Social Inclusion Despite Exclusionary Sex Offense Laws: How Registered Citizens Cope With Loneliness

• Date: 01 March 2019
• Author: Lisa L. Sample,Tusty ten Bensel
• Published date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0887403416675018
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403416675018

Criminal Justice Policy Review

2019, Vol. 30(2) 274 –292

© The Author(s) 2016

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DOI: 10.1177/0887403416675018

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Article

Social Inclusion Despite

Exclusionary Sex Offense

Laws: How Registered

Citizens Cope With

Loneliness

Tusty ten Bensel1 and Lisa L. Sample2

Abstract

The use of social media has become associated with empowerment, social capital, and

social inclusion for members of marginalized groups in society. Few groups in today’s

social environment are as marginalized, if not more, than sex offenders. This article

explores the use of social media among 112 registered sex offenders who are in the

community, no longer under correctional control, and self-report no reoffending.

Self-reports of desistance were triangulated through interviews with 38 spouses/

relatives of registrants and arrest data. Unlike prior studies of sex offenders’ use

of social media to facilitate offending, we found the use of social media helps create

informal social networks, reduces loneliness, and provides a sense of empowerment

among sex offenders and their family members. These are all factors important to

promoting public safety and reducing sexual recidivism.

Keywords

sex offenders, social media, social isolation

Introduction

Over the past few decades, legislation has excluded convicted sex offenders from

many aspects of social life. They are prohibited from living in certain zones, interact-

ing in places where children dwell, and frequenting businesses perceived to cater to

1University of Arkansas, Little Rock, AR, USA

2University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, USA

Corresponding Author:

Tusty ten Bensel, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 South

University Ave., Ross Hall #515, Little Rock, AR 72204, USA.

Email: ixzohra@ualr.edu

675018CJPXXX10.1177/0887403416675018Criminal Justice Policy Reviewten Bensel and Sample

research-article2016

ten Bensel and Sample 275

youth. Some researchers have gone as far as to label them “social refugees” (Dum, in

press), as they have been forced to commune in areas often characterized by disorga-

nization (Hughes & Kadleck, 2008). Ironically, most rules of supervision, either pro-

bation or parole, restrict convicted offenders from associating with each other, yet this

is exactly what residency restrictions encourage as registered citizens are increasingly

forced to move out of “sex offender-free zones.” Nevertheless, restrictive mandates on

sex offenders have excluded them from participating in social life and community

activities with non-registered citizens. As a whole, these sex offenders are restricted

from socializing with conventional societal members, which has left limited opportu-

nities of social engagement, communication, and the development of social capital.

Due to their limited social lives, several scholars have noted that registered citizens

and their families often feel socially isolated and experience shame, harassment, and

victimization within broader society (ten Bensel & Sample, 2016; Tewksbury &

Levenson, 2009). Legal mandates that isolate sex offenders and their families from

developing social capital in their communities can have harmful effects, especially

given that the more social capital individuals acquire, the less likely they will engage

in criminal behavior (Bursik & Grasmick, 1993; Coleman, 1988; Ellison, Steinfield, &

Lampe, 2007; Thomas & Znecki, 1958). Based on this logic, it can be argued that sex

offenders should have high recidivism rates, as they are typically isolated from form-

ing social capital with non-criminal conventional others; however, sex offenders have

been found to have lower recidivism rates than other types of offenders (Hanson &

Bussière, 1998; Sample & Bray, 2003). It could be that sex offenders have found alter-

native strategies to develop social capital to alleviate or decrease their sense of loneli-

ness and isolation. Therefore, for this current study, we sought to explore how

registered sex offenders and their families cope with social isolation from society.

For the current study, we conducted informal conversational interviews with 112

sex offenders in Nebraska to determine if and how registrants manage social loneli-

ness and isolation. All registered offenders who were interviewed self-reported that

they have not sexually reoffended. We triangulated this information by interviewing

38 family members of registered offenders, reviewing arrest data, and reading regis-

trants’ blogs when available. These interviews provided us with a better understanding

of how registrants and their families cope with the effects of social isolation and if

loneliness can be mitigated in their everyday lives.

Background

Several scholars have observed that registered citizens experience social exclusion as

a result of sex offender laws (ten Bensel & Sample, 2016; Tewksbury & Levenson,

2009); however, we know little about how these citizens cope with their social exclu-

sion. There are a number of reasons why social exclusion from society can engender

deviant and criminal behavior. One explanation is a lack of developing “social capital”

(Coleman, 1988), which can affect individual behaviors. Social capital can be under-

stood as resources accumulated through the connections among individuals and a nec-

essary condition for obtaining conventional goals. Without any physical or emotional