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An Examination of Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws: Can Community Sentiment Lead to Ineffective Laws?

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Handbook of Community Sentiment

Abstract

Crime control theater (CCT) refers to popular laws which appear to offer simple solutions to address serious crimes but are not empirically effective. Sex offender registration and notification laws meet each of the CCT criteria: reactionary response to a moral panic, unquestioned acceptance and promotion, appeal to mythic narratives, and empirical failure. These laws have resulted in unintended consequences including violence directed at offenders’ families, inability for offenders to reintegrate into society, misuse of the laws on unintended populations, and others. A theoretical explanation for why community sentiment toward CCT laws remains positive utilizes social cognitive mechanisms of schemas and heuristics in combination with cognitive-experiential self-theory. These theories suggest that people utilize cognitive shortcuts and emotive processing in forming their reactions to crime. Understanding how these theories work can help prevent adoption of CCT laws and promote more effective laws.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nevada, Reno, 828 S. Windmill Village Blvd, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

    Megan M. Armstrong M.A.

  2. Department of Criminal Justice, University of Nevada, Reno, Mailstop 214; Ansari Business 611, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

    Monica K. Miller J.D., Ph.D. & Timothy Griffin Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Megan M. Armstrong M.A.
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  2. Monica K. Miller J.D., Ph.D.
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  3. Timothy Griffin Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Monica K. Miller J.D., Ph.D. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminal Justice, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nevada, USA

    Monica K. Miller

  2. Syracuse University College of Law, Syracuse, New York, USA

    Jeremy A. Blumenthal

  3. Arizona School of Professional Psychology, Argosy University, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

    Jared Chamberlain

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Armstrong, M.M., Miller, M.K., Griffin, T. (2015). An Examination of Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws: Can Community Sentiment Lead to Ineffective Laws?. In: Miller, M., Blumenthal, J., Chamberlain, J. (eds) Handbook of Community Sentiment. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1899-7_17

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