When Animus Matters and Sex Offense Underreporting Does Not: The Sex Offender Registry Regime

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ira Mark Ellman
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offender ◽  
Sex Offender Registry ◽  
Sex Offense

Shame and blame: Secondary stigma among families of convicted sex offenders

2021 ◽  
pp. 174889582110173
Author(s):  
Douglas Evans ◽  
Adam Trahan ◽  
Kaleigh Laird
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Formerly Incarcerated ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Sex Offender Registry

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.

Beyond Panic: Variation in the Legislative Activity for Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws Across States Over Time

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 451-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Lytle
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
Criminal Justice Policy ◽  
Sex Offender Registration ◽  
Legislative Activity ◽  
Legislative Reforms ◽  
Sex Offense ◽  
Over Time

Nationwide moral panic has long served as a primary explanation for sex offense laws. These laws, however, remain primarily left to state legislatures, which implies potential variation in their content over time. Variation in legislative content, to the degree that it represents implementation, not only suggests differential consequences for registrants and communities, but also it would raise questions to the sufficiency of moral panic as a sole explanation for sex offense policy change. I build upon earlier work by exploring variation in the content and timing of sex offender registration and notification (SORN) reform in all 50 states over time. After documenting variation in these laws, I present the ways in which SORN legislative content has evolved differently across states. In addition, the timing of legislative reforms differed not only across states but also within states over time. These findings have implications for existing theoretical assertions regarding criminal justice policy.

scholarly journals The child protection offender register: An analysis of the proposed New Zealand child sex offender register

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rebecca Eaton
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Current Management ◽  
Sex Offender Registry ◽  
Management Measures ◽  
A Current ◽  
Current Proposal

<p>Sex offender registries are prominent and controversial methods of managing sex offenders once released into the community. The purposes and form of these registers vary between jurisdictions. A current proposal has been made for the development and implementation of such a register in New Zealand which would focus on child sex offenders specifically. In determining whether this intervention would be justified and serve a practical purpose, this paper looks at the risk posed by child sex offenders and the current measures in place to manage this risk. This paper finds that the proposed child sex offender register will enhance the current management measures and information sharing arrangements regarding child sex offenders. Various rights and interests are affected by the implementation of a sex offender registry; the inherent tension being between freedom of expression and privacy. This paper looks at whether the current proposal achieves an appropriate balance between these rights. Whilst an appropriate balance is achieved by the register itself, this balance will have to be more carefully considered in the development of the proposed disclosure scheme.</p>

scholarly journals International Megan's Law as Compelled Speech

2020 ◽  
pp. 1603
Author(s):  
Alexandra Genord
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
First Amendment ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Federal District ◽  
District Court ◽  
Megan's Law ◽  
Strict Scrutiny ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Sex Offense ◽  
United States Code

“The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 United States Code Section 212b(c)(l).” International Megan’s Law (IML), passed in 2016, prohibits the State Department from issuing passports to individuals convicted of a sex offense against a minor unless those passports are branded with this phrase. The federal government's decision to brand its citizens’ passports with this stigmatizing message is novel and jarring, but the sole federal district court to consider a constitutional challenge to the passport identifier dismissed the plaintiffs’ First Amendment claim, deeming the provision government speech. This Note argues that this passport identifier is more appropriately analyzed as a form of compelled speech, triggering strict scrutiny review that the IML’s passport identifier would not survive.

The policing of sexual activity

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terry Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sexual Offenders ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Sex Tourism ◽  
Sexual Offences ◽  
Sex Offender Registry ◽  
Police Attitudes ◽  
Police Investigations ◽  
Evidence Gathering

This essay starts by discussing the initial police involvement with newly reported sexual offences, covering local policing, problems with reporting to the police, police attitudes to complainants, and the role of sexual assault referral centres. The next section reviews police investigations of sexual offences, evidence gathering, and the role of forensic science and preparation for prosecution decisions. The author then explores the new role given to the police in their public protection role. This requires the police to take on supervisory activities, including administering the sex offender registry, applying for preventive civil orders, and disseminating information on sex offenders. The essay concludes by looking at the national and international policing of sexual offenders, including the policing of ‘sex tourism’.

Revisiting Sex Offender Registration and Notification: Does Awareness Differ Across Community Type?

2020 ◽  
pp. 073401682097103
Author(s):  
John C. Navarro ◽  
Ethan M. Higgins ◽  
Kristin Swartz
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Fear Of Crime ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
The United States ◽  
Community Type ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Sex Offender Registry ◽  
Survey Responses

In recent decades, sex offender registry and notification has become ubiquitous across the United States. Although researchers have attempted to evaluate the awareness of registered sex offenders, much of this work has had a nearly unilateral focus on urban communities. In response, researchers have called for further investigation into whether awareness manifests differently across community type (suburban and urban). To address this question, we draw from two data sets. The first data set contains property data for single-family households sold in 2015 from a suburban county in Illinois and an urban county in Kentucky. The second data set consists of survey responses from 113 suburban and 171 urban county residents within 1,000 feet of the nearest sex offender that was delivered via a sequential mixed-mode design. In addition, we investigate whether awareness manifests differently across community type through a number of predictors (e.g., children in the household, education) and potential theoretical explanations (fear of crime, informal social control, and social cohesion). We find that community types do have differing levels of awareness and that varying levels of social cohesion may explain this difference. Implications are also discussed.

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