The uncomfortable truth? Those who commit sexual offenses are usually not strangers.
There are roughly half a million sexual assault incidents in the United States every year — and more than 11,000 in Florida alone. These numbers are troubling.
So it’s no surprise that people search the sex offender registration website to make sure that no one convicted of a sexual offense lives near them or more worrisome, their children’s school, day care or neighborhood park. The premise is simple: to make people feel safer in their community. But are they truly safer? Have we been relying on the wrong system?
Long before the world was introduced to the predatory behavior of people like Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby, lawmakers across the nation worked to deter victimization and protect citizens from sexual assault. They enacted policies governing individuals convicted of sexual offenses — known as sex offender registration and notification (SORN) laws. These policies allow for law enforcement to maintain a list to track and monitor sex offenders, and registry websites provide the public with registrants’ addresses and identifying information.
But do registration and notification policies actually deter individuals inclined to commit sexual offenses and protect citizens?
A new study of ours shows that these policies are not effective in deterring crime or protecting citizens. We summarized 25 years of research and 474,640 formerly incarcerated sex offenders. We found that such policies do not reduce sexual or non-sexual recidivism.
No reduction. At all.
If the policies are ineffective, then why do we have them?
These policies exist as a governmental response to community fear and outrage. There is political pressure to increase public safety. The problem is that these laws were enacted very quickly after child murder cases and became wide-reaching governmental mandates without research to back their existence and effectiveness. Fast forward 25 years, and the public and politicians are relying on window-dressing to feel safe.
…
There are better ways. We need to educate the public, law enforcement and policy makers that governmental oversight of registrants is not a feasible solution to protecting potential sexual abuse victims. This is not a call to “go soft” on crime, it is an encouragement to “go smart” on crime and use data to make informed decisions. This reimagining requires us as a society to confront the uncomfortable truth that those who commit sexual offenses are usually not strangers — they are more likely to be the most trusted figures around us — our loved ones, our babysitters, coaches, teachers and close family friends.
Wow! Maybe the tide IS finally turning! Great article.
(Though they could have used a proof-reader: “We summarized 25 years of research and 474,640 formerly incarcerated sex offenders.” How do you “summarize” offenders?🤷🏻♂️)
1) Send this to the Book family.
2) Get these folks to do a workshop at next year’s conference if they are willing
3) Another academic set of folks who adds another brick to the solid wall of data
Here’s the problem…
Politicians are not interested in solving problems. Not even a little bit.
They are only interested in doing what they think will get them re-elected. Whatever that takes.
Politicians have created a boogey man to scare the public, and they’ve convinced many people that they created the registry to solve this problem,
No way in h@!! they will vote to undo the registry after spending years selling it to the public in an effort to get re-elected. It’s political suicide for them to do anything their opponent will be able to throw back at them as ‘soft on sex offenders.’
The only hope I see in this is to have the courts take action, and that’s never going to happen in states like Wisconsin where all judges are elected. Perhaps at the Federal level where they have job security, but never in a situation where a judge will be facing an opponent who will throw it in their face if they strike down a registry law.
Sorry, but I’ve become a bit jaded.
Registry and other restrictions don’t work except for putting lives at risk making communities less safe; while claiming it’s to protect children. Now the net has been cast to broad and ends up netting those children it was geared to protect. If reckless parents didn’t run to politicians sex offenses wouldn’t be a hot potato. Time to turn off the fryer and send the beloved registry to grease factories.