Sex, Lies, and Politics: Building a Sex Offender Law Reform Movement

• In Event: 033 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 06. Procedures and Justice

Abstract

Widespread state and federal sex-offender laws emerged swiftly in the 1990s after a series of highly publicized, horrific child abductions and murders involving repeat sex offenders. Little evidence existed then that sex offenses would decrease with public sex offender registries, but they were instituted as a result of mass public anger and fear. After 20 years, social science research overwhelmingly demonstrates the ineffectiveness and purely punitive nature of the laws, and legal scholars have continually challenged the constitutionality and fairness of post-conviction restrictions, though courts have upheld them. Sex offenders on registries face not only public shaming but also profound barriers to societal reintegration. This paper outlines the political context of 1996 federal legislation leading to public sex-offender registries, presents key findings from post-1996 research about the effects of the laws, and examines why sex-offender laws continue to receive public support—despite decades of research and evidence showing they primarily function to excessively and permanently punish and publicly shame one subset of offenders. Researchers and legal scholars now need to focus on building a movement to craft sensible policies aimed at preventing sex crimes and sex-offender recidivism, and to collaborate with activists because the extraordinary stigmatization of sex offenders creates particular challenges and barriers to their ability to organize and advocate. Movements for drug-law, death penalty, and mass-incarceration reform can serve as an example to scholars seeking reform of unjust sex offender laws.

Author

• Emily Horowitz, St. Francis College