Rehabilitation or Social Isolation? The States' Struggle with Juvenile Sex Offender Laws

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

Abstract

The Adam Walsh Act (AWA) was passed in 2006, and is the current federal sex offender policy. This study focuses primarily on the juvenile provisions within the AWA. The juvenile provisions of the AWA are significant as they are further evidence of a modern juvenile justice system that has strayed far from its original doctrine of parens patrae. To investigate how states’ handled this provision, each state was reviewed on how they implemented the juvenile guidelines, or if they do at all, finding that seventeen states are in compliance with the AWA, and thirty-three are not. Some major findings include the political and religious orientation of the complying states, as well as states that do not register juveniles at all. This policy analysis looks at juvenile sex offenders as a targeted population of the AWA, and that there may be injustice present in doing so.

Authors

• Elyce Celine Hall, Bridgewater State University

• Jennifer Hartsfield, Bridgewater State University