"What "works" in preventing sex crime? How can policymakers respond to threats of sexual victimization in a manner that is effective, equitable, and sustainable? The second edition of Sex Crime, Offenders, and Society seeks to provide a knowledge base for addressing these questions. Based on feedback from reviewers and readers, the new edition retains the same structure as the first, examining three critical dimensions: the nature and extent of sex offending and explanations, societal responses, and sex crime policy and reform. It now includes updated statistics and references to influential scholarship throughout, a new chapter exploring sex crime in post-secondary institutions, and a concluding chapter that focuses on innovative policy and reform into the future"--
"This volume of readings provides an excellent source of information about sex offender laws and policies."--International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology "Sex Offender Laws...is a good source for balanced, objective, and thorough critique of our current sex offender policies as well as a source for accurate information about a very heterogeneous population...The message that sexual abuse is often a multifaceted and complex issue and that policy based on quick fixes or knee jerk reactions do not often work will be informative and enlightening to many readers." --Sex Roles "[T]his fine book by Richard Wright and his distinguished collaborators provides the evidence that wise policy-makers would want to consider. It covers every major field of research concerning sex offenders and sexual offenses and provides evidence of bad practices and policiesÖ.Intellectually honest politicians should read this book." --Michael Tonry, LL.B, Professor of Law and Public Policy University of Minnesota Law School (From the Foreword) In response to many high-profile cases of sexual assault, federal and state governments have placed a number of unique criminal sanctions on sex offenders. These include residency restrictions, exclusionary zones, electronic monitoring, and chemical castration. However, the majority of sex offender policies are not based on empirical evidence, nor have they demonstrated any significant reductions in offender recidivism. In fact, some of these policies have unintended consequences, which actually increase the likelihood of sexual offenses. In this book, Wright critically analyzes existing policies, and assesses the most effective approaches in preventing sex offender recidivism. This provocative and timely book draws from the fields of criminal justice, law, forensic psychology, and social work to examine how current laws and policies are enacted and what to-date is known about their efficacy. The team of expert contributors includes Karen Terry, author of Sexual Offenses and Offenders, and others who bring a wealth of insight to the field of sex offense. In response to the failed policies of sex offender laws, this book presents alternative models and approaches to sex offense laws and policies. Wright also explores critical, cutting-edge topics, such as internet sexual solicitation, the death penalty, and community responses to sex offense. Key Features: An introduction and overview of the history of sex offender laws Analyzes the role of the media in sex offense and sex offender policies Examines the political "untouchability" of sex offender laws and their adverse effects Features interviews with victims of sexual assault, investigating their points of views on what kinds of reforms need to be made to sex offender laws Thought-provoking and insightful, Sex Offender Laws serves as a vital resource for policy makers, researchers, and students of criminal justice, law, and social work.
This examination of our nation's sex crime laws and the social attitudes behind them argues that many citizens are being pursued as sex offenders for nonviolent and oftentimes consensual sexual behaviors. Cutting through the hysteria and hype, Reconsidering Sex Crimes and Offenders: Prosecution or Persecution? argues that while convicted violent sex offenders certainly should be punished, many laws targeting minor sexual offenses are outdated, overly severe, and too concerned with satisfying public outrage driven by distortions, misconceptions, and sensationalistic media coverage. Reconsidering Sex Crimes and Offenders is sure to challenge readers' understanding of who a sex offender is, how they should be treated, and how best to protect the community from such offenders. The book looks at how the legal definitions of certain offenses have changed over time and then explores a series of real-life case studies. Readers will discover how some citizens have been targeted and punished for consensual acts—including homosexuality, polygamy, and pornography. Additional coverage considers a number of highly controversial laws—from residency restrictions to the death penalty—and the media's role in fueling public support for them.
The investigation of sex crimes is a specific function for many law enforcement agencies, requiring an understanding of how to investigate, process crime scenes, interact with victims and offenders, and prepare for court. Drawing on new methods of investigation and the effects of such crimes on victims, Forensic Investigation of Sex Crimes and Sexual Offenders provides in-depth coverage in these areas, offering a valuable supplement for criminal justice courses and an accessible guide for law enforcement.
Sex Crimes and Sex Offenders: Research and Realities provides an overview of social scientific theory and research on sex crimes and sex offenders. Most other books on the market are focused on a single issue—such as treatment, rape, pedophilia, theory, etc. This book is unique in that it covers the most current theory and research along with individual cases of sex crimes (e.g., Kobe Bryant, Jerry Sandusky, and other case studies), effectively linking theory and research with the realities of sex crimes and sex offenders as well as their victims. Vandiver, Braithwaite, and Stafford are careful to dispel myths and to focus on the heterogeneity of sex crimes and sex offenders, and not on any one issue or population or theory. Instead, they weave a framework using a full range of theoretical concepts and research data to integrate their discussions of crimes, offenders, victims, treatments, and policy implications. The result is a valuable resource for students and early-stage researchers investigating sex crimes or offenders.
This structured yet flexible manual presents an innovative group treatment approach that targets deficits in self-regulation—a central problem for sex offenders. Safe Offender Strategies (SOS) comprises 10 evidence-based modules that teach participants the skills to desist from problem behaviors, manage their emotions and impulses, and break unhealthy relationship patterns. Motivational enhancement and validation techniques are woven throughout this collaborative treatment. SOS can be used with a range of clients—including high-risk offenders and those with mental illness or intellectual disabilities—in institutional or outpatient settings. Fifteen reproducible forms and worksheets can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2" x 11" size.
In the era of #MeToo and mass incarceration, The Feminist and the Sex Offender makes a powerful feminist case for accountability without punishment and sexual safety and pleasure without injustice. With analytical clarity and narrative force, The Feminist and the Sex Offender contends with two problems that are typically siloed in the era of #MeToo and mass incarceration: sexual and gender violence, on the one hand, and the state’s unjust, ineffective, and soul-destroying response to it on the other. Is it possible to confront the culture of abuse? Is it possible to hold harm-doers accountable without recourse to a criminal justice system that redoubles injuries, fails survivors, and retrenches the conditions that made such abuse possible? Drawing on interviews, extensive research, reportage, and history, The Feminist and the Sex Offender develops an intersectional feminist approach to ending sexual violence. It maps with considerable detail the unjust sex offender regime while highlighting the alternatives we urgently need.
"When a South Carolina couple killed a registered sex offender and his wife after they moved into their neighborhood in 2013, the story exposed an extreme and relatively rare instance of violence against sex offenders. While media accounts would have us believe that vigilantes across the country lie in wait for predators who move into their neighborhoods, responses to sex offenders more often involve collective campaigns that direct outrage toward political and criminal justice systems. No community wants a sex offender in its midst, but instead of vigilantism, [the author] argues, citizens often leverage moral, political, and/or legal authority to keep these offenders out of local neighborhoods. Her book, the culmination of four years of research, 70 in-depth interviews, participant observations, and studies of numerous media sources, reveals the origins and characteristics of community responses to sexually violent predators (SVP) in the U.S. Specifically, [this book] examines the placement process for released SVPs in California and the communities’ responses to those placements. Taking the reader into the center of these related issues, [the author] provokes debate on the role of communities in the execution of criminal justice policies, while also addressing the responsibility of government institutions to both groups of citizens."--
This text introduces clinicians to the challenging task of performing mental health evaluations for youth who have committed sexual offenses or have engaged in sexually abusive behavior.
