Author ORCID Identifier
Cynthia Najdowski: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3624-9188
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2013
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2013.744376
Abstract
Because juveniles can now be registered as sex offenders, we conducted a pilot study to investigate awareness of these policies and sexual behavior histories in a convenience sample of 53 young adults (ages 18 to 23, 79% women). These preliminary data revealed that 42% percent of participants were unaware that youth under the age of 18 can be registered as sex offenders, and when informed that they can be, participants were unaware of the breadth of adolescent sexual behavior that warrants registration. Furthermore, those unaware of juvenile registration policies, compared to those who were aware, were marginally more likely to have had sex prior to age 18. Thus, youth most at risk of registration were least aware of this possibility, suggesting that juvenile registration likely does little to deter many behaviors that are considered to be juvenile sex offenses.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Najdowski, Cynthia J.; Stevenson, Margaret C.; and Wiley, Tisha RA, "Knowledge of Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Laws as a Predictor of Adolescent Sexual Behavior" (2013). Psychology Faculty Scholarship. 8.
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/psychology_fac_scholar/8
Included in
Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons, Developmental Psychology Commons, Juvenile Law Commons, Law and Psychology Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Public Policy Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Social Psychology and Interaction Commons
Terms of Use
This work is made available under the Scholars Archive Terms of Use.
Comments
Publisher Acknowledgement:
This is the Author’s Original Manuscript. The version of the record appears here: Stevenson, M. C., Najdowski, C. J., & Wiley, T. R. A. (2013). Knowledge of juvenile sex offender registration laws as a predictor of adolescent sexual behavior. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 22, 103-118. https://doi.org/10.1080/10538712.2013.744376