Banishment of Sexual Offenders: Socio-Spatial Control in the National Capital of Canada

Abstract

There has been an upward trend of advocacy for harsher restrictions akin the United States for individuals who have sexually offended when they are released in the community after incarceration in Canada. While the consequences of these restrictions have been vastly documented in an American context, the "cautious" approach taken by Canada has not provided many answers about the socio-spatial exclusion of individuals convicted of sexual offences. While banishment has rarely been used by the Canadian jurisprudence, this research attempts to uncover how banishment is covered under restrictive mechanisms of control for sexual offenders in the community. Based on previous research findings, the concept of space and carceral expansion is at the basis of this framework to study banishment. These concepts build onto one another to create a foundation of banishment that encompasses both social and spatial processes. Using a mixed qualitative methodology involving the analysis of ATIP documents, cartography, and semi-structured interviews, the findings and analytical observations dismiss the previous claim of Canada's relatively less punitive approach to sexual offender management in the community. Rather, the thesis concludes that the socio-spatial restrictions imposed on individuals who have committed sexual offences do lead to banishment, which has considerable implications for the re-entry of these individuals into the community.