U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Presumption to Disclose: New Laws on the Provision of Information About Child Sex Offenders to Parents in England and Wales

NCJ Number
230533
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 19 Issue: 2 Dated: March - April 2010 Pages: 97-106
Author(s)
Terry Thomas
Date Published
March 2010
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article examines provisions of sex offender disclosure laws in England and Wales.
Abstract
In England and Wales, agencies managing child sex offenders in the community have long had the power to disclose information on those offenders to other agencies and sometimes to individual members of the public; this process has variously been referred to as 'discretionary disclosure' or 'controlled disclosure'. In 2008, new laws were passed to strengthen this process and allow designated members of the public to request such information and imposed a new duty on agencies considering disclosure to conduct those considerations with a presumption to disclose. This article looks at the background to the new laws and how they might work in practice. References (Published Abstract)