Restorative Justice for Sex Offenders - Alissa Ackerman

Dr. Alissa R. Ackerman offers a new perspective on restorative justice and how it can help those who suffered from sexual assault. With her personal experience, she shares with everyone the true importance of engaging in difficult conversations to heal from intimate harm.
Dr. Alissa R. Ackerman is a criminal justice professor at California State University, Fullerton, where she specializes in the study of sexual violence. For almost 15 years, Dr. Ackerman has devoted her career to better understanding how to prevent sexual misconduct of all kinds. Her research and advocacy work are nationally and internationally recognized and she writes extensively on topics related to gender-based violence and restorative justice. Her newest books include The New Campus Anti-Rape Movement: Internet Activist and Social Justice and Sex and Gender in the 2016 Election.

[GirlofNicky]

Kudos to her for studying this sensitive subject. Laws need to be based on science not emotions.

[theluckiesteh]

It's hard to forgive those who commit a crime of that nature.... but sometimes, it's not impossible.

There are people who truly deserves to make things right for themselves, their victim and everybody else.

Compassion and forgiveness is not a weakness to those who are remorseful and wish to do good.

[Nightmarefuel]

The law gives a false sense of security as well. Knowing where they live...WONT STOP THEM FROM COMING TO YOUR HOME AND DOING GOD KNOWS WHAT!!! Keeping them marginalized and labeled and held down will only leave them with nothing to lose and, thus, more likely to reoffend. Use common sense for once.

[ataraxia]

I wish I was raised in a world where people were more compassionate. I could have moved on and healed from so many things so idk quicker if the first impulse of everyone around me wasn’t to hurt the person who wronged me every-time it happened.

[rmkyhvs]

This woman has gained incredible insight. She is definitely on the right track, for healing and change!

[joschawil]

Any organization with attempts to abolish the registry are to be respected. Any groups attempting to defer or augment the registry are not to be trusted. They sound like someone blaming someone else for their punishment.

[suetownsend]

The world needs more people like this.

[seattlejayde]

This lady is wicked intelligent and compassionate

[johnmurphy]

Speaking facts! The problem like many other issues today is once emotions flare up intelligence and objectiveness goes down and it's hard to convince someone who's emotionally caught up to take in or be able to process any data other than whatever worst case scenario their mind is imagining. Sex offenders as a whole have the lowest rate of recidivism besides individuals convicted of homicide. I know of two people I grew up with who are on the registry and obviously what they did was wrong but so is domestic violence or home invasion but apparently running up in someone's home with a weapon and holding up a family or beating mom up repeatedly is less of a concern than a statutory rape case. Sexual conversations are uncomfortable for a lot of people understandably but it's beyond obvious that subjective emotional based reasoning created the registry and policies around it that like she stated doesn't do a damn thing to reduce sex crimes, check the numbers annually since it's inception if you don't believe me. It's waste of tax dollars due to the fact it isn't achieving even remotely what the proposals and people who worked to create and pass these laws envisioned. I see the registry like the Karen of government policies... Allows emotions to take the reigns and believes they are making things better when in reality it's making a scene and laughably ineffective at accomplishing a goal. And anyone who has done even the slightest bit of research and is capable of critical thinking would see the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. But like COVID or the war on drugs, so long as people are afraid, they will be easily manipulated. Pretty basic stuff but that's why it's th oldest play in the book but still works like a charm.

[weirdnerdygoat]

Thank you, this is so amazing and exactly what I've been looking for to deal with my own experieces!

[derekc]

Jesus healed them because he had compassion and it's only compassion that will prevent, heal redeem and reduce recivedism period

[seanofl]

Current registries are punitive and easy political wins but they don't protect the public. Thank you for sharing what you've learned.

