A/Prof. Danielle Harris1
1Griffith University, Nathan, Australia
Biography:
Associate Professor Harris is a future fellow of the Australian Research Council (2025-2029) based at the Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University. Her research examines sexual offending and related public policy. Her research has been funded by the Guggenheim Foundation, the California Sex Offender Management Board, Westpac Bank, ANROWS, and NCACSA.
Nowhere is the intersection between psychology, psychiatry, and law more apparent than in Dangerous Sexual Offender (DSO) legislation. This symposium considers the nature and extent of DSO laws across time and space. We begin by providing a brief overview of international variations by focusing on three countries: civil commitment in the United States, forvaring in Norway, and preventative or continuing detention in Australia. The second (quantitative) presentation examines the post-release outcomes for Queenslanders subject to the enhanced community supervision of the DPSOA. The third (qualitative) presentation zooms in on the lives of 16 Norwegian and 14 North American men preventatively detained for serious sexual recidivism. Finally, we present and discuss the preliminary findings from a cohesive research agenda that examines the collateral consequences of DSO legislation on non-offending families and compares recidivism and desistance narratives across jurisdictions.