NCJ Number
181920
Journal
Psychology, Public Policy, and Law Volume: 4 Issue: 1/2 Dated: March/June 1998 Pages: 452-467
Date Published
March 1998
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This analysis focuses on new laws relating to sexually violent predators, sex offender registration, and community notification as representative of the new penology, which is a phase characterized by abandonment of the previous focus on the individual in favor of one emphasizing the group in which the individual is categorized.
Abstract
Statistical factors rather than characterological conceptions mark the group boundary in this new conception, which places a new emphasis on actuarial methods of risk assessment. The new focus is on managing risk rather than on transforming individuals regarded as abnormal. The new emphasis on managing risk and the increase in populist punitivism has led to the emergence of incapacitation as the main goal of penology. The new legal models for dealing with sex offenders illustrate how the new penology and populist punitivism are being merged in the creation of public policy. These laws transform the sex offender from an example of crime as disease back to an early conception of crime as monstrosity. In addition, the United States Supreme Court decision in Kansas v. Hendricks and the New Jersey Supreme Court decision in cases upholding Megan’s Law aid understanding of the new penology and reveal the degree to which its features are largely immune from constitutional limits established by judicial review. Footnotes