[davidowen]

Very soon, within the next 30 days, I have the opportunity to terminate my probation at the half-way point which will be June 21 of this year of a 15 years sentence, having been released from prison on December 21, 2014. My public defender in Miami-Dade county (where I had committed my crimes) has already written the petition and has submitted it to a particular judge. Very shortly, within the next week of this writing, she will advise me as to the direction this petition is going. In 2017, I was allowed internet access under strict monitoringl. Three months later, my psychologist (a mandatory part of my probation at my expense) released me from that monitoring and I was able to continue my internet usage unfettered. In 2018, I was released from my obligation to my psychologist and at the same time, I no longer had to take an annual polygraph examination (basically to determine flight risk more than anything else). The only remaining restriction, if you will, is the court ordered ankle monitor and corresponding hand-held device. Once I am granted the early termination, the ankle monitor will be removed. The residenccy restrictions and the registration I have been doing every quarter at the Sheriff's office will continue. Any place I go to visit for a few days I must go to the local Sheriffs office and register the address at which I am staying is mandatory. I am still not allowed to contact my 2 victims who are adults now. I will never have the opportunity to apologize for my actions toward either of them. And I wonder, where is the closure for them? And I realize that this termination of probation is, in reality, a Pyrrhic Victory only. I am 69 years old with End Stage Renal Disease and have been taking dialysis for the last 7 years from March of 2015 (3 months after I was released from prison). I spent 4 months in the hospital having been given only a 10% chance of survival. Once released from the hospital in July 2015, I was released in a wheelchair, then a walker two months later, and then I had the ability to walk on my own two months after that. Although I was assigned a home health care nurse, I barely saw her. She was apprehensive going into an ex-cons house once she was advised the kind of crimes I had committed. Five grandchildren were born while I was incarcerated (2006-2014 jail and prison time combined). The two oldest was told by "the other side of the family" what I had done. They want to see me anyway, and that's heart. I learned quite a while back that around 92% or more sex offenders are people who live in the house with the potential victims or ar friends of the family who visit regularly. The residency restrictions do NOT apply to that percentage. They do NOT work the way politicians intends them to work and placate the public. I was one of those classic examples you mentioned. From the age of 6, I could remember my mom and dad yelling at each other behind closed bedroom doors. I felt disconnected, as you've pointed out. My psychologist (when I was released from prison) after giving me three writing exercises, diagnosed me with clinical depression. The "laundry list" of that condition checked all the boxes on the list. I am relelived from those conditions and have been since 2018. The idea of re-offending is no longer an issue knowing what I know. I will live on, with the 1/3 of the family who forgave me my transgressions. I learned a long time ago that forgiveness does not mean forgetting. Forgiveness is the discipline of removing the emotion from those memories. It actually helps the forgiver rather than the forgiven.

[RvanderWall]

Just seeing this now, Alissa. God damn! Powerful presentation!

[defco]

Dont think registries should be abolished. They need to be refined to only include accurate classification of *_violent_* tier 3 offenses involving child victims and adult rape.

[gooneywagner]

I respect you just listening to your video honestly, touch my heart I think it’s sad that sex offenders have to be treated like aliens, or taken back to the old days and treated like slaves when deep down the side, they have their own trauma and they were treated in a sexual way when they were sexually assaulted as a child but that part is not looked at it looked at the crime that they can meet us an adult that way the person that did them Brown gets a child don’t have to be looked at and those people maybe have sex with a person two years younger than them have to deal with the rest of their life being a sex offender or something that was consensual and I agreed upon, especially if they didn’t violently take someone sexual ability, but they have to live the rest life being judged by others and treated like they murdered someone. I agree with protecting the community and protecting the children but if a person gets a sexual charge with they’re young and they never ever catch another charge as an adult you shouldn’t have to judge them and treat them like alien.

[uprtgbi]

Thank you for researching this and understanding the shame, isolation and trauma the laws put on those who are justice involved.

[danielroy]

restorative justice requires participation from the victim. what do you do if the victim wants no part in it?

[charliestanley]

Include abolishing the registry nationwide. It's abusive and punitive to both the victims and offenders. Plus, it serves no real purpose or benefit to society. Consider how sex offenders are managed in several European have been tried then abolished. The facts speak for themselves.

[WilliamBarrs]

Thank you so much for your bravery, and your wisdom