Policy-makers’ perceptions on their sex offender laws: the good, the bad, and the ugly

A paedophile scan to prevent child sexual abuse in child care? A thought experiment to problematize the notion of alignment in Responsible Research and Innovation

“…Moreno ( 1997 ) describes the use of stereotypical depictions of the sex offender in the media for political and media gain. Getting tough on child sex offenders has been shown as a way to help ensure re-election (Meloy et al 2013 ). It can be advantageous to a political figure to be seen as doing something against paedophiles, such as advocating the application of the paedoscan in child care institutions.…”

Support for Current Sex Offender Management Policies: A National Survey of the Perceptions of Professionals

“…The results of the research found prosecutors and community corrections officers have significantly higher odds of believing that SORN is effective compared to law enforcement officials. To some extent this is not surprising given the larger body of research examining criminal justice professional perceptions regarding sex offender policies indicates mixed results among various actors or professions from law enforcement to mental health professionals or corrections personnel to legislators Malesky & Keim, 2001;Meloy, Curtis, & Boatwright, 2013a, Meloy, Curtis, & Boatwright, 2013bMustaine et al, 2015;Sample & Kadleck, 2008;Tewksbury & Mustaine, 2012Tewksbury et al, 2011). To illustrate, Tewksbury and Mustaine (2013) found law enforcement officials to be the most skeptical of the effectiveness of community notification, they had the highest level of agreement (71%) that residence restrictions are successful in reducing sexual victimization, whereas, other studies reported lower levels of support among community corrections officers (50%) (Tewksbury et al, 2011) and parole board members (42%) (Tewksbury and Mustaine, 2012).…”

“…For example, legislators have commented that the current policies are too broad and overreaching, thus impacting low-risk sex offenders with almost equal severity as high-risk sex offenders (Meloy et al, 2013a(Meloy et al, , 2013b. By reserving the full breadth of the policies (such as publicly accessible registries) for those sex offenders classified as being high-risk for re-offense, sex offenders who are not likely to re-offend may be spared some of the collateral consequences associated with current policies.…”

“…Perhaps most interestingly, several interviews with legislators have revealed mixed feelings among the group of professionals that have the most direct involvement with the passage of sex offender management policies (Meloy et al, 2013a(Meloy et al, , 2013bSample and Kadleck, 2008). For instance, Sample and Kadleck (2008) found that only 11% of Illinois legislators were confident that current policies reduce sexual victimization, while Meloy et al (2013b) reported that 55% of a national sample of policy makers who had sponsored at least one sex offender bill in their state believed current policies were meeting their intended goals.…”

Do Female Legislators Do It Differently? Sex Offender Lawmaking at the State Level

“…Only a small group of studies specifically examine legislators’ views on sex offender lawmaking (Jenkins, 2004; Meloy, Curtis, & Boatwright, 2013a, 2013b; Sample & Kadleck, 2008; Sutherland, 1950), and none of these studies specifically examined the effect of a policymaker’s gender, race, ethnicity, or political affiliation on the creation of sex offender laws. Thus, the present study adds to our understanding of how and under what conditions sex offender crime policy is created.…”