Sex offender policies: Considering unanticipated consequences of GPS sex offender monitoring

There is little question that sex related crimes are a serious social problem. These forms of predation have devastating consequences for victims, families, and communities. Sexual-related crimes cause untold physical and psychological trauma to victims and need effective strategies for the community corrections field to supervise sex offenders in the community. This article first describes what is meant by unanticipated consequences as defined by Robert K. Merton. Following this discussion, the article describes five unanticipated consequences of recent legislation mandating the use of GPS monitoring for sex offenders. Criminal justice researchers should analyze the wide reaching policy effects of GPS sex offender laws. It is argued that the use of GPS tracking for sex offenders is an under researched and theorized criminal justice policy that should not be seen as a way of solving sex related crimes, but simply as another tool that may enhance community supervision.

[1]  J. Levenson,et al.  Sex Offender Residence Restrictions: Unintended Consequences and Community Reentry , 2007 .

[2]  Alberto R. Gonzales,et al.  Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention , 1998 .

[3]  R. Merton.  The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action , 1936 .

[4]  Terry L. Baumer,et al.  Home Detention with Electronic Monitoring: Comparing Pretrial and Postconviction Programs , 1990 .

[5]  R. K. Hanson,et al.  Sexual Offender Recidivism Risk , 2003, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[6]  Gary Potter,et al.  The mythology of crime and criminal justice , 1996 .

[7]  Mike Nellis,et al.  Out of this World: The Advent of the Satellite Tracking of Offenders in England and Wales† , 2005 .

[8]  E. Goffman.  Stigma; Notes On The Management Of Spoiled Identity , 1964 .

[9]  J. Shine,et al.  Self-esteem and sex offending , 2002 .

[10]  J. Simon.  Managing the monstrous: Sex offenders and the new penology. , 1998 .

[11]  V. Quinsey,et al.  The characteristics of persistent sexual offenders: a meta-analysis of recidivism studies. , 2005, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[12]  Raymond A. Knight,et al.  A System for the Classification of Child Molesters , 1989 .

[13]  J. Simon.  Megan's Law: Crime and Democracy in Late Modern America , 2000, Law & Social Inquiry.

[14]  Matthew DeMichele,et al.  Probation and Parole Officers Speak Out--Caseload and Workload Allocation , 2007 .

[15]  M. Farkas,et al.  Sex Offender Laws: Can Treatment, Punishment, Incapacitation, and Public Safety be Reconciled? , 2002 .

[16]  Kenneth Dowler.  Sex, lies, and videotape: The presentation of sex crime in local television news , 2006 .

[17]  Jeff Manza,et al.  Navigating Public Opinion: Polls, Policy, and the Future of American Democracy , 2002 .

[18]  D. Doren.  Recidivism base rates, predictions of sex offender recidivism, and the “sexual predator” commitment laws , 1998 .

[19]  Gary T. Marx,et al.  Critique: No soul in the new machine: Technofallacies in the electronic monitoring movement , 1991 .

[20]  M. Welch,et al.  Primary Definitions of Crime and Moral Panic: A Content Analysis of Experts' Quotes in Feature Newspaper Articles on Crime , 1997 .

[21]  J. Ireland,et al.  Attitudes towards Sex Offenders and the Role of Empathy, Locus of Control and Training: A Comparison between a Probationer Police and General Public Sample , 2007 .

[22]  Gary Alan Fine,et al.  The Chaining of Social Problems: Solutions and Unintended Consequences in the Age of Betrayal , 2006 .

[23]  Victoria Simpson Beck,et al.  Sex offender notification: An exploratory assessment of state variation in notification processes , 2006 .

[24]  A. Giddens.  Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age , 1992, The New Social Theory Reader.

[25]  Matthew T. DeMichele,et al.  PROBATION AND PAROLE'S GROWING CASELOADS AND WORKLOAD ALLOCATION: STRATEGIES FOR MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING , 2007 .

[26]  James Austin,et al.  NCCD Research Review : Wider, Stronger, and Different Nets: the Dialectics of Criminal Justice Reform , 1981 .

[27]  Gary Potter,et al.  Constructing Crime : Perspectives on Making News and Social Problems , 2006 .

[28]  Electronic Monitoring of Sex Offenders: Identifying Unanticipated Consequences and Implications , 2008 .

[29]  J. Kear-Colwell,et al.  Coping Strategies and Attachment in Pedophiles: Implications for Treatment , 2001 .

[30]  Kathy G. Padgett,et al.  UNDER SURVEILLANCE: AN EMPIRICAL TEST OF THE EFFECTIVENESS AND CONSEQUENCES OF ELECTRONIC MONITORING , 2006 .

[31]  R. K. Hanson,et al.  Predicting relapse: a meta-analysis of sexual offender recidivism studies. , 1998, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[32]  A. Salter.  Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders : Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children , 2003 .

[33]  A. Thompson,et al.  Sexual coping, general coping and cognitive distortions in incarcerated rapists and child molesters , 2005 .

[34]  Spiro K. Kiousis,et al.  Public Trust or Mistrust? Perceptions of Media Credibility in the Information Age , 2001 .

[35]  Sudipto Roy.  FIVE YEARS OF ELECTRONIC MONITORING OF ADULTS AND JUVENILES IN LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON FACTORS RELATED TO FAILURE , 1997 .

[36]  S. Ahlmeyer,et al.  Psychopathology of incarcerated sex offenders. , 2003, Journal of personality disorders.

