Sex Offender Registry and Sex Offender Recidivism Paper Example

Introduction

Sexual violence is one significant public health challenge in the general United States. In an effort of decreasing the cases of sexual assault, the legislation arm has developed some of the regulatory laws that have focused on reducing recidivism among the sex offenders who are being convicted. The regulatory laws have hence made sexual offenders who are residing in the United States to be bound by some of the many policies, that include community notification via a global positioning system registration, civil commitment, internet restrictions in general.

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Most of such policies have in the past created multiple collateral challenges, developing an ominous environment that contributes to a general increase in risk recidivism and inhibits the overall successful reintegration. In fact, the effectiveness evidence of such laws creates a suggestion that they are not in a position of preventing sexual violence and recidivism and it's hence resulting in more harm than good.

Recidivistic sex crime offers genuine grounds for overall public attention. Most incarcerated sex offenders being identified to be having an ultimate return back to our communities. in most cases, some of the most sex offenders tend to repeat what their crime even though the overall rate of recidivism tends to be lower than the total expectation. According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, (2010), what has transpired is that there have existed three years sexual rearrests rate for a greater sample (N> 9, 000) of previously incarcerated United States sex offenders has improved to an overall of 5.3%. the rate of recidivism has been varying with follow-up period, however, what has transpired is that even after a period of up to twenty years, the greater population of individuals who were convicted as sex offenders are after sometimes rearrested for new sex crimes.

According to some of the existing risk factors, sexual recidivism rate has been on the increase, for example, a more extensive criminal history has been recorded to placing a sex offender a higher risk for recidivism and younger age ends up subjected to greater risk. However, the greater majority of new sexual crime is normally committed by sex offenders who are registered. Notably, the registration of sex offender is required for all the criminals who have committed felony sex offense conviction regardless of their risk for future recidivism, even if the research has been extended with an indication that the major population will not go on to sexually offend against some of the new victims. According to DeAngelo & Gee, (2018), more than six hundred thousand convicted sex offenders are currently required to have their registration in the United States and they exist greater agreement on the overall need of making sure that efforts that ate aimed at prevention of sexual violence are improved already. In the most recent national victimization survey, it is a clear indication that more than 275,000 serious sex crimes have been taking place in the United States. With the impact of these crimes becoming profound and are therefore increasing victim risk for a myriad of negative sequela. For what has transpired in the past, and all the existing reasons, effective secondary, tertiary and primary prevention programs are supposed to be developed so as to deter sex crimes. In general, empirical investigation into notification policies and efficacy in attaining the general goals is therefore significant.

Problem Statement

From the recent experience, the assault in the United States is currently taking place at an alarming rate and it is becoming a routine that every given year, there exist an estimate of three hundred thousand women who are being raped. Additionally, around 4 million are being confronted with sexual activities which are unwanted. Annually, an approximate total of nine hundred thousand children is maltreated every year, with nine percent facing sexual abuse.

The mental and physical problems that the survivors are going through make a sexual assault to be not only a criminal justice concern but rather a public health concern as well as a public health concern. For a period of 15 years, legislation has been in place to ensure the greater focus, but the main question is whether the efficiency of such policies in curbing the sexual incidence of sexual violence is questionable. This review will hence focus on sex offender registry and sex offender recidivism.

Legislation governing perpetrators of sexual crime

Since the early period of the 1990s, much effort has been made to do away with the prevalence of sexual crimes, an important public health challenges, local legislation and federal state in relation to sex offenders has proliferated. The existing sexually violent offender Registration Act was created to assist the law enforcement officials to ensure that sex offender is tracked and hence theoretically, ensure a reduction on the likelihood that they will end up recidivating. As reported by the regulatory law, any sex offender that was convicted is obligated in registering and verifying their current addresses and names with the local police.

Overview

The sex offender registry of North Carolina went into effect on first January 1996, with the offenders being convicted of a qualifying offense or being released from a penal institution for an applicable offense after the date what to be registered for a period of ten years. From this point, the sex offenders that were existing on mother North Carolina registry turned out to be a public information. However, in 2006, things changed and better things happened in North Carolina. They made a great impact by voting to extend the registry period for sex offenders for a period of ten years to a total of thirty years. This was however applied to all the active registrants during that period.

