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When facts aren’t facts: A look at the effectiveness of SORs
The passages of sexual offender registries have grabbed headlines as steps toward public safety against unchanging “predators” who are being released back into society.
The registry laws themselves have cost billions of dollars and generally are passed with overwhelming support.
But do they work?
“These kind of laws have a limited usefulness, which is they make it difficult for offenders to keep their anonymity but that’s about it,” said Kristen Houser, chief public information officer for the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape.
Read the full article here: http://cumberlink.com/news/local/closer_look/when-facts-aren-t-facts-a-look-at-the-effectiveness/article_01b3ec77-053f-5a8f-8436-5cab0a2090c6.html by Joshua Vaughn —The Sentinel
Some interesting points from the article if you do not have time to read the whole release.
…made it more difficult for offenders to acclimate back into society, which in turn makes it more likely that they will end up in prison for a non-sexual offense.“If the goal of these various strategies is to reduce recidivism, then these policies have a high potential to be counter-productive,”
…money spent on these laws could go to more effective prevention programs.
“A general trend here is that treatment focused strategies are much more effective at reducing recidivism than punitive focused strategies and it turns out that punitive-focused strategies actually make offenders worse,”
There’s limited usefulness to the laws but I do not think it’s the panacea or silver bullet that people would like to think that they are.”
people we need to follow:
– University of Massachusetts Professor Jason Rydberg
– a study conducted by Karl Hanson
– Arizona State University professor of Law Ira Ellman wrote in his article “Frightening and High.”Laws and Prevention of Sexual Violence or Recidivism Smart Talk: Sex offender registries work?
