| Abstract: | Sex offending is a considerable public health and criminal justice system concern. While the research is fairly mixed at best with most pointing toward a general lack of an appreciable deterrent benefit for these polices, no prior evaluation has made a rigorous attempt to determine and define the vast array of implementation costs and public safety benefits of these policies, specifically the Sex Offender and Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). As such, our proposed research strategy involves the development and application of an innovative Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) tool. The results from this innovative and dynamic CBA tool with hypothetical data suggests that the 10-year financial benefit for SORNA ranges from $1.01 to $3.91 for every dollar spent when considering the reduction in sex crime specifically, and any crime more generally. This tool holds promise as a mechanism for generating jurisdiction/site-specific cost-benefit analyses. Policy implications are also discussed. |
