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15 Int'l J. Police Sci. & Mgmt. 95 (2013)
Law-Enforcement Officials' Views of Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification

handle is hein.journals/injposcim15 and id is 103 raw text is: Law-enforcement officials' views of sex offender registration and community notification Richard Tewksbury* and Elizabeth Ehrhardt Mustainet *(Corresponding author) Department of Justice Administration, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292, USA. Tel: +1 502 852 6567; email: richard.tewksbury@louisville.edu tUniversity of Central Florida, Orlando, USA Submitted March 2013; accepted 14 October 2013 Keywords: sex offenders, law enforcement officers' attitudes, sex offender registration, CATSO, residential restrictions Richard Twksbury is a professor of justice administration at the University of Louisville. He is former editor of the American Journal of Criminal Justice and Justice Quarterly. His research focuses on issues of sex offender policies, criminal justice system actors' attitudes and responses to offenders and institutional corrections. Elizabeth Ehfardt Mustalne is a professor of sociology at the University of Central Florida. Her research centres on issues of sex offender policy, criminal justice scholars' professional atti- tudes and experiences, and officials' responses to child seKual abuse. ASsTRAcT Little is known about how criminal justice offi- cials perceive the efficacy and scope of sex offender registration and community notification (SORN) procedures. This study examines the attitudes regarding SORN among a sample of law enforcement agency supervisors/managers using a survey methodology and the Community Atti- tudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale. Results show that law enforcement officials tend to hold harsh views about sex offenders. Addi- tionally, the CATSO appears to be an efficient way of categorising the views of law enforcement officials. When considered relative to other popu- lations, law enforcement officials appear to hold views similar to college students, and in contrast to other criminal justice officials. INTRODUCTION Sex offender registration and community notification (SORN) is one of the most widely discussed and debated criminal justice policy issues in recent years. Such policies are debated regarding their efficacy (Tewksbury & Jennings, 2010; Zgoba, Veysey, & Dalessandro, 2010), and their effects on offenders (Levenson & Cotter, 2005; Levenson, Zgoba, & Tewksbury, 2007; Tewksbury, 2004, 2005; Tewksbury & Lees, 2007; Tewksbury & Mustaine, 2007) and communities (Barnes, Dukes, Tewks- bury, & De Troye, 2009; Tewksbury & Jennings, 2010). However, despite research assessing the consequences of such policies, there is surprisingly little research addressing people's attitudes toward these policies. Specifically, we know little about whether the public and criminal justice officials sup- port sex offender registries, community notification and housing restrictions. It is commonly assumed that the public and criminal justice community see SORN Intermaonal Joural of Poli Sdence and Managenent, VoL 15 No. 2, 2013, pp. 95-113. IX)I: 10.1350/ijp.2013.15.2.305

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