Objectives: This article tests two theoretical ideas: (1) that social concerns about particular “dangerous classes” of offenders shift over time to influence court sanctioning practices and (2) that, since the 1990s, sex offenders in particular came to be viewed by courts as one such “dangerous class.” Methods: We examine sanctioning trends in Florida and compare punishment of sex offenders in earlier versus later parts of the get-tough era. We then examine whether sentencing is associated with rational criminal justice incentives (e.g., increasing seriousness or rates of sex crimes) or with shifting public concerns (e.g., increasing media attention to sexual violence). Results: Punitiveness increased for all crimes but especially for sex crimes. Punitiveness appears not to be driven by increasing seriousness or rates of crime, but does appear to be partially driven by increasing national media attention to sexual violence. Conclusions: The findings support arguments that sex offenders were subjected to a uniquely punitive turn in sanctioning and that courts are sensitive to shifting public concerns. The results advance theoretical arguments developed by Gottschalk and earlier work that suggests that the persistence of get-tough era sentencing practices may be driven in part through focal attention to select types of offenders.

中文翻译：

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一个独特的惩罚性转折？性罪犯与惩罚性制裁的持续存在

目标：本文检验了两种理论观点：（1）社会对特定罪犯“危险类别”的关注随着时间的推移而变化，以影响法院的制裁做法；（2）自1990年代以来，性罪犯尤其受到了人们的关注。法院就是这样一种“危险阶级”。方法：我们研究了佛罗里达州的制裁趋势，并比较了艰难时期早期和晚期的性犯罪者的惩罚。然后，我们检查量刑是否与合理的刑事司法诱因（例如，增加严重性或犯罪率）或与公众关注的转移（例如，增加媒体对性暴力的关注）有关。结果：对于所有犯罪，尤其是对于性犯罪，惩罚性都有所提高。惩罚性似乎不是由严重程度或犯罪率增加所驱动，但似乎确实部分是由于国家媒体对性暴力的关注增加。结论：研究结果支持这样的论点，即性犯罪者在制裁中遭受了独特的惩罚性转折，法院对转移公众关注非常敏感。这些结果推动了Gottschalk和早期工作提出的理论论证，这些论点表明，艰难时期的持续量刑实践的持久性可能在一定程度上是通过集中精力关注特定类型的犯罪者来推动的。