The reduction of sexual violence is a research priority identified by the CDC in Healthy People 2010 and the CDC Injury Research Agenda. The present study will examine whether sex offender registration and notification policies have the intended effects of reducing sexual violence by juveniles. This study will also examine whether these policies have an unintended effect of reducing the probability that youths who commit serious sexual offenses will be adjudicated for such offenses. Although enacted a decade ago, registration and notification laws have largely escaped empirical investigation. Thus, this study will represent the first empirical examination of the effects of sex offender-specific policies on juvenile offenders.
Specific aims i nclude examining whether South Carolina registration and notification policies have: (1) the intended effect of preventing sexual offending; (2) the intended effect of reducing sexual recidivism; and (3) the unintended effect of reducing the probabilities that youth who commit sexual crimes will be prosecuted or adjudicated for such crimes. To accomplish these aims, 12 years of juvenile justice data from South Carolina will be examined for changes in trends of first time sexual offending and sexual recidivism. Victim reports of sexual violence over this same time period will also be examined, to determine whether changes in adjudication rates parallel changes in victim reports. Data on non-sexual crimes will be examined to determine whether changes in rates of sexual offending simply parallel changes in other types of offending or appear due to sex offender-specific policy changes. Dr. Letourneau ultimately plans to conduct research comparing the impact of less restrictive versus more restrictive registration and notification policies on juvenile sex offenders throughout the United States, including research detailing the specific mechanics of the effects of these policies. The relationship of the present study to public health lies in the ability to detect whether broad policies that impact thousands of juvenile sex offenders have in any way reduced sexual violence. If so, this information must be communicated to policy makers who have heretofore acted in the near total absence of empirical data. If not, the substantial resources required to maintain these policies should be redirected towards more promising violence prevention programs. ? ? ?
| Letourneau, Elizabeth J; Bandyopadhyay, Dipankar; Sinha, Debajyoti et al. (2009) Effects of sex offender registration policies on juvenile justice decision making. Sex Abuse 21:149-65 |
| Letourneau, Elizabeth J; Armstrong, Kevin S (2008) Recidivism rates for registered and nonregistered juvenile sexual offenders. Sex Abuse 20:393-408 |
