Sexual Offenders in the Community: Reflections on Problems of Law, Community and Risk Management in the U.S.A., England and Wales

Risk, Regulation and the Reintegration of Sexual Offenders

“…The ethos of regulatory mechanisms such as sex offender notification is 'knowledge-risksecurity' (Ericson and Haggerty, 1997)the aim is to garner knowledge about sex offenders and their whereabouts in order to control risk and increase public protection (Hebenton and Thomas, 1996). In practice, however, the implementation of risk-based regulatory schemes may actually be counterproductive in undermining rather than securing effective risk management.…”

Pedophiles and Cyber-predators as Contaminating Forces: The Language of Disgust, Pollution, and Boundary Invasions in Federal Debates on Sex Offender Legislation

“…Further, particularly in the case of child victimization, a more socially conservative power base, heavily influenced by increasing political activism among Christian fundamentalists, was able to relink such things as homosexuality, nontraditional sexual relationships, and even family reliance on day care centers to brutal sexual violations of children (Jenkins, 1998). By the 1990s, the public, lawmakers, and the mass media expressed an ongoing sense of crisis about the particularly venal threat now dubbed "sex offender" and his more violent counterpart, the "sexual predator," posed to innocent women and children (Hebenton and Thomas 1996a;Jenkins 1998;Moreno 1997).…”

The Use of ‘Shame’ with Sexual Offenders

“…When it comes to sexual offences, however, particularly those against children, the salient point is that the traditional retributive form of state justice does not seem to be working. 2 Indeed, child sexual abuse is a small component of the broader category of 'gendered and sexualised violence' (Hudson 2002), including domestic violence, which causes significant trauma for victims (Herman 1997) yet continues to evade conventional approaches to justice. There is a need, therefore, to re-examine and perhaps redefine the current regulatory framework in respect of these offences.…”