Sex offender community notification: examining the importance of neighborhood meetings

Abstract

Within the last decade, federal and state laws have been passed authorizing or requiring the notification of local residents that a convicted sex offender will be released and living in their neighborhood. The community meeting method of notifying neighborhood residents, although the subject of extensive news media attention, has been largely overlooked by empirical researchers. This study focuses on the experience of residents who attend such meetings and how that experience factors into a collective response on the part of the community. Data are derived from attendee surveys and recorded observations taken at all community notification meetings held throughout Wisconsin during a nine month period. The findings suggest that community notification meetings, if properly conducted, can perform an important role in managing the behavior of known sex offenders in the community. However the decision to notify and involve the public in an informal network of neighborhood surveillance may come at the cost of increased community anxiety. This anxiety is related to how the attendees were notified of the meeting, how clearly the purpose of the meeting was conveyed, and how organized the meeting appeared to the audience. Suggestions on how to more effectively utilize the community meeting method of notification are presented.

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