A Study of the Context Upon Community Re-entry for Young Adults With a History of Sexual Offending Sentenced to Shorter Incarcerations

Research regarding community re-entry of individuals with sexual offending histories (SOH) has focused on preventing sexual re-offending through surveillance and support interventions. However, most individuals with SOH, serving shorter incarceration sentences, often lack surveillance and support upon community re-entry. This is especially concerning for young adults with SOH as they often are subjected to a negative social reaction in addition to having psychosocial needs and a high level of risk and criminogenic needs, which might result in not receiving tailored interventions, and therefore re-entering the community in a precarious context. Using prospective longitudinal data from a cohort of 1,054 young adults sentenced to shorter incarceration terms in Quebec, Cox regressions were conducted to determine whether there were contextual factors conducive to re-incarceration specific to individuals with SOH ( n = 69). Findings indicate that there were none specific to individuals with SOH, and rather that persons with and without SOH are similar in many aspects, notably the high re-incarceration rate. These observations raise questions about the context surrounding community re-entry of young adults, regardless of criminal histories. Implications are discussed in the light of the low-risk assumption among individuals sentenced to shorter incarceration terms and the scope of community risk management.