Beyond Panic: Variation in the Legislative Activity for Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws Across States Over Time

Abstract

Nationwide moral panic has long served as a primary explanation for sex offense laws. These laws, however, remain primarily left to state legislatures, which implies potential variation in their content over time. Variation in legislative content, to the degree that it represents implementation, not only suggests differential consequences for registrants and communities, but also it would raise questions to the sufficiency of moral panic as a sole explanation for sex offense policy change. I build upon earlier work by exploring variation in the content and timing of sex offender registration and notification (SORN) reform in all 50 states over time. After documenting variation in these laws, I present the ways in which SORN legislative content has evolved differently across states. In addition, the timing of legislative reforms differed not only across states but also within states over time. These findings have implications for existing theoretical assertions regarding criminal justice policy.

Ashamed and Alone

“…This runs counterintuitive to the reintegrative shaming arguments made by Braithwaite (1989). The net-widening alterations in sex offender legislation (Lytle, 2015, 2016) continue to increase the number of individuals subject to public registration, thus potentially affecting the successful integration of more and more sex offenders with their families. We are not directly testing reintegrative shaming theory.…”

“…Due to this misperception, the public continues to provide strong support for harsh criminal sanctions including the increased use of SORN laws, lengthy registration periods, and expansive residency restrictions (Levenson, Brannon, Fortney, & Baker, 2007; Mears, Mancini, Gertz, & Bratton, 2008). This support has led to a proliferation of sex offender legislation including laws that increase the number of offenders on sex offender registries as well as the number of crime types eligible for public registration (Lytle, 2016; Mancini, 2013). As these policies continue to expand in scope, so do the associated unintended consequences of such legislation.…”

The Politics of Symbolic Laws: State Resistance to the Allure of Sex Offender Residence Restrictions

“…Our findings justify a growing call among scholars of criminal justice policy to expand explanations for policy action beyond the traditional reliance on moral panic (Leon 2011a(Leon , 2011bWilliams 2018a;Lytle 2019). Public anxieties driven by moral panic appear to be a necessary but not sufficient explanation for criminal justice policy action, especially in light of the complexity of the policy process (see Smith and Larimer 2016 for a review).…”

Improving Juvenile Justice Settings by Decreasing Coercion: One Lab’s Perspectives from Behind the Fence

“…A legal issue, broadly recognized as sex offender registration and notification (SORN) laws (Lytle, 2019 ), that looms over adolescents adjudicated for sex offences as they approach their release date is the requirement to report their offender status where they establish a residence. One way to evaluate the impact of this requirement on residents of juvenile facilities is to conduct simulations with nondetained individuals.…”