The Social and Geographic Patterns of Sexual Offending: Is Sex Offender Residence Restriction Legislation Practical?

The development of sex offender residence restriction legislation was predicated on the assumption that sex offenders pose an increased risk to the public. The goal of such legislation was to create “sex-offender-free” zones in an effort to decrease sex offenders’ access to potential victims. Such legislation prohibits registered sex offenders from residing near landmarks where children are known to congregate. Empirical evidence thus far has failed to demonstrate that residing near these landmarks contributes to sex offenders’ ability to access victims, and may actually be doing more harm than good. The current study questions the rationale behind the implementation of residence restrictions and if this rationale is consistent with the realities of victim selection and sexual offending among incarcerated sex offenders. The sample consisted of 270 males incarcerated in a New Jersey correctional facility. The results demonstrate that most sex offenders resided within a 2,500-foot restricted landmark zone. However, after examining the methods sex offenders used and examining how far they traveled to meet or establish contact with their victims, residing near restricted landmarks did not contribute to victim selection. Of the 270 sex offenders, the offense patterns consistent with many residence restrictions were applicable to less than 1%.     

The Unexpected Effects of No Pass,No Drive Policies on High School Education

Since 1988, 27 states have introduced No Pass, No Drive laws, which tie a teenager's ability to receive and maintain a driver's license to various school-related outcomes—most commonly, enrollment and attendance. Enrollment-Based No Pass, No Drive policies, in 21 states, target both enrollment and attendance, and have negligible effects on dropout rates. However, these policies decrease the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) by between 1 and 1.7 percentage points. This lower graduation rate stems from students delaying their dropout decision by up to two years. As a result, these students are retained in the ninth and tenth grades, increasing 9th-grade enrollment by 3.6 percent relative to 8th-grade enrollment the year prior; this causes an artificial reduction in the graduation rate, rather than a reduction in the true likelihood that a student will graduate. Truancy-Based No Pass, No Drive policies, in five states, target only attendance—teens that fail to meet a minimum attendance requirement lose their driver's license. However, these policies allow students to drop out of school without facing this penalty. These policies increase the annual dropout rate by between 23 and 34 percent (1 to 1.6 percentage points).     

Asia-Pacific news

This column provides a country by country analysis of the latest legal developments, cases and issues relevant to the IT, media and telecommunications' industries in key jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific region. The articles appearing in this column are intended to serve as ‘alerts’ and are not submitted as detailed analyses of cases or legal developments.     

“TO ME ITS [SIC] REAL LIFE”: Secondary Victims of Homicide in Newer Media

This article explores what happened when two people personally affected by a 1999 homicide participated in an online forum in which the homicide was being discussed. The two individuals in question were the younger brother of the victim and the elder brother of the man convicted of her murder. The case had been the subject of a 12-part audio podcast called Serial. An online forum—the Serial Subreddit—had been set up independently of the podcast and its producers as a space for listeners to discuss their views on the case. We analyzed the contributions of the two aforementioned individuals and the responses they received. We argue that new media spaces like the Serial Subreddit break down the traditional barriers between those personally affected by homicide and consumers of mediated representations of homicide. As such, they raise important questions for criminologists.     

One woman's reflections on theruskin conference, ‘celebrating the Women's liberation movement thirty years on’, Ruskin College,Oxford, 18 March 2000

This report offers an account of the Ruskin Conference, ‘Celebrating the Women's Liberation Movement Thirty Years On’, which was held at Ruskin College, Oxford, United Kingdom on 18 March 2000. It was attended by about 150 women, the majority being young women – although some twenty older women who had attended the first Ruskin WLM Conference in 1970 were also present     

Charting the Ethics of the English School: What "Good" is There in a Middle-Ground Ethics?

This article aims to advance our understanding of the development of English School thinking on international ethics by outlining three phases of ethical inquiry within the British Committee. The article argues that, throughout the life of the Committee, its outlook was conditioned by a pervading moral skepticism, which was reflected in the School's commitment to a "middle-ground ethics"; however, at various times the Committee members' views changed about how maximalist the "good" could be that oriented this ethical position. Awareness of this ebb and flow helps us better understand Hedley Bull's characterization of the ethics of pluralism and solidarism within the School as well as the precise challenge contemporary English School theorists face if they are to move beyond the normative cul-de-sac that British Committee members encountered in each phase of their ethical discussions.