenders, sex offences and sexual offending are receiving unprecedented public, media and policy attention.

As such, calls for better protection for vulnerable groups in society are growing . However, the majority of sentenced sex offenders re-enter society, seeking to lead an offence free-life.

Circles of Support and Accountability is a recent approach which aims to assist sex offenders returning into the community after their conviction. It is based on volunteers working to provide support, but also seeking to make the sex offender accountable.

The conference will present the findings from a research study which assesses Circles of Support and Accountability. The researchers from the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies at the University of Leeds and from Leeds Metropolitan University present their findings from interviews with offenders, volunteers and stakeholders. Findings will be discussed with representatives of Circles UK, and from criminal justice practitioners, policymakers and other researchers.

Presentations from the conference are available to download from the Assessing the Impact of Circles of Support and Accountability Research Project Page

The Liberty Building is number 16 on the campus map.