Social Control of Sex Offenders: A Cultural History

by D. Richard Laws

Overview

This book surveys the history, current status, and critical issues regarding the various mechanisms designed to control sex offenders. It shows that the social problem of sex offending is not apparently resolvable by any of the means currently employed.


A large array of procedures are used in the attempt to control the difficult population of sex offenders, including: imprisonment, institutional and community treatment, community monitoring by probation and parole, electronic monitoring, registration as a sex offender, community notification of an offender’s status, strict limits on behavioral movement in the community, and residence restrictions. However, these constraints on behavior are almost completely the result of public outrage regarding sensational sex crimes, overreaction of media coverage that produce inaccurate statements of potential community risk, and the efforts of the legal profession and politicians to quell this anger and foreboding by enacting legislation that supposedly confronts the risk. This book demonstrates that we have constructed a massive edifice of community control that is socially and politically driven and which has largely failed to contain sex crime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137391254
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	04/17/2016
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	238
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

D. Richard Laws received his PhD from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, USA, in 1969. He has held professional positions in California, Florida, and two Canadian provinces. He is a past president of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. He has published eight books and numerous articles on research and treatment. Currently, he is an honorary professor at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Moral Panic: Threat to the Social Order.- Chapter 3. Early Historical Treatment of Social Deviance.- Chapter 4. The Medicalization of Deviance: Sex Offender as Mental Patient.- Chapter 5. The Sexual Psychopath/Predator Laws: Legal Construction of Deviance.- Chapter 6. Assessment of Risk to Reoffend: Historical Background.- Chapter 7. Assessment of Risk to Reoffend: Actuarial Assessment vs Risk Formulation.- Chapter 8. Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification.- Chapter 9. Community Restrictions on Sex Offender Behavior.- Chapter 10. The International Picture of Social Control.- Chapter 11. Psychological Treatment: Risk Reducer or Life Enhancer?- Chapter 12. Conclusions and Future Outlook.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“When individuals convicted of sex crimes are forced to live under bridges because there is nowhere else they are legally allowed to live, it is clear that efforts to prevent a terrible crime are themselves becoming iatrogenic. In this fascinating and important work, Laws explains how we got here and most importantly how to transcend this madness. It should be required reading for anyone who genuinely wants to reduce sexual violence.” (Shadd Maruna, Dean, Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, USA)

“This book provides a clear and absorbing portrait of the varied and increasingly restrictive methods by which those convicted of sexual offenses are managed in society. It delivers an important perspective, informed by many years of research and practice by one of the most prolific and well regarded scholars in the field.” (Danielle Arlanda Harris, Associate Professor, San Jose State University, USA)

Editorial Reviews

D. Richard Laws traces the rise of the modern sex offender containment industry back through time, from the U.S. colonial era through the 19th century’s medicalization of deviance and onward to efforts at scientific crime control and prediction by early 20th century criminologists. … Those within the industry will appreciate his insider perspective on the contemporary debates in risk assessment and treatment, while the public and policymakers will benefit from his sensible recommendations for modest reforms.” (Karen Franklin, Amazon.com, January, 2017)

“Social Control of Sex Offenders is a timely, useful, efficient, easy-to-read book that would be most appropriate for the beginning scholar or informed community member to read. … the book provides a handy reference for refreshing one’s understandings and remembering how and from where our current practices have evolved and emerged. … a book that effectively and efficiently serves the needs of multiple groups of readers, and doing it in a way that is easy and enjoyable to read.” (Richard Tewksbury, Rutgers University, clcjbooks.rutgers.edu, March, 2017)

“For those wishing to understand the historical context of sex offender management, Laws’s book is a good place to start. … He traces the history of moral panics and the resulting sex offender management methods back to colonial America, a historical analysis that I have not seen in similar works. Another unusual feature of Social Control of Sex Offenders is a chapter on international methods of sex offender management.” (Philip H. Witt, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 61 (46), November, 2016)

From the Publisher