States’ SORNA Implementation Journeys

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-365
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Harris ◽  
Kimberly R. Kras ◽  
Christopher Lobanov-Rostovsky ◽  
Qurat Ann
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offender ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Organizational Dynamics ◽  
Federal Mandates ◽  
Sex Offender Registration ◽  
The Public ◽  
Perceived Need ◽  
State Responses

Public policies requiring individuals convicted of sex offenses to register with law enforcement authorities, and in some cases granting public access to certain registry information, have been adopted by dozens of nations and provincial governments across the globe. Within the United States, sex offender registration and notification (SORN) policies are primarily established at the state level, but have come under increasing federal purview since the 1990s. Arising from a perceived need for improved interjurisdictional consistency and coordination, the 2006 Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) significantly broadened the scope and range of federal requirements for SORN systems operating within the states. Yet fourteen years following the law’s passage, a significant majority of states have yet to meet SORNA implementation thresholds, amidst an array of legal, political, fiscal, and practical challenges. Prior research has offered aggregate-level insights concerning the barriers to SORNA implementation, but has not captured the “back stories” of state policy experiences. Addressing this knowledge gap, the current study offers an in-depth examination of state experiences in aligning their policies with federal mandates. Drawing on data gathered from a diverse sample of ten states, the analysis reveals significant variation in the breadth and extent of required system changes and in the legal, political, and organizational dynamics surrounding state responses to federal oversight. Ultimately, the study offers insights and perspectives that can inform the continued refinement of federal and state policies, and improve the public safety effectiveness of the nation’s SORN systems.

State Implementation of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-47
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Harris ◽  
Scott Walfield ◽  
Christopher Lobanov-Rostovsky ◽  
Michelle A. Cubellis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Title I ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
Department Of Justice ◽  
Sex Offender Registration ◽  
The U.S

The 2006 Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA), Title I of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, established federal standards related to the content and operation of sex offender registration and notification systems across the United States. As of early 2017, over a decade following passage, 18 of 50 states had been designated by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) as having substantially implemented SORNA—figures that might be initially interpreted as indicators of a failed policy. Yet a closer analysis suggests that SORNA implementation is complex and multifaceted and that viewing the policy’s “success” through such a binary prism may be inherently limited. In this context, the current study offers a multidimensional analysis of state-level SORNA implementation based on data abstracted from DOJ records. Findings indicate that many aspects of SORNA have been universally or widely implemented, that most states have adopted policies that are consistent with a majority of SORNA standards, and that barriers to SORNA implementation are concentrated among a limited subset of issues, notably those related to retroactive application, registration of juveniles, and means of classifying registrants. Implications for state and federal policy governing sex offender registration are discussed.

scholarly journals The War on Sex Offenders: Community Notification in Perspective

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 256-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lyn Hinds ◽  
Kathleen Daly
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Notification ◽  
Megan's Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Campaign ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Naming And Shaming

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.

scholarly journals “Ag-Gag” Laws: Evolution, Resurgence, and Public Health Implications

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 664-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caitlin A. Ceryes ◽  
Christopher D. Heaney
Keyword(s):  
Occupational Health ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Animal Production ◽  
Public Access ◽  
State Laws ◽  
The Public ◽  
Food Animal ◽  
Health Community ◽  
History Of

The term “ag-gag” refers to state laws that intentionally limit public access to information about agricultural production practices, particularly livestock production. Originally created in the 1990s, these laws have recently experienced a resurgence in state legislatures. We discuss the recent history of ag-gag laws in the United States and question whether such ag-gag laws create a “chilling effect” on reporting and investigation of occupational health, community health, and food safety concerns related to industrial food animal production. We conclude with a discussion of the role of environmental and occupational health professionals to encourage critical evaluation of how ag-gag laws might influence the health, safety, and interests of day-to-day agricultural laborers and the public living proximal to industrial food animal production.

scholarly journals JUSTFAIR: Judicial System Transparency through Federal Archive Inferred Records

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria-Veronica Ciocanel ◽  
Chad M. Topaz ◽  
Rebecca Santorella ◽  
Shilad Sen ◽  
Christian Michael Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Federal District ◽  
The United States ◽  
Judicial System ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Scale Free ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sentencing Decisions ◽  
Constitutional Right

In the Unites States, the public has a constitutional right to access criminal trial proceedings. In practice, it can be difficult or impossible for the public to exercise this right. We present JUSTFAIR: Judicial System Transparency through Federal Archive Inferred Records, a database of criminal sentencing decisions made in federal district courts. We have compiled this data set from public sources including the United States Sentencing Commission, the Federal Judicial Center, the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system, and Wikipedia. With nearly 600,000 records from the years 2001 - 2018, JUSTFAIR is the first large scale, free, public database that links information about defendants and their demographic characteristics with information about their federal crimes, their sentences, and, crucially, the identity of the sentencing judge.

scholarly journals THE STATE OF THE NATION: A 50-STATE COVID-19 SURVEY REPORT #5: APPROVAL OF EXECUTIVE PERFORMANCE DURING COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lazer ◽  
Katherine Ognyanova ◽  
Alexi Quintana ◽  
Matthew Baum ◽  
John D. Volpe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
Initial Response ◽  
The United States ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Gender And Education ◽  
Survey Report ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
And Gender