[37]  Brian K. Payne,et al.  Is good-time appropriate for offenders on electronic monitoring?: attitudes of electronic monitoring directors , 2000 .

[38]  Jill S. Levenson,et al.  The Effect of Megan’s Law on Sex Offender Reintegration , 2005 .

[39]  James Bonta,et al.  A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation of an Intensive Rehabilitation Supervision Program , 2000 .

[40]  Lawrence F. Travis,et al.  Community Response to Sex Offenders , 2004 .

[41]  J. Dudek,et al.  Social problem-solving correlates of sexual deviancy and aggression among adult child molesters , 2005 .

[42]  R. Gainey,et al.  A Qualitative Assessment of the Pains Experienced on Electronic Monitoring , 1998 .

[43]  Pierre Bourdieu,et al.  Outline of a Theory of Practice , 2020, On Violence.

[44]  Electronic jails: A new criminal justice concern , 1985 .

[45]  R. Tewksbury.  Collateral Consequences of Sex Offender Registration , 2005 .

[46]  R. Clarke,et al.  Legislation and Unintended Consequences for Crime , 2007 .

[47]  A. Beech,et al.  The Characteristics of a Geographical Sample of Convicted Rapists , 2004, Journal of interpersonal violence.

[48]  The Criminal Activity of Sexual Offenders in Adulthood: Revisiting the Specialization Debate , 2005 .

[49]  S. Cole.  From the Sexual Psychopath Statute to "Megan's Law": Psychiatric Knowledge in the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Adjudication of Sex Criminals in New Jersey, 1949-1999 , 2000, Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences.

[50]  R. Gainey,et al.  Electronic Monitoring , 2000, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Criminal Psychology.

[51]  K. Beckett,et al.  Setting the public agenda: street crime' and drug use in American politics , 1994 .

[52]  Billie S. Erwin.  Old and New Tools for the Modern Probation Officer , 1990 .

[53]  M. Fishman,et al.  Crime Waves as Ideology , 1978 .

[54]  Brian K. Payne,et al.  Understanding the Experience of House Arrest with Electronic Monitoring: An Analysis of Quantitative and Qualitative Data , 2000 .

[55]  Dane S. Claussen.  Cognitive Dissonance, Media Illiteracy, and Public Opinion on News Media , 2004 .

[56]  David L. Altheide.  “The News Media, the Problem Frame, and the Production of Fear” , 1997 .

[57]  P. Elrod,et al.  Electronic House Arrest: An Examination of Citizen Attitudes , 1995 .

[58]  M. Welch,et al.  State managers, intellectuals, and the media: A content analysis of ideology in experts' quotes in feature newspaper articles on crime , 1998 .

[59]  R. K. Hanson.  Recidivism and Age: Follow-Up Data From 4,673 Sexual Offenders: , 2002 .

[60]  Mary Ann Farkas,et al.  The Impact of Sex-Offender Community Notification on Probation/Parole in Wisconsin , 2000 .

[61]  R. Gainey,et al.  Changing Attitudes Toward House Arrest With Electronic Monitoring: The Impact of a Single Presentation? , 2003, International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology.

[62]  J. McCord,et al.  Cures That Harm: Unanticipated Outcomes of Crime Prevention Programs , 2003 .

[63]  R. Morgan,et al.  The Politics of Sentencing Reform , 1995 .

[64]  Jeff Feix.  The Handbook of Psychopathy Edited by Christopher J. Patrick. New York: The Guilford Press; 651 pp. $75.00. , 2006 .

[65]  Richard Lawrence,et al.  School Shootings and the Man-Bites-Dog Criterion of Newsworthiness , 2003 .

[66]  Sex Offender Management , 2003, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[67]  Arthur J. Lurigio,et al.  Smart sentencing : the emergence of intermediate sanctions , 1992 .

[68]  Lawrence F. Travis,et al.  Sex offender notification and fear of victimization , 2004 .

[69]  M. Saphira.  The Sexual Abuse of Children , 1994 .

[70]  Ray Surette.  A serendipitous finding of a news media history effect: A research note , 1995 .

[71]  P. Langan,et al.  Recidivism of Sex Offenders Released from Prison in 1994 , 2012 .

[72]  A. Portes,et al.  The Hidden Abode: Sociology as Analysis of the Unexpected , 2000, American Sociological Review.

[73]  G. Vervaeke,et al.  A Comparison of Relational Attitude and Personality Disorders in the Explanation of Child Molestation , 2004, Sexual abuse : a journal of research and treatment.

[74]  R. Steffy,et al.  A Comparison of Child Molesters and Nonsexual Criminals: Risk Predictors and Long-Term Recidivism , 1995 .

[75]  David Garland,et al.  The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society , 2001 .

[76]  Leigh L. Linden,et al.  There Goes the Neighborhood? Estimates of the Impact of Crime Risk on Property Values from Megan's Laws , 2006 .

[77]  John Q. La Fond.  The Costs Of Enacting A Sexual Predator Law , 1998 .

[78]  Mario A. Paparozzi,et al.  Probation and Parole: Overworked, Misunderstood, and Under-Appreciated: But Why? , 2008 .

[79]  Matthew DeMichele,et al.  Electronic supervision for sex offenders: Implications for work load, supervision goals, versatility, and policymaking , 2010 .

[80]  W. Marshall,et al.  Attachment styles and violence in child molesters , 2000 .