The Criminal Justice System Created Policies For Sex Offenders

There have been many federal acts passed in correspondence with sex offenses that illicit feat with the public. There are many different types of ways in which Levenson & colleagues’ (2007) describes the perceptions that the public has based on certain factors. For instance, in relation to the perception about the sex offender notification system, a survey produced results of around 80 percent in favor of these registries, because these individuals felt safer in their communities knowing who was in their neighborhood. Further, due to this fear that resonated in the early 1990’s communities do have tools such as residential restrictions, civil commitment, notification procedures, etc. that aid in the protection. However, there are myths associated with sex offenders, for example legislation often states that the reasoning for new laws and regulations is due to the high recidivism rates. However, sex offenders have significantly lower recidivism rates than believed. Also, there are countless people who do not believe that sex offenders can be assisted with techniques from a psychological standpoint. Most people think that these offenders cannot be treated, however, there is research being conducted that is promising. Finally, there is a common misconception that sex offenders kill their victims, especially children more often than other killers, however this is not true.

California enacted the first sex offender register law in 1944. However, sex offender registers in the United States did not become widespread until the 1990s. The Jacob Wetterling Act 1994 was named after 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling who was abducted and to this day has never been found. The Jacob Wetterling Act implemented the first nation-wide sex offender register. Originally, the concept of a sex offender register was intended to for use solely by law enforcement; it was not an intention for the sex offender register to be public. However in 1996, Megan’s Law was added to the Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act 1994 and made it a requirement for the information on sex offender registers to be accessible by the public. Megan’s Law was enacted as a result of a heinous crime where 7-year-old Megan Kanka was raped and murdered by her neighbour, who had two previous convictions for sexually assaulting young girls. In 2006, Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. This Act required states to enact stricter registration requirements, including an increase in the penalty for not registering and more frequent verification of sex offenders’ locations. Since 2006 public access to sex offender registers has been accessible on the Internet in most states. On these websites you can search for an offender by name or location, and find information such as their photo, convictions, address,

When we hear the phrase, sex offender, we normally feel repulsed. We think of dirty old creepy men. I for one used to do this, I won’t lie. This is because people like to rush to judgment. But my opinions changed when I came to the realization that it’s not just creepy old men who are sex offenders. I want to talk about them, but not those who are serial rapists or child molesters; they don’t deserve to be talked about. I’m talking about people who are convicted, whether it’s falsely, or unjustly, and have to wear a stamp on their forehead for the rest of their lives saying they are a sex offender.

Sex offender registry laws were intended to increase public safety and to reduce the reoffending rates of sexual offenders. However, this paper will argue that registration has no effect on recidivism rates and that the law actually negatively impacts rehabilitative goals because of the unforeseen issues stemming from registration. An analysis of the existing body of literature concerning registration from the United States will address the

Additionaly, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act is seen as a positive as well by law enforcement, “…believing it leads to improved community surveillance of sex offenders and deters them from reoffending” (Lasher & McGrath 9). The downside to this concept is the cost of implementing the notifications. It is a concern for law enforcement that the public could overreact, which would result in the need to allocate funds due to harassment (Lasher & McGrath 9). It has an impact on the economic system because people believe it needs to be implemented to keep everyone safe, and do not take into consideration the large amounts of money needed to put this act in place. An article tiled, “Sex Offenders Registration and

The Sex Offender Act 1997 stated that people who have been convicted of a Sexual offence must register their address with police and may be served with an order preventing them from going near places where children are.

Federal laws like the Adam Walsh Act and the Wetterling Act, which mandated long registration periods and the online posting of information including pictures and current addresses under the posting ‘Sex Offender and/or Crimes Against Children’, have resulted in a social stigma and humiliation for young people across America. Not to mention the cost of registration--fair for the true pedophile but not for the young person lacking a job or real place to call home.

