The primary aim of sex offender post-release regulations (e.g., community notification and residency restrictions) is the incapacitation of potential recidivists following their release from prison. Over the last thirty years, this relatively young area of law has been in near constant motion. Its proponents have often been innovative, and the laws themselves have been subject to controversy in the courts and in the press from the outset. Nevertheless, the scope and importance of sex offender post-release (SOPR) laws today were in many ways simply inevitable. Incarceration is very effective at reducing recidivism risk, but keeping peop
le behind bars indefinitely is also very costly. With modern information and monitoring technology transforming our lives almost daily, it was only a matter of time before policymakers recognized that incapacitating people outside of
prison might be the best of all worlds: relatively small price tag, but
potentially very effective control and therefore minimal recidivism.
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