Abstract
This paper examines the current philosophy and methodology utilized in the United States and Denmark in dealing with child sex offenders and proposes post-release approaches that will reduce recidivism rates in order to better protect society in the future. After analyzing current classifications of child sex offenders, labeling theory is rejected in favor of a novel classification of offenders based on their victimization. The unreliability of current measures of recidivism rates is explored and proposals are set forth to reconfigure recidivism rates to effectively measure the value of post-release protocols. A study of the current laws and social policy of the U.S. and Denmark follows along with a critical analysis of post-release sanctions and treatments. I conclude with a proposal for a post-release protocol that should minimize recidivism of child sex offenders and provide the greatest protection to society.Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (linked here). By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are available for wide dissemination at no cost to readers, with proper attribution (acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal), in educational and other non-commercial settings. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process.
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