The Management of Post-Release Sex Offenders in Ireland: Towards a Restorative Response

This thesis examines the current framework for the management of post-release sex offenders in Ireland to demonstrate aspects of this regime that are being guided by control-focused and risk-centric strategies aimed at ‘containing’ these individuals, while more rehabilitative and reintegrative approaches, which have been posited as playing a vital role in desistance from re-offending for sex offenders and assisting with their reintegration into the community are being neglected. As a result, the underlying rational of these measures – public protection – is being jeopardised by the current ‘hard-line’ measures. Accordingly, the fundamental aim of this thesis is to assess the control- and risk-centric nature of these policies with a view to identifying a viable means of re-introducing a rehabilitative and reintegrative focus into the post-release sex offender management landscape in Ireland through the use of restorative justice (RJ) and presenting an appropriate blueprint for the establishment and operation of such a scheme.