Introduction

I am very pleased to introduce you to my special issue for the Journal of Crime and Justice, the official journal of the Midwestern Criminal Justice Association, focusing on ‘Methodological Innovations and Empirical Advancements in Sex Offender Research.’ The goal of this special issue is to disseminate theoretically grounded and empirically sound research on sex offenders and sex offending. Although sex offender research has been prominent for some time, the sizeable changes in the legislative landscape toward increasing the laws and sanctions targeting sex offenders and sex offending (in the United States in particular) have ushered in a new or renewed interest in empirical investigations of sex offending. What is becoming readily apparent from the accumulating evidence from this research is that the current and widely held perceptions of sex offenders as being highly recidivistic, dangerous, specialized, and in need of a unique registration and community notification system to deter their ‘immutable’ impulses to re-offend sexually, are misguided at best and wrought with considerable unanticipated collateral consequences (Jennings et al. in press, Sample and Bray 2003, 2006, Zgoba 2004, Miethe et al. 2006, Zimring et al. 2007, 2009, Magers et al. 2009, Zgoba et al. 2009, 2010, Tewksbury and Jennings 2010, Tewksbury et al. 2012). Prior to reviewing the 10 high-quality manuscripts that are included in this special issue, I provide a brief review of the empirical evidence regarding these commonly held (and misguided) perceptions.