In response to widespread public concern about convicted
sex offenders being returned from prison, federal and state laws have
been passed authorizing or requiring the notification of local
communities where sex offenders would be living. The dilemma
associated with community notification is balancing the public's
right to be informed with the need to successfully reintegrate
offenders within the community. Wisconsin was one of the 50 state
jurisdictions that enacted a sex offender community notification
statute. This project was an in-depth study of that state's experience
from the vantage point of several groups affected by the community
notification process. This data collection contains three surveys that
were conducted from January 1998 through mid-September 1998: (1) a
survey of 704 neighborhood residents at 22 community notification
meetings throughout the state (Part 1), (2) a statewide survey of 312
police and sheriff agencies (Part 2), and (3) a statewide survey of
128 probation and parole agents and their supervisors from units with
sex offender caseloads (Part 3). Variables in Part 1 include how
respondents found out about the date and place of the community
notification meeting, respondents' opinions of the purpose of the
meeting, how clearly the purpose of meeting was stated, how the
meeting went, outcomes, rating of information presented, if materials
were handed out, if the materials were helpful, and respondents' level
of concern after the meeting. Enforcement agency data (Part 2) include
variables such as type of agency, type of jurisdiction, population
size, if the agency designated a special staff member to coordinate
the sex offender registration and notification functions, if the
agency had policies regarding registration of sex offenders and
community notification about sex offenders, if the agency attended
statewide training, who participated in the Core Notification Team,
what kind of information was used to determine a sex offender's risk
to the community, which agencies registered to receive notice, and if
the agency planned to update or expand their notification list.
Additional variables cover the number of requests for information from
Neighborhood Watch Programs, what identifying information about the
offender the agency released, types of communication the agency
received from the public after a notification had been issued, topics
discussed in the public communication to the agency, benefits of the
community notification law, difficulties in carrying out the
requirements of the law, and methods developed to handle the
problems. Probation and parole survey (Part 3) variables focused on
characteristics of the respondent's supervising area, the number of
agents assigned to the respondents' unit, the number of agents
designated as Sex Offender Intensive Supervision Program (SO-ISP)
agents or SO-ISP back-up agents, the number of child or adult sex
offenders under probation or parole, if the respondent participated in
any meetings regarding the provisions of the notification law and its
implementation, if the supervisor received specialized training, and
areas covered in the training. Other variables include whether the
notification level was decided by the Core Notification Team,
difficulties the respondent had with Special Bulletin Notification
(SBN) offenders assigned to his/her caseload, if the respondent's
field unit utilized SO-ISP or "high risk" agent teams to manage sex
offenders, which individuals worked with the respondent's team, the
type of caseload the respondent supervised, the number of sex
offenders on the respondent's caseload, if the respondent used a
special risk assessment or classification instrument for sex
offenders, other information used to determine the supervision level
for a sex offender, if child sex offenders were managed differently
than other sex offenders, how often a polygraph was used on sex
offenders, who paid for the polygraph, who chose the treatment
provider, the number of supervision contacts with high-risk, SBN, or
medium-risk sex offenders per week, victim policies and procedures
used, rules or policies regarding revocation, and prerevocation
sanctions used.