Longitudinal Trends in Sex Offender Sentencing

• In Event: Trends and Sentencing of Sex Offenders

Abstract

Over the past three decades, sex offenders have experienced considerably more criminal justice policy attention than other offender groups. Research suggests too that sex offenders experience overall tougher sanctioning patterns than others. The study aims to examine whether the U.S. did in fact get tougher in sentencing of sex offenders compared to other offender groups and if so, if this difference in sentencing severity is due to increases in the severity of sex offenses. Towards this goal, a large longitudinal sentencing dataset is used and compares sentencing outcomes of sex-offenders and non-sex offenders over time through the use of a precision matching methodology.

Authors

• Elisa Toman, Sam Houston State University

• Joshua Cochran, University of Cincinnati

• Ryan Shields, University of Massachusetts, Lowell

• Daniel P. Mears, Florida State University