Sex Offenders and Preventive Detention : Politics, policy and practice

Criminals do a crime, get caught, serve their time and come out to go on living except sex offenders. They come out and nobody will accept them as neighbours. They used to be able to hide but modern communciations make this impossible. What can be done? Keeping them locked up is effectively imprisonment on suspicion by one of the markers of tyranny. But how can society acknowledge revulsion, factor in safety and enable these people to live outside a prison? McSherry and Keyzer have written a succinct book aimed at a broad audience, which crosses from criminology and politics to proposals for law reform. They base it around three case studies from Washington State, Scotland and Queensland, Australia representing the three main legislative options for managing sex offenders.