America's Sex Offense statutes and cases are some of the most controversial sections of modern law, both for the extreme sensitivity of their subject matter as well as the scope and application of those laws. This thesis is an analysis and overview of both the objective and subjective issues posed by the current state of those very laws: the subjective portion explored the development of current laws and the diverse attendant legal issues such as over-broadness and excessive or misdirected effect as compared to the Legislative and public intent which directly led to the development of these laws. Additionally a more objective study of their efficacy was conducted through the use of data regarding offense rates by locality. This objective data was procured from both the United States Census and Bureau of Justice statistics, which contained national averages such as the overall violent crime rate, and from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Statistics and was supplemented with additional data from other academic sources. It is both the subjective conclusion and the interpretation of objective data that while the rate of sex offenses has lowered in recent decades this effect is a part of the overall trend of reduction in all violent offenses, and that the extreme stance of modern sex offense laws have arguably resulted in the net-negative of creating a class of individuals ostracized from all but other sex offenders who are virtually incapable of supporting themselves or at times of even finding legal habitation post-release. With little to no chance of a productive life, there is the strong possibility of recidivism and little incentive to avoid re-offending.

No description available.

The federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA; 2006) established a uniform, offense-based registration system for sex offenders age 14 and older. The legislation created a hierarchical, three-tier classification scheme in which convictions of the most severe sex offenses result in Tier III assignment and convictions of the least severe offenses yield Tier I delegation. Juveniles are treated the same as adults when adjudicated of serious, Tier III offenses such as rape and aggravated indecent assault. Tier III assignment requires lifetime registration and notification for offenders in jurisdictions in which they live, work, and go to school. On December 20th, 2011, Governor Corbett signed Pennsylvania's version of SORNA and it was implemented exactly one year later on December 20th, 2012. The project, which focuses on Pennsylvania's version of SORNA, comes at a time when the impact of this new law has yet to be assessed. This study explores the system resources necessary for implementing this legislation, including personnel, costs, and enhancements to technologies necessary for creating and disseminating information on sex offenders. Although it has garnered much attention because it places unfunded mandates on states, opposition on behalf of jurisdictions is largely due to the inclusion of juveniles. Many researchers and legal advocates have argued against the policy due to the amenability of juveniles to treatment, low recidivism rates among sex offenders, and the negative consequences lifetime registration may have on youthful offenders. In fact, no previous research supports registration and notification as effective tools for deterring sex offending. While the aforementioned concerns brought to the attention of the government are credible, they have been unsuccessful in producing change at the federal level. These concerns were influential in drafting Pennsylvania's legislation that limited the number of offenses that triggered registration and withheld juvenile information from the public website. This dissertation employed a mixed-methods design to investigate SORNA's potential effects based upon the inclusion of juveniles. Research questions focused on the workload of agencies who work with sex offenders, the potential costs associated with SORNA requirements, the number of juvenile offenders now and in the future who may be implicated by the legislation, and the opinions and experiences of practitioners who work with juvenile sex offenders. Data collected by the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judges' Commission were analyzed to investigate the research questions. Descriptive and bivariate inferential statistical analyses were conducted, in addition to data-validated dynamic systems modeling to provide a prospective analysis into how many youth may face lifetime registration across the Commonwealth. Costs incurred as a result of SORNA's requirements were explored as well. Following the quantitative analyses, interviews with practitioners were conducted to obtain opinions and insight on the projected volume of juvenile offenders affected by SORNA and fiscal information relevant to juvenile sex offender supervision, management, and registration. / Criminal Justice

No description available.