About laws

Dean, Vice & Janus, Eric S., Failure to Protect - America 's Sexual Predator Laws And the Rise of the Preventive State
In his new book, Vice Dean and Professor Eric S. Janus exposes the broad threat to civil liberties inherent in today's aggressive "sexual predator" legislation.

Kyle Sandusky,
Sex Offenders Myths And Facts; The Chronicle, Oct 17, 2006
In lieu of fostering a fearful witch-hunt mentality for election year sound bites, politicians should step up to this societal challenge. Additionally, the media should strive to dispel the myths and create the environment for policy and subsequent legislation to succeed, creating a safe society for all children.

O'Hear, Michel M,
Perpetual Panic; Federal Sentencing Reporter, Vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 69–77, 2009, Vera Institute of Justice - Editor's Observations.
The account of recent developments that unfolds in these pages may be viewed as yet another chapter in the story of a child sex abuse panic that is now well into its third decade.

In Part I of these Editor’s Observations, I identify some of the key themes that emerge from the articles in this issue.

In Part II, I suggest some reasons why the sex crime panic has proven so durable, while another panic that also reached a fever pitch in the mid-1980s, the crack cocaine panic, seems to have subsided.

Finally, in Part III, I discuss a lesson that may be drawn from the various American crime panics: while it may be unreasonable to expect legislators to resist the pressure for increasingly punitive responses to problems that arouse widespread public alarm, the harmful effects of excessive or misdirected responses may be contained through the use of sunset provisions when new crimes or mandatory minimum sentences are created.