NCJ Number
184713
Date Published
2000
Length
203 pages
Annotation
In introducing the reader to the subject of sexual offending and sex offenders, this book sets this form of offending in context and examines the measures taken in terms of law, penal policy, and social policy designed to bring these offenders to justice and decrease their threat to public safety, with a focus on law, policy, and practice in England and Wales.
Abstract
The introductory chapter reviews forms of sex offending, applicable law, the law's definition of consent in a sexual act, and the concepts of dangerousness and risk. The second chapter explores explanations of and responses to sex offenses by the public, the press, politicians, and the "experts." These various voices are often in competition with each other in trying to define and "claim" the phenomenon of sexual offending and what should be done about it. A history of sex offending is offered in the third chapter, with attention to themes and responses in the past that continue to have some influence in the present. Chapter 4 outlines the current role of the police as the initial agency that investigates sexual offending, followed by a chapter on the prosecution process and various difficulties encountered with the prosecution of sex offenses. Appropriate sentences for the convicted sex offender are considered in Chapter 6, with attention to how corrections agencies administer the sentences for sex offenders. Chapter 7 addresses the mechanisms of the United Kingdom's sex offender "register." It emphasizes the critical role that "personal information" databases have in the "regulation" of the sex offender. The book concludes with speculation about future directions and developments in the management of sex offenders. A 340-item bibliography and a subject index