Assessment of Sex Offender Notification Policy in the United States: Has the Policy Been Working?

Abstract

The National Sex Offender Registration and Notification (SORN) policies in the United States have been one of the major policies against sex offense since 2006. In this paper, we attempt to assess the policies within a framework of four types of failure in criminal justice reform by Berman and Fox – Theory, Marketing and Politics, Implication, and Self-Reflection. According to the evaluation, the SORN policies have not been successful, fitting into the four failures. Even though the policies were successfully initiated by the public and politics, the lack of theoretical framework led the whole process of the policies into failure. In addition, the implication of the policies has been challenging because of constitutional and ethical concerns of the offenders. Although a sufficient amount of literature has presented the ineffectiveness of the policies, more applications are attempted by policymakers. Before deeper and wider problems occur, the criminal justice system must be more rational on the subject. For future policy reform, we recommend that policymakers consider the previous studies and start to think about a sound framework for the policies.