Leo Carroll, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Rhode Island, dispels some common sex offender myths in a letter to the editor of the Providence Journal.Two decades of research regarding the effects of sex offender laws have produced no evidence that such laws achieve their stated purposes. A recent review of research on community notification and residency restriction laws in the Oxford Handbook of Sex Offences and Sex Offenders concludes that such legislation is “misinformed and simply incorrect.”
These laws are knee-jerk reactions to hysteria fueled by media narratives of sensational but exceptional tragedies; they are based on myths rather than facts.
Read more at the Providence Journal.