States control how long they must register for, what types of crimes make them a sex-offender, and what all information must be made public. Juveniles can also be considered sex-offenders, these records are often expunged, but according to the state they can be registered until they are eighteen or even longer (2011). A law with so many layers is bound to cause controversy among the public; although enacting Megan’s Law was done with good intentions it has caused a negative social stigma towards sex offenders with low risk of

Sexual assault is a major global issue; sexual deviance such as sexual assault definitely needs a lot of social attention from many different societies across the globe (Nelson, 2007, p. 7). It is a very serious problem that needs to be continuously addressed, through research, government programs, and new fundamental treatment possibilities. As a matter of fact, it is continuing to spread rapidly with a percentage of 25% of women and 15% of men in the United States have been affected by sexual assault (Nelson, 2007, p. 7). Due to rapid growth, public awareness should be made about the different types of sex offenders. The public should be aware of their distinct characteristics and possible treatment options. Public awareness is extremely important; it allows us to know the many different kinds of people that are in this world. Different kinds of people, including sex offenders, it’s important to know what measures one would have to take and the different possible options when faced with such issues (Nelson, 2007, p. 7).

In extending the current sex offender and housing literature, this study explored whether the presence of RSOs were associated with a decrease in sale prices of homes in a major metropolitan U.S. county. Previous research has established that sex offender legislation has produced unintended social and financial consequences in communities located in urban areas. Economically speaking, scholars have demonstrated a relationship between home sale values and the presence of RSOs (Bian et al., 2013; Caudill et al., 2014; Larsen et al., 2003; Linden & Rockoff, 2008; Pope, 2008; Wentland et al., 2014). Based on this scholarship, home sale values have financially reacted in decreased values to the nearby presence of RSOs, even though public members

The specific outcomes the law is attempting to accomplish are to provide a revised sex offender registration system. To make amendments to the child and sex related federal criminal laws.

In this paper I will discuss the typical profiling of sex offenders and how one cannot simply point them out in a crowd. I will discuss why sex offenders do not stand out from “normal” people. I will discuss a little bit of why these people do the things they do and what kind of cure there is for these crimes, if any. It is important to know why we cannot assume one is bad news, such as a sex offender and to find out for sure. The true meaning of “you cannot judge a book by its cover” will be revealed in this paper with many examples.

Sex offenders tend to blend in to society virtually unnoticed until they offend or reoffend (Polizzi, MacKenzie, & Hickman, 1999). Currently, there is a large group of mental health professionals representing a variety of disciplines, including psychology, psychiatry clinical social work, counseling, and medicine, that continue to believe in the potential efficacy of treating sex offenders. Over the past decade, the sex offender treatment field has grown rapidly and the treatment of juvenile sex offenders is on the rise (Parks & Bard, 2006). The rationale for treating juvenile offenders is based on research which indicates that inappropriate sexual behavior patterns develop early and a failure to intervene and change behavior early often means that the offender will continue to escalate his/her inappropriate behavior, which could present an even greater danger to society (Ayland & West, 2006). Vivian-Bryne, (2004) suggests that professionals who treat adult sex offenders report that offenders who are incarcerated will eventually return to the community and therefore, therapeutic measures should be taken to reduce the likelihood that they will reoffend even if those measures have not conclusively been identified as effective. Sexual offenders may find therapy valuable because it can allow them to retrace their upbringing to help them identify and understand the roots of their

Stories of sex offenders have been increasingly a focus of attention by the criminal justice system over the past years. By legal definition, a sex offender “is a person who is convicted of a sexual offense (Sex Offender Law & Legal Definition),” an act which is prohibited by the jurisdiction. What constitutes as a sex offense or normal/abnormal sexual behavior varies over time and place, meaning that it also varies by legal jurisdiction and culture. In the United States of America, for example, a person can be convicted of wide range of sexual behavior that includes prostitution, incest, sex with a minor, rape, and other sex offenses (Sex Offender Law & Legal Definition). As the nature of sex crimes have long held the

Managing and tracking where offenders are, as well as notifying the communities in which a sex offender resides, works, or studies, is seen as a way of keeping the public safe. Members of the community could be more vigilant if they were provided with more information about a sex offender, therefore reducing their chances of being victimized. Furthermore, if there is a greater awareness in the community, if anyone sees anything suspicious, it is more likely to be reported to law enforcement, and at a faster rate. A latent goal of SORNA is to act as a deterrent (The National Institute of Justice, 2013) to those who contemplate carrying out such crimes. The policymakers believe that the threat of having personal information shared to the wider community would make a potential sex offender question their intentions and stop them from carrying through with the sexual