Sex Violence Prevention--Does Offender Registration Work

描述(摘自申请者的摘要)：减少性暴力是疾病预防控制中心2010年健康人研究和疾病预防控制中心伤害研究议程确定的优先研究事项。本研究将审查性犯罪者登记和通报政策是否具有减少青少年性暴力的预期效果。这项研究还将审查这些政策是否具有意想不到的效果，降低犯有严重性犯罪行为的青少年因此类犯罪而被判刑的可能性。尽管登记法和通知法是十年前制定的，但它们基本上没有受到实证调查。因此，这项研究将首次经验性犯罪者政策对少年犯的影响。具体目标包括审查南卡罗来纳州的登记和通报政策是否具有：(1)防止性犯罪的预期效果；(2)减少性累犯的预期效果；(3)降低实施性犯罪的青少年因此类犯罪而被起诉或审判的可能性的意外影响。为了实现这些目标，将对南卡罗来纳州12年来的青少年司法数据进行审查，以了解初级性犯罪和性累犯趋势的变化。还将审查同一时间段内的性暴力受害者报告，以确定裁决率的变化是否与受害者报告的变化同步。将审查非性犯罪的数据，以确定性犯罪率的变化是简单地与其他类型的犯罪的变化平行，还是因为性犯罪者的具体政策变化而出现。勒图诺最终计划进行一项研究，比较限制较少和限制较多的登记和通报政策对全美青少年性犯罪者的影响，包括详细说明这些政策影响的具体机制的研究。这项研究与公共健康的关系在于，能够发现影响数千名青少年性犯罪者的广泛政策是否以任何方式减少了性暴力。如果是这样的话，必须将这一信息传达给政策制定者，他们迄今在几乎完全没有经验数据的情况下采取行动。如果没有，维持这些政策所需的大量资源应该重新用于更有前途的暴力预防项目。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract): 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 include 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.