Sex Offender Policies in an Era of Zero Tolerance: What Does Effectiveness Really Mean

Protecting society from repeat sexual predators has become a crime prevention priority for U.S. lawmakers during the past two decades. A panoply of federal, state, and local laws now exists to monitor known sex offenders closely in an effort to prevent them from reoffending. The most ubiquitous of these policies is sex offender registration and notification (SORN). These laws require law enforcement agencies to collect data about a convicted sex offender's whereabouts and crimes and then to disclose that information on publicly accessible Internet sites so citizens can easily identify sexual criminals living within close proximity. The intention of these laws is to reduce reoffending through improved law enforcement monitoring and tracking of convicted sex offenders, increased surveillance by community members, and enhanced ability of concerned citizens to take protective actions to avoid known perpetrators. The research article and the policy essays in this issue offer some thought-provoking ideas about the empirical efficacy of registration and notification laws as well as open up new avenues of dialogue and debate for criminologists and criminal justice practitioners. Adapted from the source document.