Studies on sex offender legislation and acquaintance rape

October 2, 2007 |
Robert Coombs

The National Criminal Justice Reference Services posted some few interesting studies on sex offender policy and acquaintance rape, last week.
Sex Offender Legislation in the United States: What Do We Know?
Michelle Cohen and Elizabeth Jeglic reviewed current trends in sex offender legislation and analyzed how these policies could impact sex offender recidivism and treatment. Despite findings the authors argued that it is likely that the public will continue to favor incarceration and incapacitation of sex offenders over treatment.
The authors suggested that “future research should explore other methods of dealing with sex offenders to replace or accompany those already in use. Main trends under examination included: mandatory sentencing laws, civil commitment, community notification, monitoring, and supervision.”
Click here (NCJ: 219658) to review the abstract.
Factors Affecting Sexual Assaults Committed by Strangers and Acquaintances
Lynn M. Pazzani explored in a recent study “whether the causes of two types of sexual assault–stranger and acquaintance rape–differ. The findings point to different causes for stranger rape versus acquaintance rape.” Some factors associated with acquaintance rape include: gender equality, prior childhood abuse and prior sexual assaults, “while a culture of ‘hypermasculinity’ was associated with stranger rape.”
In addition, the author pointed out that “women who had been victims of child abuse or victims of prior sexual assaults were more likely to be current victims of acquaintance rape, but not stranger rape.”
The author said that the “findings generally support feminist theories regarding violence against women stemming from historical and structural patriarchal beliefs and practices.”
Click here (NCJ 219589) to review the abstract.