What transpired is that not all the offenders whose registry had an extension will be done away with after 30 years registry requirement. However, offenders who move or die to another different state are removed from the registry of North Carolina. Notably, the same legislation that extended the registry built a better means by which an offender can raise a petition to make their name removed from the registry after having spent a total of ten years on it. Considering the results sections, it contains a better analysis on the general impact of such petition on the registry, however, an estimate of 20% of the offenders get removed through a successful petition, within a period of three years of eligibility.

It is important to note that economic theory has become very ambiguous as to whether those who committed the offense during the time when the registry period was extended, on whether they are less likely to commit crimes. Additionally, having their information kept in the registry creates a likely experience as to whether their status of their sex offender is known to social contact, which faces limitation in the general access to potential victims. On the other hand, the registry is serving as an immediate aid, when it comes to the overall facilitation of law enforcement in abuse emergencies and child abduction in identifying some of the likely suspects and their whereabouts. This has a greater potential of deterring recidivism of an offender being caught in the process.

Some of the offenders are likely to participate in committing crime after an extension of registry period. According to DeAngelo & Gee, (2018), notification of sex offenders status in public has a greater chance of increasing recidivism by lowering the overall opportunity cost of crime. In such a case, the opportunity cost of a crime is the overall benefit that is achieved by one abiding by the law and any regulation that is diminishing the quality of life of every offender is also reducing such a benefit.

Literature Review

Recidivism among sex offenders is a common phenomenon being experienced in many states. There has been a significant amount of research made concerning the sex offender registry and the sex offender recidivism. The policies on sex offenders are majorly based on the belief that notifications from the registries enable communities to protect themselves from sex offenders. The perception is based on the supposition that there is a likelihood of sex offenders to recidivate as compared to other offenders. In addition, most proponents believe that the laws contribute to the reduction of sex offenses. According to Phillips (1998) research, over 60% of the respondents who were involved in the study thought that the policies and laws guiding sex offenders made offender behave a little better as compared to when their criminal history was unknown.

A survey conducted by Matson and Lieb (1996) of law enforcement officials in Washington relied on the qualitative design where respondents were to categorize answers into advantages and disadvantages. Notably, most agencies in the law enforcement noted a quite number of disadvantages to the sex offender registry. They believed the policies facilitated public awareness, promoted child awareness, reduced the chances of recidivism and ensure there is maximum community surveillance at all the times. Nonetheless, the agencies still noted some disadvantages of the laws, one of them being the workload associated with it especially when it comes to information collection from courts on the offender. The research concluded that there are scenarios where the communities would overreact to the notifications made by the registry which ended up in the harassment and humiliation of the sex offenders or their families (Matson & Lieb, 1996).

Socia (2012), initiated a study aimed at evaluating how the registry influences the ensuing sex crimes for already registered sex offenders in New York. Socia found out that there was no significant or massive decrease in sex offenses by registered sex offenders from the restrictions put up by the registry. Socia's claims were backed-up by Letourneau (2009) survey who also found little to no evidence implying that registration status influences recidivism. Letourneau insists that SORN policies are not the best when it comes to the reduction of recidivism for the registered sexual offender. Nevertheless, Socia found out that the laws could be highly influential for first-time sex offenses and offenders.

According to Prescott and Rockoff's (2011) research, registration without notification via public means like the internet can lead to a decrease in subsequent crimes and a significant increase with public notification. The argument held by Prescott and Rockoff is that the publicized notifications induce stress on offenders undermining their lives in the community making them to relapse occasionally. Moreover, efforts to change the behavior of the offenders may not necessarily improve their life circumstances.

According to the Center for Sex Offenders Management (2001), the biggest myth is the tendency by the registry policies and laws to believe that sex offender is at a high rate to recidivate more as compared to other offenders. Sample (2001,106) studies show that difficulties associated with methodologies, sample size, and follow-up durations contribute to the inconsistent outcome of studies about recidivism among sexual criminals. Thus, the assumptions on the recidivism among registered sex offenders.

Hanson and Bussiere (1998) carried out a research focused on the analysis of sex offender recidivism. They included an internal sample composed of 87 research projects which represented a total of 28,972 sex offenders. Hanson and Bussiere found out that the rate of recidivism for sex culprits was only 13.4% as compared to 36.3% for any other offense registered. Also, the reports s...