So You Want to Find a Transitional House for Sexually Violent Persons: An Account of Political Failure. (November 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stojkovic, Stan; Farkas, Mary Ann
• Is Part Of: Criminal justice policy review. Volume 25:Number 6(2014:Nov.)
• Page Start: 659
• Page End: 682
• Publication Date: 2014-11
• Subjects: sex offenders -- sex offender residency -- sex offender supervision; Criminal justice, Administration of -- United States -- Periodicals; 364.973
• DOI: 10.1177/0887403413511633
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0887-4034

Abstract

Many states passed legislation in the 1990s to address the problem of violent sex offenders. While academic inquiries into the nature and extent of sexual offending have revealed some interesting findings, very little is known regarding how communities address the issue of managing violent sex offenders. This account documents how the state of Wisconsin attempted to manage violent sex offenders once released from prison and civilly committed under a sexually violent person statute. It chronicles the experience of a committee charged with locating possible sites for a facility for sexual predators under supervised release to the community. In addition, this account shows the problematic nature of implementing a state statute in a large county and identifies barriers inherent to this process. The concept of political failure is introduced to describe why sex offender legislation is difficult to implement.