Dark sides and black holes
2020
In this chapter, I set out to assess whether and how criminological research results are put to use in sex offender policies. This focus connects to research related to what has been termed ‘research utilization’ (notably, Weiss, 1979) and to debates about ‘public criminology’ (e.g. Loader and Sparks, 2010; Uggen and Inderbitzin, 2010). A first section sketches elements of the public imagery and a list of assumptions about sex offenders in the public realm, including among policy makers. As sex offender research gradually moves away from being a blind spot in criminology (Lussier, 2018), criminological research results debunked a number of assumptions and ill-founded beliefs about sex offenders. This in mind, the question emerges whether such findings managed to enter into sex offender policy-making and if so, how these findings have affected such policies. Next, an assessment is made of different types of research utilization in two sex offender policies: one relates to particular attention for sex offenders in the context of prisoner release, the other has to do with a housing restriction for child sex offenders. Parliamentary debates in the run-up to these policies are analysed in order to check for instances and modes of research utilization.
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