Sex Offenders and Society: A Focus on Sexual Deviance

• In Event: Roundtable: Teaching about Sex Crimes and Criminals

Abstract

This presentation focuses on how the deviant label and status of “sex offender” affects both societal perspectives about sex offenders and how this highly stigmatized identity relates to particularly harsh treatment by the criminal justice system both while sex offenders are in the prison system and post-prison release (e.g. community notification, restricting where sex offenders live, chemical castration, and electronic monitoring). The social consequences associated with the “sex offender” label (including employment, housing, victimization) as well as sex offender treatment (i.e. cognitive behavioral therapy; chemical and surgical castration) and its relationship to recidivism are also discussed. Finally, classroom and teaching resources are offered to help teachers best reach their students when discussing such a stigmatized population.

Author

• Meredith G. F. Worthen, University of Oklahoma