Managing Unacceptable Risk: Sex Offenders, Community Response, and Social Policy in the United States and Canada

Author(s):  
Michael G. Petrunik
Author(s):  
Evan J Kravitz

This paper examines the current philosophy and methodology utilized in the United States and Denmark in dealing with child sex offenders and proposes post-release approaches that will reduce recidivism rates in order to better protect society in the future. After analyzing current classifications of child sex offenders, labeling theory is rejected in favor of a novel classification of offenders based on their victimization. The unreliability of current measures of recidivism rates is explored and proposals are set forth to reconfigure recidivism rates to effectively measure the value of post-release protocols. A study of the current laws and social policy of the U.S. and Denmark follows along with a critical analysis of post-release sanctions and treatments. I conclude with a proposal for a post-release protocol that should minimize recidivism of child sex offenders and provide the greatest protection to society.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174889582110173
Author(s):  
Douglas Evans ◽  
Adam Trahan ◽  
Kaleigh Laird

The detriment of incarceration experienced by the formerly incarcerated has been increasingly explored in the literature on reentry. A tangential but equally concerning issue that has recently received more research attention is the effect on family members of the incarcerated. The stigma of a criminal conviction is most apparent among families of convicted sex offenders, who experience consequences parallel to those of their convicted relative. Drawing from interviews with 30 individuals with a family member incarcerated for a sex offence in the United States, this study explores manifestations of stigma due to familial association. The findings suggest that families face negative treatment from social networks and criminal justice officials, engage in self-blame and that the media’s control over the narrative exacerbates family members’ experiences. Given the pervasiveness of criminal justice system contact, the rapid growth of the sex offender registry in the United States, and the millions of family members peripherally affected by one or both, justice system reforms are needed to ensure that family members are shielded from the harms of incarceration and registration.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Scott L. Greer ◽  
Holly Jarman ◽  
Michelle Falkenbach ◽  
Elize Massard da Fonseca ◽  
Minakshi Raj ◽  
...  

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Hinds ◽  
Kathleen Daly

This article explores the contemporary phenomenon of “naming and shaming” sex offenders. Community notification laws, popularly known as Megan's Law, which authorise the public disclosure of the identity of convicted sex offenders to the community in which they live, were enacted throughout the United States in the 1990s. A public campaign to introduce “Sarah's Law” has recently been launched in Britain, following the death of eight-year old Sarah Payne. Why are sex offenders, and certain categories of sex offenders, singled out as targets of community notification laws? What explains historical variability in the form that sex offender laws take? We address these questions by reviewing the sexual psychopath laws enacted in the United States in the 1930s and 40s and the sexual predator and community notification laws of the 1990s, comparing recent developments in the United States with those in Britain, Canada, and Australia. We consider arguments by Garland, O'Malley, Pratt, and others on how community notification, and the control of sex offenders more generally, can be explained; and we speculate on the likelihood that Australia will adopt community notification laws.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 792-793
Author(s):  
Den A. Trumbull ◽  
DuBose Ravenel ◽  
David Larson

The supplement to Pediatrics entitled "The Role of the Pediatrician in Violence Prevention" is timely, given the increasingly serious violence problem in the United States.1 Many of the supplement's recommendations are well-conceived and developed. However, the recommendation to "work toward the ultimate goal of ending corporal punishment in homes" (page 580)2 is unwarranted and counterproductive. Before one advises against a practice approved by 88% of American parents3 and supported by 67% of primary care physicians,4 there should be sufficient scientific evidence to support the proposed change in social policy.


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