Boo! to Bad CJ Policy

This Halloween, several jurisdictions across the country "locked down" convicted sex offenders living in the community on parole or probation. Offenders were given strict curfews and made to post "No Candy" signs on their doors; in Wisconsin a "sweep" resulted in the arrest of one offender for possession of Halloween candy, a prohibited item.

Disturbingly -- but not surprisingly -- lawmakers and local officials heralded this Halloween crackdown as an important step for ensuring "a safer public":

"Our agents will be out in force, checking on sex offenders, to ensure that they stay behind locked doors, in dark houses, with absolutely no contact with 'trick-or-treaters' on Halloween night," said Tom Hoffman, California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation director of parole.

The Michigan Attorney General even went so far as to suggest that parents consult the state sex offender registry before sending their children out trick-or-treating, in order to "be informed about potential risks in the community and take appropriate measures to safeguard their children."

Truly, the mind reels from the sheer absurdity of this rhetoric. This is precisely the type of unsubstantiated, unwarranted, and unjustified criminal justice policy that politicians looove to endorse (or, better yet, create) because it gives them the appearance of being "tough on crime". I mean, who doesn't want a safer public, for crying out loud? Of course, the irony is that while they appear to have a lot of bite, these types of policies ultimately are pretty toothless.

Think of it this way: just exactly how many trick-or-treaters have been assaulted by paroled or probationed sex offenders in the last ten years? A single one? Ever? Maybe, but not likely, considering that trick-or-treaters generally do not venture out completely alone and instead tend to be accompanied by parents and/or friends. For the sake of argument, though, let's assume that a solitary, unsuspecting trick-or-treater managed to be lured into the home of a convicted sex offender. When would an assault occur? In between knocks at the offender's door, within earshot of countless other children and parents, during the one night a year when pedestrian traffic outside one's home is at its busiest?

I'm no great defender of sex offenders, as you might have guessed. But I am a champion of the need for criminal justice policies to be based on actual data to justify their implementation. Otherwise, we end up with policies like this Halloween crackdown that make everyone feel warm and fuzzy, but that operate without a shred of empirical evidence to suggest they actually reduce crime or improve public safety. Not only that, they also artificially inflate people's fear of victimization in situations when their actual risk is relatively low. On Halloween or not, that's just scary.