Collaborative Research: Does Registration and Notification Policy Deter Adolescent Sexual Offending? A Prospective Study of Integrated Criminological and Psychological Theories

尽管就连成年人是否也应该被要求登记为性犯罪者存在争议，但目前有41个州有某种形式的政策，要求被判决或被判有性犯罪行为的青少年在服刑结束后向当地执法机构登记。此外，30个州允许或要求对实施性犯罪的青少年进行在线社区通知，在公共网站或“登记处”上发布信息，向居民通报居住在其社区的青少年罪犯的情况。登记和通报政策在一定程度上植根于威慑理论，该理论假设，这些结果的风险将首先防止潜在的性犯罪者犯罪。然而，犯罪学和心理学理论预测了这些政策的不同结果，它们是否真的阻止了青少年的性侵犯仍是个未知数。先前的研究表明，许多青少年没有意识到他们的性行为带来的登记和通知的风险。此外，即使他们意识到了这一点，心理科学表明，他们的发育不成熟可能会凌驾于这一知识之上，并最终导致冒犯。这一跨学科项目调查登记和通知政策是否以及如何阻止青少年从事在其年龄组中常见的被定为犯罪的性行为。调查结果将为致力于制定以证据为基础的战略的政策制定者提供信息，这些战略有效地实现正义，同时保护发展脆弱的青少年免受过度惩罚性和污名化的结果。这项研究阐述了作为一般威慑的先决条件的犯罪学过程，以及可能制约这些过程的发展心理机制。具体地说，它实验性地操纵青少年是否接触到关于刑事司法参与风险的教育信息，以及与非法性行为相关的性犯罪者登记和通知。结果将揭示，即使青少年意识到某些性行为是被禁止的，并存在法律风险，他们进行理性选择的能力以及他们对性犯罪净成本的看法是否以及如何在一年的时间里缓和登记和通知的影响。该项目的实验和纵向方法将允许对被认为是总体威慑基础的犯罪学过程以及可能影响性犯罪者登记和通报政策影响青少年危险性行为的能力的发展心理机制进行因果确定。这将改变目前对犯罪学威慑理论、社会发展心理学和法律政策之间关系的理解。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Despite controversy over whether even adults should be required to register as sex offenders, currently 41 states have some form of policy requiring adolescents adjudicated or convicted of sexual offenses to register with local law enforcement agencies upon completing their sentences. Moreover, 30 states allow or require online community notification of adolescents who committed sexual offenses, posting information on public websites or “registries” to inform residents about the young offenders living in their communities. Registration and notification policies are partly rooted in deterrence theory, which presumes that the risk of these outcomes will prevent potential sexual offenders from offending in the first place. However, criminological and psychological theories predict different outcomes of these policies, and whether they actually deter adolescent sexual offending remains unknown. Prior research suggests that many adolescents are not aware of the risk of registration and notification posed by their sexual behavior. Moreover, even if they are aware, psychological science suggests that their developmental immaturity may override that knowledge and result in offending anyway. This interdisciplinary project investigates whether and how registration and notification policies deter adolescents from engaging in criminalized sexual behaviors that are common in their age group. Findings will inform policymakers working to develop evidence-based strategies that effectively achieve justice while also protecting developmentally vulnerable adolescents from excessively punitive and stigmatizing outcomes. This study explicates the criminological processes that are prerequisite to general deterrence as well as the developmental psychological mechanisms that may condition those processes. Specifically, it experimentally manipulates whether adolescents are exposed to educational information about the risk of criminal justice involvement and sex offender registration and notification associated with illegal sexual behaviors. The results will reveal whether and how, even when adolescents are aware that certain sexual behaviors are prohibited and carry legal risks, their ability to engage in rational choice and their perceptions of the net cost of sexual offending moderate the impact of registration and notification over the course of one year. This project’s experimental and longitudinal approach will allow for causal determinations about the criminological processes that are thought to underlie general deterrence as well as the developmental psychological mechanisms that may condition the ability of sex offender registration and notification policy to affect adolescents’ risky sexual behavior. This will transform current understanding of relations between criminological theory on deterrence, social-developmental psychology, and legal policy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.