Net-Widening in Delaware: The Costs of Punishing Kids Like Adults When They Commit Sex Offenses

February 2010:

Abstract:
This article examines recent legislative and judicial changes to Delaware’s approach to children who have sexually offended. Since the early 1990s, laws related to sex offender registration, penalties for sex offenses, and waiver of children to adult court have all hardened considerably, while both general and sexual recidivism rates for kids released from detention in Delaware have decreased. Recent research into the children targeted by these laws demonstrates that they are not comparable to children who have sexually offended in other states. Delaware’s aggressive legislative approach, although softened by judges in practice, has apparently led to net-widening. Placing children who are at low risk for re-offense in detention and residential treatment, and in public registries, costs the state millions of dollars and actually increases the likelihood of future criminal offending. Many of these children would have been more properly treated in the community.

For the remainder of this paper: by Chrysanthi S. Leon, University of Delaware - Sociology and Criminal Justice -and- David L. Burton, Smith College -and- Dana Alvare, University of Delaware - Sociology and Criminal Justice