Journal ArticleDOI
Sex Offender Laws: Legislators' Accounts of the Need for Policy
TLDR
For instance, this article found that policy makers had very distinct ideas about the nature of the sex offender problem in terms of who was responsible, who was in need of protection, and the degree to which legislative responses would address the issue.Abstract:
To date, scholars have simply inferred the beliefs underlying sex offender laws from the passage and content of the legislation. Few researchers have directly spoken to legislators to determine their opinions of the sex offender problem. This study seeks to determine the perceptions of sex offenders and sex offending in the 1990s that drove the need for sex offender reform in Illinois and the degree to which these perceptions influenced the content of the laws. The findings suggest that policy makers had very distinct ideas about the nature of the sex offender problem in terms of who was responsible, who was in need of protection, and the degree to which legislative responses would address the issue. There was congruence between these personal perceptions and the content of sex offender laws. The results shed light on the degree to which public officials' personal perceptions influence the passage and content of legislation.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Vulnerable victims, monstrous offenders, and unmanageable risk: Explaining public opinion on the social control of sex crime
TL;DR: This paper analyzed national survey data that includes measures of the key concepts outlined in the different theoretical models and items gauging support for punitive sex crime laws as well as support for sex offender treatment.
Journal ArticleDOI
Desistance and Attitudes Towards Sex Offenders: Facilitation or Hindrance?
TL;DR: The authors reviewed findings of research on community attitudes about sex offenders within a desistance framework and provided a synthesis of the current research literature on attitudes towards sex offenders, and reviewed interventions aimed at promoting attitude change amongst professionals working with sex offenders and finally formulated some recommendations for promoting positive attitude change among the general public.
Journal ArticleDOI
Public Awareness and Action Resulting From Sex Offender Community Notification Laws
Amy L. Anderson,Lisa L. Sample +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, survey responses from a representative sample of Nebraska residents were used to examine the degree to which people access registration information, the feelings this information invokes, and if preventative measures are subsequently taken by citizens.
Journal ArticleDOI
Public Perception of Sex Offender Social Policies and the Impact on Sex Offenders
TL;DR: Results suggest that although most individuals support Megan’s Law, they do not feel the policy reduces recidivism, and the majority of the participants also do not believe that housing restriction statutes are effective in reducing sexual recidiva.
References
More filters
Book
Qualitative analysis for social scientists
TL;DR: This book presents a meta-coding pedagogical architecture grounded in awareness contexts that helps practitioners and students understand one another better and take responsibility for one another's learning.
Book
Folk Devils and Moral Panics: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers
TL;DR: The third edition of Folk Devils and Moral Panics as mentioned in this paper is the most recent edition of the book, which revisited the theory of moral panic and explored the way in which the concept has been used.
Journal ArticleDOI
Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places
Lawrence Rosen,Laud Humphreys +1 more
TL;DR: Tearoom Trade as mentioned in this paper explores the behaviour of men whose closet homosexuality was kept from their families and neighbours by posing as an initiate, and later developing a more complete picture of those involved by interviewing them in their homes, again without revealing their unwitting participation in his study.
Book
Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America
TL;DR: The authors traces shifting social responses to adult sexual contacts with children, whether this involves molestation by strangers or incestuous acts by family members, and explores how and why concern about the sexual offender has fluctuated in North America since the late nineteenth century.