Sex Offending

Overview

Sex offense cases are among the most challenging for the criminal justice system. Sex offense courts respond to the challenges by assessing community needs, identifying gaps in services, and streamlining information. The goal is to increase victim safety by enhancing community supervision of offenders. In New York, there are sex offense courts operating in Erie, Queens, Oswego, Tompkins, Westchester, Suffolk, Orange, and Nassau Counties. The Center for Court Innovation provides technical assistance on planning and implementing enhanced sex offender community management responses to jurisdictions around the world.

Interviews

James McCarthy, Judge, Oswego County

Judge James McCarthy has been the presiding judge in the Sex Offense Court Part since its inception in Oswego County. He shared his thoughts on the model sex offense court and his experience in the first court in New York State.

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Articles

Sex Offense Courts: The Next Step in Community Management?

By Kristine Herman

Sex offense cases often present challenges to the police who investigate them, the district attorneys who prosecute them, the judges who adjudicate them, and the probation officers who supervise them. Unfortunately, the traditional criminal justice system approaches each of these pieces of the puzzle working in relative isolation, with their own protocols and procedures. In many instances these protocols and procedures are rooted in tradition and practice rather than on best practices and emerging research on sexual offenders.

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Most Popular Research

Publications

'A New Way of Doing Business': A Conversation about the Statewide Coordination of Problem-Solving Courts

By Robert V. Wolf

A summary of a 2008 roundtable discussion about how to coordinate problem-solving courts on a statewide basis.

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Publications

Sex Offense Courts

By Juli Ana Grant and Rebecca Thomforde Hauser

An overview of sex offense courts in New York State, including key principles and a discussion about how they work with community stakeholders to enhance sex offender management.

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Publications

Responding to Human Trafficking: Lessons from an Experiment in the Bronx

By Liberty Aldrich and Robyn Mazur

With funding from the State Justice Institute, the Center for Court Innovation sought to test whether it was possible to create a court screening tool capable of efficiently identifying victims of trafficking and engaging them in needed services. This short report summarizes the implementation of this experiment and offers lessons for other jurisdictions interested in improving their response to trafficking.

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Contact
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