Circles of Support & Accountability: An innovative approach to manage high-risk sex offenders in the community.

Source: (2010) The Open Criminology Journal. 3(48-57).

Sex offenders cause particular concern upon release and are often received with apprehension or hostility by
the community. This in turn may increase their feelings of loneliness and poor self-esteem hindering re-integration and
potentially increasing re-offending. Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSAs) were first developed in Canada in
1994 and introduced in the UK in 2000. A “Circle” consists of a group of four to six volunteers with the offender as the
“Core Member”. Appropriately trained volunteers support and hold to account the core member, who has to volunteer to
be part of the scheme, by providing them with social contact and practical support while at the same time maintaining
links to statutory agencies alerting them of any risk issues. Following completion of initial pilots the scheme is currently
rolled out across the UK. This systematic review will describe the Circles model and its history and summarise the
empirical literature particularly with regards to outcomes. (author’s abstract)