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Social State to Penal State: Moral Panic and Sex Offenders

NCJ Number
199588
Journal
Justice Policy Journal: Analyzing Criminal and Juvenile Justice Issues and Policies Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: August 2001 Pages: 72-93
Author(s)
Hans H. Selvog
Editor(s)
Daniel Macallair
Date Published
August 2001
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Through a literature review, this article examines the impact and consequences of a moral panic against sexual offending with the establishment of laws resulting in increased arrests and imprisonment and diverting attention away from the fundamental social ills of society.
Abstract
In 1993, research revealed a moral panic to the threat of drugs and drug violence which led to a punitive motive to justify an increase in prison construction. The moral panic to an epidemic of sex offending led to a punitive motive to justify civil commitment of an ever increasing number of sex offenders. Research indicates that moral panics divert attention and resources from more fundamental social ills. Moral panic is seen by researchers as obscuring more fundamentally appropriate social policy. Through the written eyes of researchers, this paper examines the consequences and real danger of the moral panic against sexual offending. It presents and describes State statutes that have been instituted in response to the moral panic, such as the Virginia Sex Offender Registration legislation and Community Notification in Washington State, as well as constitutional challenges to State sex offender registration laws, the myth of “predatory” crime, and a review of juvenile sexual aggression. Moral panic is viewed as constructing a false sense of security: the majority of offenders are related and known to the victims; socio-economic demographics do not distinguish the sexual offender from non-offenders; and far greater incidences of neglect of and violence toward children are discovered than is sexual abuse. The prevention of sexual offending is seen as being poorly served by the Megan’s laws with their underlying moral panic. It is recommended that the laws be reviewed and revised to become more uniform between States, less punitive and destructive to sex offenders, less destructive to the lives of innocent individuals, and more preventive. References