CRIJ 4301 Sexual Offenders

In the past 30 plus years, sexual offenders have become a staple concern for legislators, policy makers, and law enforcement.  The establishment of state and federal sex offender registries – and how to regulate those registries – has become a critical policy issue. In addition to the policies surrounding sex offenders and their crimes, there has been resurgence in terms of academic research surrounding these offenders.  This class is going to focus on a variety of issues surrounding the current environment that surrounds sex offenders.  In addition, we will spend time reading and discussing pieces focusing on the sex crimes themselves (forcible and other categories of rape, incest, bestiality, sexual paraphilias and fetishes, in addition to our legal analyses of the sex offender registry.  This course will focus on the problems that surround current sex offender laws, some of the reentry issues that sex offenders face when they are released from prison, and what life is like on the registry.