The initial response to a crisis typically depends on the executive branch of government, because they may act more rapidly than legislative and judicial branches. For COVID-19 in particular, the focal decision-makers have been the president and the governors of the 50 states. In the eyes of the public, how have the president and governors responded?We surveyed 22,501 individuals across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. The survey was conducted on 12-28 June 2020 by PureSpectrum via an online, nonprobability sample, with state-level representative quotas for race/ethnicity, age, and gender (for methodological details on the other waves, see covidstates.org). In addition to balancing on these dimensions, we reweighted our data using demographic characteristics to match the U.S. population with respect to race/ethnicity, age, gender, and education. This was the fifth in a series of surveys we have been conducting since April 2020, examining attitudes and behaviors regarding COVID-19 in the United States.

scholarly journals The Politics of Botched Executions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinna Barrett Lain
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
The Public ◽  
Best Friend ◽  
Lethal Injection ◽  
Cultural Construct ◽  
State Responses

In this symposium essay, I explore the politics of botched executions, discussing state responses to the latest round of executions gone wrong and the ways in which those responses matter. Part I recounts four botched executions in 2014 and the state responses that accompanied them. Part II makes three observations about those responses-one about states' fealty to the death penalty, one about backlash politics and the scope of the public relations problem, and one about the changing cultural construct of lethal injection in the United States. Part III explores how state responses to botched executions (or the lack thereof) might impact the constitutionality of lethal injection itself. In the end, the recent spate of botched executions may prove true the old adage about politics making strange bedfellows. The inept executioner may prove the abolitionist's best friend.

The Political Economy of Public Universities in the United States: A Review Essay

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. Lowry
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
Public Services ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Governments ◽  
Public Higher Education ◽  
The Public ◽  
Trade Offs

Scholars of state politics and policy have devoted little attention to the public universities where so many of them work. Public higher education is organized at the state level, and its funding and governance have been debated at length in many states in recent years. Moreover, these universities provide opportunities for contributions to a variety of theoretically-grounded research, including the decision to make or buy public services, principal-agent issues and institutional arrangements for governance, the politics of institutional reform, the determinants of government appropriations and budgetary trade-offs, and internal decisionmaking in state-owned enterprises, public bureaucracies, and nonprofit organizations. Research on these issues could not only generate insights relevant to many types of institutions and public services but also contribute to ongoing policy debates over relations between state governments and higher education.

scholarly journals Community Pharmacists Roles During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
pp. 089719002098062
Author(s):  
Karl Hess ◽  
Albert Bach ◽  
Kimberly Won ◽  
Sheila M. Seed
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Pharmacy Practice ◽  
Community Pharmacists ◽  
State Level ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Care ◽  
Public Health Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us

The aim of this paper is to review the roles that community pharmacists in the United States (US) can play to support public health measures during the current severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic (COVID-19). Community pharmacists in the US are highly visible and accessible to the public and have long been regarded as a source for immunization services as well as other public health activities. In the US, the scope of pharmacy practice continues to expand and incorporate various health services on a state-by-state level. For the purposes of this article, a PubMed literature search was undertaken to identify published articles on SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, pharmacist- and pharmacy-based immunization and other public health care activities in the US in order to identify and discuss roles that community pharmacists can play during this pandemic including as vaccinators, screeners and testers. In conclusion, community pharmacists are knowledgeable and capable providers of public health services and are easily accessible and well regarded by the public. The incorporation of community pharmacists into this nation’s COVID-19 pandemic response plan can help aid recovery efforts in the US.

scholarly journals Scaling training to support scientists to engage with the public in non-traditional venues

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (04) ◽  
pp. N02
Author(s):  
Caitlin Weber ◽  
Sue Allen ◽  
Nalini Nadkarni
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Training Program ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Traditional Learning ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Science Activities

Public engagement with science activities need to be extended beyond traditional learning venues (e.g., museums, schools) to increase public access. Scientists are motivated to carry out this work; however, it is difficult to scale up training to support the implementation of engagement activities in non-traditional venues. Such training would need to be applicable to different engagement contexts, while avoiding a “one size fits all” approach. We describe the guiding principles, challenges, and design choices of a training program in the United States to support scientists in designing and implementing audience-specific engagement activities in a range of non-traditional venues.

scholarly journals Release Within Confinement: An Alternative Proposal for Managing the Masturbation of Incarcerated Men in U.S. Prisons

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-23
Author(s):  
Sam Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offender ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work Environments ◽  
Minimal Basis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Incarcerated Men ◽  
Potential Problems ◽  
Alternative Proposal ◽  
Sex Offender Recidivism

Policies regarding masturbation among incarcerated men vary throughout the United States. To describe the state of these policies, a systematic review of prison masturbation policies was conducted. The review revealed that masturbation among incarcerated men is banned in most U.S. prisons (sometimes in all cases, and other times only when it is intended to disturb others, and/or is public). Furthermore, many states’ Departments of Corrections have made these policies difficult for the public to identify. Prison masturbation bans have been defended on the grounds that they reduce STI transmission, help maintain order, prevent hostile work environments for female prison staff, assist in prison rape prosecutions, and assist in rehabilitating incarcerated people. By reviewing the available social science and endocrinological research on masturbation, those justifications are found to have minimal basis in scientific evidence. Conversely, the evidence does suggest the masturbation bans could potentially be linked with higher rates of violence, rape, exploitation, sex offender recidivism, insomnia, stress, depression, and suicide. Instead of being rooted in evidence, bans on prison masturbation seem to be primarily motivated by sex-negativity and the desire to retributively punish incarcerated people. To alleviate these harms, this article suggests allowing incarcerated men to masturbate within specifically identified circumstances, and/or to lessen existing punishments for masturbation. Potential problems with the implementation of the suggested policy are discussed, and a call is made to make inmate handbooks, which contain most of these policies, available to the public. Unique opportunities for penological and sexological research are identified.

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