Sex Offender Community Notification: Experiences from America

Thomas, Terry

doi:10.1111/1468-2311.00279

Cited by 16 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The SSOM Act targets a very specific group of high-profile recidivist child sex offenders, who often perpetrate against strangers or people outside their family group. This distinction may encourage the perception that all child sex offenders are recidivists and offend against strangers (Gelb, 2006;Leviore, 2004;Thomas, 2003;Wasserman, 1998). Legislators, however, do not create policy in a social vacuum, and the news media is prominent in the dissemination of much information that otherwise may have remained distant to the layperson (Pirkis & Blood, 2001).…”

Section: Informing Public Perceptions: Interface Between Sexual Offenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensationalising sex offenders and sexual recidivism: Impact of the Serious Sex Offender Monitoring Act 2005 on media reportage

Ducat

Thomas

Blood

2009

Australian Psychologist

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Differences in extent and nature of newspaper media reporting before and after the introduction of the Serious Sex Offender Monitoring Act 2005 in Victoria were investigated, critically exploring the interface between psychological, media and criminological disciplines. Forty-three news items before the Act and 90 after the Act were analysed using a thematic and discursive framework. A significant increase in the number of items was found after the Act but other discursive and thematic findings were mixed. Several indicators of sensationalism such as headline size, tone, and theme did not differ between time frames, while there was a significant increase in the incidence of case-based and high-profile case reporting after the introduction of the Act. Hence, although the discourse and frames within which serious sex offenders are reported has remained similar over time, the introduction of the Act has dramatically impacted on the frequency of reporting in such cases. The findings are congruent with the extant literature on the newsworthiness of child sexual offending, indicating a need for media outlets to be more responsible in their reporting, and for legislators to enact legislation based upon empirical evidence.

show abstract

Section: Informing Public Perceptions: Interface Between Sexual Offenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensationalising sex offenders and sexual recidivism: Impact of the Serious Sex Offender Monitoring Act 2005 on media reportage

Ducat

Thomas

Blood

2009

Australian Psychologist

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…16 A limited form of disclosure already exists under the Multi-Agency Public Protection arrangements, where there is an immediate danger to the public (Kemshall and Maguire, 2003). 17 Until this point, however, the government had firmly rejected calls for community notification along the lines of 'Megan's Law' in the United States, which permits a much wider degree of public disclosure of information about local sex offenders (Rutherford, 2000;Thomas, 2003). Now it seems that, despite official reassurances to the contrary, we have moved one step closer to a general right of access to such information.…”

Section: Social and Legal Studies 19(1) Addressing The Deficiencies Of mentioning

confidence: 99%

Vetting Sexual Offenders: State Over-Extension, the Punishment Deficit and the Failure to Manage Risk

McAlinden

2010

Social & Legal Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article examines the state regulation of sexual offenders in the particular context of pre-employment vetting. A successive range of statutory frameworks have been put in place, culminating in the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, to prevent unsuitable individuals from working with the vulnerable, and children in particular. Contemporary legislative and policy developments are set against a backdrop of broader concerns in the area of crime and justice, namely risk regulation, preventative governance and 'precautionary logic'. Proponents of these approaches have largely ignored concerns over their feasibility. This article specifically addresses this fissure within the specific field of vetting. It is argued that 'hyper innovation' and state overextension in this area are particularly problematic and have resulted in exceptionally uncertain and unsafe policies. These difficulties relate principally to unrealistic public expectations about the state's ability to control crime; unintended and ambiguous policy effects; and ultimately the failure of the state to deliver on its self-imposed regulatory mandate to effectively manage risk.

show abstract

“…This is the release of conviction and sentence details including photographs and the address of convicted sex offenders living in the community to enable residents in a given area to better protect themselves and their children. The idea started in the USA when Washington State passed its Sexually Violent Predators Act 1990 and achieved greater notice as 'Megan's Law' in 1996 when it became federal law that all states should have such open access (see Thomas 2003). Today the 'community notification' federal law is contained within the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act 2006.…”

Section: Disclosure Of Convictions To the Public For Public Protectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Offenders Visible

Thomas¹,

Thompson²

2010

The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The UK Home Office has announced (December 2009) a new policy to publicise the criminal court judgments on individual offenders to the local communities in which those offenders live. The Home Office believes that this is public information obtained fairly from the public forum of the criminal court and that such publicising is merely boosting the job previously carried out by local reporters and newspapers covering the local criminal court. The initiative follows the Casey (2008) report that sought to find ways to reassure the general public on matters of confidence in the criminal justice system. This article considers how this initiative might work in practice based on earlier experiences of making offenders more visible to the communities from which they come.

show abstract

Sex Offender Community Notification: Experiences from America

Cited by 16 publications

References 4 publications

Sensationalising sex offenders and sexual recidivism: Impact of the Serious Sex Offender Monitoring Act 2005 on media reportage

Sensationalising sex offenders and sexual recidivism: Impact of the Serious Sex Offender Monitoring Act 2005 on media reportage

Vetting Sexual Offenders: State Over-Extension, the Punishment Deficit and the Failure to Manage Risk

Making Offenders Visible

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About