studies and landmarks

This page considers studies regarding offender registers, including print and online 'community notification' schemes, and landmarks in their development.

It covers -

• studies - government and academic research
• landmarks - key legislation and other developments

     studies

For Australia see in particular 'The War on Sex Offenders: Community Notification in Perspective' (RTF) by Lyn Hinds & Kathleen Daly and 'Deborah's Law: The Effects of Naming and Shaming on Sex Offenders in Australia' by C Ronken & R Lincoln in The Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology (2001).

They are supplemented by the 2004 AIC report Attitudes of employers, corrective services workers, employment support workers, and prisoners and offenders towards employing ex-prisoners and ex-offenders and the 2005 federal Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission On the Record: Guidelines for the prevention of discrimination in employment on the basis of criminal record document, which followed the 2004 discussion paper on criminal convictions records.

A UK perspective is offered in Keeping Track?: Observations on Sex Offender Registers in the U.S. (London: Home Office 1997) by Bill Hebenton & Terry Thomas, the 2001 NSPCC study Megan's law: does it protect children? A review of evidence on the impact of community notification as legislated for through Megan's Law in the United States - Recommendations for policy makers in the United Kingdom by Elizabeth Lovell and Innocence Betrayed: Paedophilia, the Media & Society (London: Polity 2002) by Jon Silverman & David Wilson.

For the US see proceedings of the 1998 National Conference on Sex Offender Registries held in Washington under federal Department of Justice auspices. A description of US state regimes as of 1996 is provided in Scott Matson & Roxanne Lieb's Sex Offender Community Notification: A Review of Laws in 32 States (PDF).

For anxiety and reassurance see in particular Corey Robin's Fear: The History of a Political Idea (New York: Oxford Uni Press 2004), Mary Douglas's Risk & Blame (London: Routledge 1992) and Hazel Kemshall's Understanding risk in criminal justice (Buckingham: Open Uni Press 2003).

Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, and Other Sex Offenders: Who They Are, How They Operate, and How We Can Protect Ourselves and Our Children (New York: Basic 2003) by Anna Salter offers a point of reference in considering anxieties. For us it understates the extent to which crimes aren't committed by strangers and is reminiscent of 1950s primers about how to spot a commie. Ideally it would be read in conjunction with Silverman & Wilson's discussion of media opportunism and moral panics.

     landmarks

1986 Qld Criminal Law (Rehabilitation of Offenders) Act 1986

1991 NSW Criminal Records Act 1991

1992 WA Spent Convictions Act 1992

1994 US federal Jacob Wetterling Act: requires US states to have a sex offender register

1996 US Megan's Law: amends Jacob Wetterling Act, requires all states to allow public access to or dissemination of registered information in sex offender registers

1996 US Pam Lychner Sexual Offender Tracking & Identification Act: increases registration requirements for repeat and aggravated offenders

1997 UK Sex Offenders Act 1997: establishes non-public register

1997 Deborah Coddington's private register in Australia

1998 NSW Child Protection (Prohibited Employment) Act 1998

1998 UK Crime & Disorder Act 1998

2000 'Sarah's Law' campaign in UK

2000 NSW Child Protection (Offenders Registration) Act 2000

2001 UK Sex Offenders (Notice Requirement) (Foreign Travel) Regulations 2001

2001 Eire Sex Offenders Act 2001: certain offenders required to register personal details within seven days at a Garda station

2002 NSW Child Protection Legislation Amendment Act 2002

2002 NT Criminal Records (Spent Convictions) Act 2002

2003 Qld Sexual Offences (Protection of Children) Amendment Act 2003

2004 launch of Australian National Child Offender Register (ANCOR)

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