ABSTRACT
Within the booming business of penal legislation in the United States, laws (both criminal and civil) addressing criminal acts defined as sexual in nature have been especially irresistible to politicians. Laws against drug dealers, criminals who use guns, and domestic abusers have been popular as well. So have laws lengthening prison sentences and making them less revisable. In all these areas, a lively network of policy entrepreneurs have circulated versions of “tough on crime” legislation and typically enjoyed solid majority support in both political parties. Yet within this populist festival of punitiveness, no subject has been as popular a target of law as those convicted of sexual crimes (those we must struggle to avoid calling “sexual offenders”).
