Topic > Perspectives on Adolescent Sex Offender Registration Policies

Imagine your middle school self, a young pubescent teenager. You're looking to meet the love of your life and you think you've found it. You approach the woman of your dreams, make conversation and things go well. You try to escalate the conversation to try to increase the intimacy by touching her. BOOM! You quickly discover that you guys weren't on the same page and are now forced to register as sex offenders. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Sex offender registration policies have expanded rapidly, now extending to adolescent offenders across the nation. Policies mandating registration are based, in part, on the argument that registration is necessary to prevent dangerous sex offenders from committing further crimes and that the risk of registration discourages potential offenders from committing crimes in the first place. Research suggests that recording does not serve the first deterrent function specifically for adolescents, but less is known about the second goal of general deterrence. The disciplines of criminology and developmental psychology both offer important theoretical perspectives, but these frameworks have yet to be applied to this unique context. Criminological theory on perceived sanction risk offers clear predictions about the potential of registration as a deterrent for adolescent sex offenders. However, the literature has significantly failed to recognize that most adolescents are unaware of registration parameters (e.g., age limits, range of recordable offenses). And even if adolescents are aware of the risk of recording, they are unlikely to be actually deterred by it due to a number of developmental vulnerabilities (e.g., psychosocial immaturity, perceived normativeness of some nonviolent sexual offenses that may lead to recording) . Although the juvenile justice system is based on the principle of rehabilitation. A wave of violent crime in the 1980s and 1990s, coupled with media portrayals of youth super predators, spurred political attention to shift from the rehabilitation of adolescent delinquents to their punishment. In reaction, federal and state policies have expanded the mechanisms available to treat adolescent offenders like adult offenders, including policies that require adolescent sex offenders to provide their personal information to police and public records to use them as criminals do sexual adults. in recent decades the federal government and many states have adopted increasingly inclusive laws; that we, more people have to register, more behaviors are defined as recordable offenses, more information has to be shared, and that information is made more widely available to the public. As a result, more and more teen sex offenders are subject to punitive and limited registration policies that were originally intended for adults. This is why having teenagers register as sex offenders is a bad idea. The findings highlighted that sex offender registries cannot improve public safety if the public does not use them. Furthermore, while boyle is egalitarian. found that 87% of users reported feeling more confident after consulting the registry; other research suggests that feeling of security may be unfounded. For example, although 99.5% of community members surveyedlived in a zip code with at least one registered sex offender, only 51% of those who accessed the registry believed an offender lived in their community. It is also important to note that 62% of law enforcement officers surveyed by Tewksbury and Mustaine disagreed with the premise that “sex offender registration and notification are effective in preventing sexual victimization.” The research also raised questions about the accuracy of the information. This shows up in the records: Tewksbury found that 11 percent of sex offenders in an urban county had no address listed in the state registry, 11 percent listed a business address, and 5 percent listed an address that in reality did not exist. This is why having teenagers register as sex offenders is a horrible idea. Instead, one way we can reach young people is to educate them about what the outcome of touching someone who does not consent to being touched might be. As I stated earlier, the psychosocial maturity of young people is not at its peak. Therefore they will not take seriously that registering as a sex offender is a possibility. The only effective way to prevent adolescents from becoming sex offenders is to rehabilitate and educate them about what is considered a crime. Furthermore, the findings confirm that sex offender registries will help but not much. This is due to the fact that not all sex offenders provide accurate information on sex offender registries. this makes a huge difference because people are not able to find an exact point about these sex offenders. Additionally, not all new homeowners check sex offender registries to see if they are present and nearby. Even if they carry out checks, the information is not always entered truthfully. Sex offender registration policies are based on the argument that registration is necessary to prevent dangerous sex offenders from committing further crimes and that the risk of registration discourages potential offenders from committing crimes in the first place. However, it is interesting to note that Tewksbury and Mustaine found that 76% of law enforcement officers disagree that recording serves a specific deterrent function, and 60% disagree that performs a general deterrent function. Indeed, limited research suggests that recording does not serve the previous adolescent-specific deterrent function. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay According to the introduction, the information that was already known was that any sex offender found guilty must provide all of their personal information to the police and public records to let people know that they live near a sex offender. The author described the studied problem with an abundance of statistics. It says the government is making teenagers accountable for their actions and forcing them to provide their personal data to public records if found guilty. the authors provided enough background information and literature for me to understand the problem. The solution however is not the same as the author's. Getting teenagers to register as sex offenders is not the answer. The answer is to inform them about what is acceptable behavior and what is not. As previously stated, only 7% of teens were arrested for new sexual crimes while the remaining 93% learned the consequences. This proves that my solution is the only one,. 114-125