Richard Tewksbury

Collateral Consequences of Sex Offender Registration

Sex offender registrationwas widely implemented in the 1990s as a means of enhancingcommunity awareness of sex offenders to promote community safety. This study is one of the first examinations of the collateral consequences of sex offender registration from the perspective of the offender. Drawing on data from 121 registered sex offenders in Kentucky, this research shows that social stigmatization, loss of relationships, employment, and housing, and both verbal and physical assaults are experienced by a significant minority of registered sex offenders.

PERCEPTIONS OF SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION: COLLATERAL CONSEQUENCES AND COMMUNITY EXPERIENCES

ABSTRACT In the mid-1990s, the Jacob Wetterling Act and Megans Law were passed, respectively, formalizing the practice of registering sex offenders in publicly accessible, state-wide databases. The laws were passed in an effort to prevent recidivism of sex offenders and to promote community awareness of convicted sex offenders living in communities. However, the creation of these registries have led to numerous unforeseen collateral consequences for offenders. In qualitative in-depth interviews with registered sex offenders in Jefferson County, Kentucky, respondents reported experiencing difficulties with employment and relationships, instances of harassment, stigmatization, and persistent feelings of vulnerability, all of which they believed were attributable to their status as registered sex offenders. The collateral consequences reported by sex offenders are consistent with those reported for felons in past research. However, the extent to which sex offenders experienced these consequences appears to be greater and more intense.

COMING OUT AND CROSSING OVER Identity Formation and Proclamation in a Transgender Community

Drawing on data from interviews with 65 masculine-to-feminine transgenderists, the authors examine the coming-out experiences of transgendered individuals. Drawing on the literature that shows gender to be an inherent component of the social infrastructure that at an individual level is accomplished in interaction with others, they demonstrate that interactional challenges to gender are insufficient to challenge the system of gender. Whereas many transgenderists believe that their actions and identities are radical challenges to the binary system of gender, in fact, the majority of such individuals reinforce and reify the system they hope to change.

A Routine Activity Theory Explanation for Women's Stalking Victimizations:

Drawing on surveys administered to 861 university women in nine institutions, this article presents a routine activity theory model for predicting stalking victimization likelihood for women. Using routine activity theory, the model highlights lifestyle behaviors and interactions as predictors of stalking victimization. Whereas routine activity theory often highlights the role of demographics and statuses as predictors, this analysis emphasizes the role of womens social interactions and substance use in victimization risk. Significant predictors of victimization likelihood include substance use variables, activities in public settings, and residence off campus.

DOES RESIDENTIAL PROXIMITY MATTER? A Geographic Analysis of Sex Offense Recidivism

In an effort to reduce sex offense recidivism, local and state governments have recently passed legislation prohibiting sex offenders from living within a certain distance (500 to 2,500 feet) of child congregation locations such as schools, parks, and daycare centers. Examining the potential deterrent effects of a residency restrictions law in Minnesota, this study analyzed the offense patterns of every sex offender released from Minnesota correctional facilities between 1990 and 2002 who was reincarcerated for a new sex offense prior to 2006. Given that not one of the 224 sex offenses would have likely been prevented by residency restrictions, the findings from this study provide little support for the notion that such restrictions would significantly reduce sexual recidivism.

Social Disorganization and Residential Locations of Registered Sex Offenders: Is This a Collateral Consequence?

Guided by social disorganization theory, this research assesses the characteristics of neighborhoods where registered sex offenders (RSOs) reside. Drawing on data from 1,504 RSOs in 4 urban counties analysis compares both census tracts with any RSOs and high concentrations of RSOs with the counties containing these census tracts. Findings show that RSOs are likely to live in areas with greater social disorganization than their containing counties and the nation as a whole. Census tracts with high concentrations of RSOs show the most social disorganization. Results also suggest that RSOs are relegated to such locations rather than living there by choice.

Sexual Assault of College Women: A Feminist Interpretation of a Routine Activities Analysis

Sexual assault has been a frequent topic of research for several decades, especially for feminist researchers. Generally, feminist research suggest that there are high levels of sexual assault against women because of a patriarchal, rape-supportive culture. However, not all women have the same heightened risk for sexual assault victimization. Wh the feminist perspective does not adequately account for are the variations in rape victimization rates across the female population. This is where the importance of theory that focuses on individual statuses and lifestyles becomes important. By combining the two perspectives, explanations of sexual assault victimization can be made more vigorous and instructive. The data in this article come from 674 college and university women in 12 southern postsecondary institutions in eight states who completed an in-depth survey. Analyses focused on sexual assault in general and an more serious forms of sexual assault. Findings suggest tat the combination of feminism and routine activity theory enhances explanation of sexual assault victimization risks. Sexual assault victimization risks were influenced primarily by the amount of exposure that respondents had to potential offenders, especially to rape-supportive male per groups. Additionally, the finding between the models of differing degrees of sexual assault victimization are not particularly different.

Conformity Pressures and Gender Resistance Among Transgendered Individuals

Research on transgendered individuals has tended to come from medical, psychiatric, or deviance perspectives, with little attention to the social context in which these individuals exist or their efforts to resist normative expectations of sex and gender. Based upon in-depth interviews with 65 masculine-to-feminine transgendered individuals, this research examines gender as a social institution. Focusing on the pressures experienced by individuals to maintain binary enactments of gender, we demonstrate how the institution of gender is taken for granted as a presumably natural aspect of social life. Social pressures to conform, experienced as desires for relationship maintenance and self-preservation, as well as the overwhelming need to actualize an identity that does not fit within the binary system of sex and gender, illuminate the gender resistance and conformity exhibited among the individuals in our sample. Our analysis is rooted in an expanded Foucauldian perspective incorporating the theoretical insights of contemporary feminists who consider social actors as active agents in the development and enactment of everyday resistance. Transgenderism is a discursive act that both challenges and reifies the binary gender system. As such, it provides important lessons about the power dynamics of gender and how such systems may and may not be resisted.

A Longitudinal Assessment of the Victim-Offender Overlap:

Although research has established an offending/victimization overlap and that offenders and victims share similar characteristics, much less work has examined the longitudinal sequencing of victimization and offending in the same developmental period and whether key risk/protective factors significantly distinguish both offenders and victims.This study uses longitudinal data from a large sample of adolescents to examine these issues and does so using a novel methodological approach, the trajectory methodology, which allows for the examination of covariation between offending and victimization. Results indicate that there is a considerable degree of overlap between victims of physical violence and offenders over time and that certain covariates including school commitment, parental monitoring, low self-control, and sex significantly discriminate victim and offender groups. Furthermore, low self-control appears to be the most salient risk factor for distinguishing both victimization and delinquency trajectories.Theoretical and policy implications and directions for future research are identified.

Assessing the Impact of Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification On Sex-Offending Trajectories

General public sentiment and anecdotal evidence suggests that sex offenders are highly recidivistic. Furthermore, these similar beliefs have influenced a series of recent policy and legislative changes targeting sex offenders. This study examined the impact of sex offender registration and notification (SORN) on sex offender recidivism among a cohort of Iowa prisoners released prior to SORN and a cohort of Iowa prisoners released post-SORN. Results from semiparametric group-based trajectory models demonstrated that both sex offender samples had similar trajectory groups, that is, one group of nonrecidivist sex offenders, another group of very low-rate sex recidivists, and a small high-rate group of sex recidivists. Study limitations and implications for sex offender registration and community notification systems are also discussed.