Chapter 10 Flashcards
What are some myths regarding sex offenders/offenses
Sex crime has increased in recent decades
Sex offenses are most often committed by stranger perpetrators
Most sex crimes are reported to law enforcement
Most sex offenders will re-offend
Most sex offenders are mentally ill
What are some truths regarding sex offenders/offenses
sex crimes among other major violent crimes againstadults and children in this country have substantially declined in recent decades
most perpetrators known to victims
only about 1/3 reported to police
sex offenders have a lower general recidivism rate, and lower than assumed sex crime re-offending rate; however, it does depends on type of sex offenders
Only a few SVPs are civilly committed, showing that only a few SVPs meet the legal definition of mentally ill
a. The Jacob Wetterling Crimes against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act 1994
1989 Jacob, 11 years old, was kidnapped, found in 2016); the Act required each state to establish a registry
a. Megan’s law 1996
Megan Kanka was killed by a recidivist pedophile in New Jersey in 1994; required notification of high-risk sex offenders living the community (amendment to JW
a. The Pam Lychner Sex Offender Tracking and Identification Act 1996
Pam Lychner, a real estate agent in Huston, sexually assaulted by a client; established a national database at FBI to track violent sex offenders
Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act (AWA) 2006
The goal of the AWA is to provide uniform guidelines for supervising, managing, and punishing sex offenders nationally
- The issues surrounding the implementation of AWA (including SORNA)
Required all states enact RCNL statutes by July 2009, or risk of losing 10% of their federal funding. No state did, the deadline extended to 2011. In December 2017, only 17 states substantially implemented ASA [DOJ] (i.e., meet the min. standards of ASA)
SMART Office?
the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking, within the Department of Justice
Coordinates training and technical support to the states
Sex offender registration?
NSOPW works like a search engine: jurisdictions that have their own public sex offender registry websites connect to NSOPW by way of a web service or automated upload to enable NSOPW to conduct queries against the jurisdictions’ websites.
Only information that is publicly disclosed on a jurisdiction’s own public sex offender registry website will be displayed in NSOPW’s search results, and only the jurisdiction’s registry website page will be displayed on the results page of NSOPW.
a. Sex offender registration legislation?
States are required to develop public registries by the Jacob Wetterling act (1994) and Megan’s Law (1996)
States are required to develop public registries by the Jacob Wetterling act (1994) and Megan’s Law (1996)
a. Community notification
Under this type of laws, contact information about sex offenders living in local neighborhoods is published typically via a website
Similar to registries, notification laws very from state to state; some states use methods of press releases, flyers, phone calls, door-to-door contact, and neighborhood meeting conducted by law enforcement
Restrictions
based on the theory of routine activities, that criminal offenses based on situational opportunities; residency restriction restricts the access to potential victims
Limit the access to “where children congregate” – school, parks, playgrounds…
a. Driver’s license notation
The purpose of this type of laws is to address the concerns that states failed to update their registry records once offenders moved to a different jurisdictions. So driver’s license-related screening could help improve the level of compliance with state registry requirements and enhance monitoring
a. Life-time supervision
This type of laws require high-risk sex offenders to be monitored for the duration of their lives [Mancini p212]
The purpose of the law - to reduce repeated sex offending
- Does any of the legislation mentioned above work?
yes and no
