Information for people who have sexually offended against children.
Sexual offending is unacceptable. It leads to a great deal of pain and suffering, and can have long-term negative consequences for the victims, their families, and the community. It also negatively impacts you and the people who care about you.
You need to stop offending so that you can lead a positive, safe, offence-free life – and so the community you live in can be safe from your offending.
To help make sure you don’t start back down the path that led to your offending, you need to:
Your Probation Officer will work with you, and with other people and agencies in your community to help you remain offence-free.
A Support Planning Meeting (SPM) creates a support network and a safety plan to help you live an offence-free life and help your community be safe. The purpose of an SPM is to establish a support network and safety plan for you that involves agencies in your community (e.g. Police, Corrections and Child, Youth and Family) as well as the people in your life who you trust and who can support you.
The safety plan aims to make sure you are adequately supported and monitored throughout your sentence and afterwards to increase your chances of an offence-free future. It will cover all aspects and areas of your life, including any Court/Parole Board-directed conditions.
Ask your Probation Officer for more information.
There is a chain of thoughts, feelings and behaviours that can trigger your offending. This is called an “offence or relapse pattern”.
Your Probation Officer, and the other people working with you, can help you understand when and how this chain is triggered, and help you learn how to steer away from offending.
There are warning signs that you’ll need to watch for, as well as high-risk situations that you’ll need to avoid or deal with so they don’t lead to your offending.
If you have attended a special treatment unit such as Te Piriti or Kia Marama you will have already learnt about this.
Other people in your support network will also learn to notice when this chain of thoughts, feelings and behaviours is triggered – and they can help support you in breaking it, or alert someone who can help you.
Working together
You can stop offending. There are many people, agencies and organisations committed to helping you stop offending. They will work with you and each other to help make sure that you get the support and monitoring you need to stop offending, and that the community you live in is safe from your offending.
Self-management
Self-management is a big part of not offending. This means taking ownership of your behaviour – being responsible and active in making decisions not to offend, to avoid the things that lead you to offending, and to seek help when you need it.
Support networks
Having a support network of people in your community who understand your offending behaviour can also increase the chances of you living an offence-free life, and of the community you live in being safe from your offending. This network can be created through Support Planning Meetings and other ways.
Sharing information
Sharing information with others in your community will also help deter you from entering situations or starting behaviours that may lead to your offending. This information sharing can happen through Support Planning Meetings and through agreements between certain government agencies committed to helping keep communities safe.
If you feel you are in danger of sexually abusing a child, or if you find yourself looking at children or pictures of children, or thinking about being sexually active with children – YOU MUST SEEK HELP IMMEDIATELY.
Contact your Probation Officer or one of your support people.
A support person can be anyone who you trust and who knows about your child sex offending history. They must be willing to assist you to live an offence-free lifestyle. Support people are essential for an effective support network as the
professionals involved generally do not have as frequent contact with you in the community.
Support people may help you in practical ways, such as providing transport, accompanying you to appointments, or being available for phone contact. They will also help you be aware of risky situations and warning signs and how to act on these. Their role will be discussed at the Support Planning Meeting.
Ideally, support people will be able to contact other support network members if they have any concerns. This is discussed at the meeting and is a key factor in keeping you supported, and the community you live in safe.
If you feel you are in danger of sexually abusing a child, or if you find yourself looking at children or pictures of children, or thinking about sexual activity with children – YOU MUST SEEK HELP IMMEDIATELY.
Contact your Probation Officer or a support person.
It’s important you seek help as quickly as possible if you find yourself unable to deal with a situation or with certain thoughts and feelings – like anger, anxiety, depression, or inappropriate sexual thoughts and feelings. These are examples of warning signs – you must pay attention to them and move quickly to stop them from leading to offending.
That’s why you need a network of people around you who you know and trust and who understand your offending behaviour. They can help support you, and can take steps to stop you from offending again. You can use this network to help you stay on track to a safe, positive, offence-free life.
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