Sex Offender Community Notification: Its Role in Recidivism and Offender Reintegration

This study investigated the effectiveness of Megan’s law in reducing recidivism among convicted sex offenders. The policy of making such offenders more visible to the public through officially notifying communities when they are returned to society is based on the premise that warning potential victims increases the public’s ability to protect itself against future victimization. The community would be better protected because those undergoing extensive notification will know that they are being watched and thus will be deterred from reoffending. Effectiveness was assessed by examining rates of return to prison for conditionally free offenders under correctional control. The study used a four‐and‐a‐half‐year follow‐up period and covered all those in one state who had undergone high level notification from September 1997 to July 1999. Their recidivism patterns were matched with a similar sample in the same state who, while meeting the state’s criteria for public notification, were not dealt with in this way. The results show that, after controlling for relevant demographic and criminal history variables, extensive community notification had no direct effect on the likelihood or unlikelihood of recommitment to prison. No significant differences were found between the high level and low level notification groups in their post‐release behavior culminating in rearrest and return to prison.