Sex Offenders In The 1930's

The first attempt by the U.S government to require criminals to register emerged in the 1930’s, in response to organized crime and mobsters involved in numerous criminal activities such as the illicit liquor trade, gambling, and drug trafficking. Utilization of these registration provisions was largely sporadic until the early 1990’s when such laws began reemerging albeit this time in response to a new national villain - sex offenders. California was the exception; in 1947 California became the first state requiring sex offenders to register (Megan’s Law). During the 1990’s, laws requiring that sex offenders register with authorities were quickly adopted in all 50 states, Massachusetts being the last to adopt such a law in 1996. While

UPDATE Failure to register would result in additional legal penalties. These registration requirements were initially developed to serve the needs of law enforcement with the identification and tracking of sex offenders living and working in their jurisdictions, and in theory provide a starting point from which to work in the event there were any reported sexual offenses in a given area. (explain) These notification initiatives were ultimately combined with community notification strategies which extended the information available to law enforcement to the general public. Doing so, was viewed as method of force multiplying, by educating more people about the , previously only disclosed to law enforcement, to the general public, presumably as a force multiplier allowing the community to help monitor known offenders while taking individual actions to protect oneself and their family.

According to Cohen (2005), moral panic occurs when a population believes there is a threat, whether real or perceived, to the overall well-being of society that must be addressed due to the perceived negative consequences of inaction explain better). Instances of moral panic are often characterized by a gross exaggeration of the problem, threat, and or consequence(s). In modern society such panics are perpetuated by the media, as was the case during the late 1980’s and early 90’s when several highly publicized cases of sexual victimization and violence against children fueled nationwide fears of sexual victimization and violence against children. These rare, albeit tragic cases, such as the 1981 murder and abduction of six year old Adam Walsh of Florida, the 1982 abduction of twelve year old Johnny Gosch of Iowa, the 1989 abduction of eleven year old Jacob Wetterling of Minnesota, and the 1993 murder and abduction of twelve year old Polly Klaas in California, served as a springboard for the nationwide legislative reforms related to sex crimes (Wright, 2014). Advocacy groups, led often by the survivors of sexual violence, took their concerns to state legislators who responded by lending support to legislation that severally punished sex offenders and provided protection to the victims, often