Abstract
The term sex offender has become a ubiquitous part of our everyday life. We hear the word batted around on the news when children are abducted or when child pornography raids are carried out. We hear it at schools and on holidays when parents are encouraged to use the public sex offender registry to protect children. But how many people actually understand what a sex offender is? Do many people know how we punish and rehabilitate sexual offenders? How many of us comprehend the extent to which the criminal justice system has been shaped around our views and our limited understanding of these types of crimes and offenders? Christina Mancini undertakes our enlightenment in her book Sex Crime, Offenders, and Society: A Critical Look at Sexual Offending and Policy. A wonderful addition to the sex crime literature, Mancini explores the broad world of sexual offending, including the realities about sex offenses and sex offending trends, public perceptions of sex offenses and the offenders that perpetrate them, and criminal justice policies enacted to combat sexual crime.
Divided into three parts, the first section of the book delves into the meaning of the term “sex offender.” In Chapter 1, Mancini discusses the traditional typologies of sex offenses such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s typology of rapists, but also spends time exploring newer classification studies for specific subgroups such as juveniles, females, and internet sex offenders. The discussion of each classification lacks a strong critique at times, particularly of those classifications determined with very small sample sizes, but readers will still benefit from exposure to the variety of emerging typologies for this population. Chapters 2 and 3 include detailed descriptions of sex crime statistic collection techniques and longitudinal data that provides readers with a knowledgeable base for understanding sex crime trends and perceptions. Although Mancini’s discussion of traditional instruments such as the National Crime Victimization Survey and the Uniform Crime Report may be redundant for those familiar with the criminal justice system, her explanation about recent, sex crime–specific instruments such as the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey or the National College Women Sexual Victimization Study make a contribution beyond that found in more broad criminal justice texts.
In section 2, Mancini exposes the stereotypical view of sex offenders to critical analysis. Chapter 5 disentangles the various assumptions that make up a “sex offender” and describes the empirical basis for refutation or confirmation of each assumption, while Chapter 6 informs readers about societal divides in public opinion and attitudes toward sex offenders. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 7, which focused on the development of sex offender policies in the United States. Traditionally, most discussions of these laws begin in the early 1900s with the enactment of civil confinement policies, but Mancini digs deeper into American history and provides a short discussion about the treatment of sex offenses all the way from the early colonial days to the present, focusing on how the ideology of the relevant century impacted treatment of this group of offenses and offenders. Her later discussion of the “potpourri of laws” for sex offenders enacted in the 2000s is descriptive and offers readers less recognizable legal restrictions such as the special sex offender driver’s licenses enacted in at least 11 states.
Mancini finishes the book in section 3 with several chapters devoted to sex offender policy. While readers will benefit from the detailed description of sex offender risk assessments and court cases, Chapters 8 and 10 in particular go beyond the descriptive to offer critical analysis of our current sex offender policies, including the legal assumptions and logic behind sex offender legislation as well as the impact policy variation has on the external validity and evaluative potential of current studies. Mancini’s analysis promotes critical thinking and would allow for informed discussion about our current policies and their impact on sex offenders and society as a whole within a classroom. Mancini concludes section 3 with suggestions for sex offender policy that have been supported by empirical research.
Overall, this book would benefit a variety of undergraduate courses, including those focusing on sex offenses, corrections, or public policy. Throughout the book, Mancini offers readers insight into the realities of sexual offending, explaining the true extent and variety of sex offenses and sex offenders as well as how ideologies influence our treatment of those who sexually offend and where our current legislation is leading us. The text is written in such a way that will promote understanding even for casual readers, as the text is well organized and tables are used throughout the book to provide succinct summary and comparison of major theories, research, and states. Mancini’s level of detail and writing quality would also make this book ideal for informing nonacademic audiences involved with this population, such as social workers, lawyers, or policy makers, about the realities of sex offending.