TY - JOUR
T1 - What does the public think about sex offender registers? Findings from a national Australian study
AU - Bartels, Lorana
AU - Gelb, Karen
AU - Spiranovic, Caroline
AU - Warner, Kate
AU - Roberts, Lynne
AU - Davis, Julia
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: The project was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant, Project ID: LP 130100083 with the following partners: Department of Justice, Tasmania; VSAC; Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration; and the and the ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner. Funding was also received from the Australian National University and University of South Australia to support this research. This study would not have been possible without the generous support of state and territory courts, judges and Attorneys-General. We gratefully acknowledge their willingness to participate in this research by granting us access to their jury pool members or otherwise assisting us with undertaking this work. Special thanks are due to the Victorian Juries Commissioner and his staff, who enthusiastically and wholeheartedly supported our work, Emeritus Professor Arie Freiberg and George Zdenkowski, for their work in the early stages of the project and to Rachel Vermey for her help with data analysis.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - This article presents data from questions about sex offender registration orders in a large national survey on Australian public opinion about adult sex offenders. It outlines the legislative frameworks that govern these registers in Australia and discusses the use of public registers, the research on the effectiveness of sex offender registers, and Australian attitudes to such registers. Our surveys of three cohorts of members of the Australian public reveal strong public support for sex offender registers, especially for cases involving child victims. However, there was also support for judicial discretion in the imposition of orders and reduced support for automatic registration where a non-custodial sentence is imposed. The Australian Government has recently announced the establishment of a national public sex offender register, but our findings show limited support for this approach. The implications for policy and practice are considered.
AB - This article presents data from questions about sex offender registration orders in a large national survey on Australian public opinion about adult sex offenders. It outlines the legislative frameworks that govern these registers in Australia and discusses the use of public registers, the research on the effectiveness of sex offender registers, and Australian attitudes to such registers. Our surveys of three cohorts of members of the Australian public reveal strong public support for sex offender registers, especially for cases involving child victims. However, there was also support for judicial discretion in the imposition of orders and reduced support for automatic registration where a non-custodial sentence is imposed. The Australian Government has recently announced the establishment of a national public sex offender register, but our findings show limited support for this approach. The implications for policy and practice are considered.
KW - Australia
KW - jurors
KW - public opinion
KW - sentencing
KW - sex offender registers
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85090926897&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/e991c8b6-0e88-382e-9477-e566fbb45cc2/
U2 - 10.1080/13218719.2020.1805813
DO - 10.1080/13218719.2020.1805813
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85090926897
SN - 1321-8719
VL - 28
SP - 560
EP - 575
JO - Psychiatry, Psychology and Law
JF - Psychiatry, Psychology and Law
IS - 4
ER -