NCJ Number
173644
Date Published
1998
Length
72 pages
Annotation
This essay explores social policy questions regarding dangerous sex offenders, including whether they should be handled differently from other criminals; whether rational reasons exist to establish special legal mechanisms for sex offenders or sexual predators; and if so, how these persons should be identified and controlled.
Abstract
The analysis compares sex offenders with other offenders, examines sex offender laws in the United States and other countries, presents findings regarding treatment effectiveness and assessment of dangerousness, and discusses policy options. The discussion notes that efforts to reduce the risk posed by sexual predators have intensified. States have enacted post-criminal-sentence civil commitment statutes and registration and notification laws that provide for the identification of convicted sex offenders living in the community. Consideration of empirical research on violent and sexual offender could improve policies. Actuarial methods can predict which offenders will commit new violent or sexual offenses with a level of accuracy that is useful to policy makers. Community safety is better served by focusing on offenders' dangerousness than on their mental disorder. Furthermore, separation of sexual from violent offending makes it more difficult to identify the most dangerous offenders, because sex crimes have a lower probability of occurrence than the combined probability of violent or sex crimes, and both are of public concern. Figures and approximately 250 references (Author abstract modified)