Introduction

In the United States, compared to persons convicted of violent, property or white-collar crimes, individuals convicted of sex crimes are arguably one of the most highly monitored groups of offenders in contemporary times. While historically this was not always the case, sensationalized media accounts of high-profile sexual assault-homicide cases, particularly those committed against children, changed the sociolegal landscape—from one of treatment amenability to one of punishment and deterrence (Sutherland, 1950; Jenkins, 1998). As a result, scrutiny of these individuals by lawmakers, criminal justice actors, and the public has continued to intensify over time. This level of scrutiny, in combination with new ways of managing these individuals’ access to or restriction from social spaces, spurred on by media narrative, public outcry, and reactionary policy making, led to numerous changes in law (Jenkins, 1998; Lynch, 2002; Sample & Kadleck, 2008; Budd & Mancini, 2017). Legislation crafted to monitor and track these individuals in communities started to proliferate and has become institutionalized at both the federal and state level (Jenkins, 1998; Lynch, 2002; Sample & Kadleck, 2008). A key aspect to implement this legislation was to leverage technology in conjunction with personnel power (e.g. law enforcement) to accomplish these legislative aims.

Digital technology, such as databases to prevent, respond to, and investigate crimes, and technological monitoring, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, has played an ever-increasing role in criminal justice work (Eisenberg, 2017). The use of these technologies has become particularly prominent in tracking and monitoring individuals convicted of sex crimes (Eisenberg, 2017; McJunkin & Prescott, 2018). Improvements in technology and the ability to capture and store large quantities of data have evolved; therefore, the ways in which individuals who have been convicted of committing a sex crime(s) are monitored have become more sophisticated. This chapter will focus on the ways persons convicted of sex crimes are contemporarily monitored, specifically through two mechanisms: sex offender registration and notification (SORN) and electronic monitoring (EM). Both of these monitoring strategies amass large quantities of data (e.g. personal information, location tracking information) that are gathered, housed and maintained by law enforcement and various other agencies. While law enforcement generally has a primary role in monitoring this group of people, at the community level other branches of criminal justice, such as probation and parole, are also tasked with the day-to-day monitoring of these persons if they are still under correctional supervision.

Welcome to the second, global-focused volume of Social Problems in the Age of COVID-19, a rapid-response project in public sociology intended to provide a broad audience with rigorous scholarly insight on social problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. All involved in this project have been compelled by the objective to provide timely and highquality scholarly insight on the effects of COVID-19 on social problems, which can be of use to scholars, students, activists, policymakers, journalists, and the interested public. The editors and authors expect these chapters will be of use to readers for making sense of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and its after-effects, just as they will inform policy decisions and engagement in social action.

The volume fits within the scholarly rubric of public sociology, and the editors are members of the Society for the Study of Social Problems’ (SSSP) Justice 21 Committee (J-21), whose creation was inspired by the 2000 Presidential Address of Professor Robert Perrucci, 48th President of the SSSP and founding member of J-21 (Perrucci, 2001). In his address, Dr Perrucci reminded SSSP members that much scholarship in the social problems field had become esoteric and abstract, thereby diminishing its utility as a resource for mitigating or solving the very problems which are its focus of study. Dr Perrucci's reminder was that the SSSP and the journal Social Problems were established within a model of scholarship that saw research and publication as integrated with social action to address pressing social problems. Since its establishment, the J-21 group has published a series of volumes titled Agenda for Social Justice (US-focused) and Global Agenda for Social Justice (globally focused). (Links to open-access copies of the volumes are available in the Key Resources.)

Since the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns, our editors, contributors, and publisher have not been satisfied to sit idly by watching massive social disruptions, especially as the negative effects of pandemic continue to fall upon marginalized populations. We were motivated by the sense that, especially in times of such crises, social scientists have something important to say, and that COVID-19 has complicated and accelerated existing global social problems and inequalities.

What Do We Know About the Problem?

As COVID-19 started to spread throughout the United States, organizations like Human Rights Watch warned that custodial settings, such as federal and state prisons and immigration detention centers, would be particularly vulnerable to outbreaks. The number of people criminally incarcerated or civilly detained in the US, who are disproportionately racial and ethnic minorities, has grown exponentially in recent decades. On average, roughly 2.3 million people are confined annually nationwide, with 1.5 million people incarcerated in state and local prisons and 42,000 in detention facilities. These individuals are more likely than not from communities already enduring perpetual social and health inequalities. Custodial settings compound the consequences of these inequalities where routine overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, lack of basic hygiene products, and limited and inadequate medical care function to exacerbate vulnerabilities for a population that suffers from disproportionately high rates of chronic disease and pre-existing medical conditions. Together, institutional characteristics and individual vulnerabilities pose a formidable public health challenge whereby the conditions of confinement present a perfect breeding ground for the contraction and spread of communicable illnesses exacerbated by the COVID-19 global pandemic.

While federal and state governments have implemented strategies to fight the spread of COVID-19, such as stressing the importance of social distancing (e.g., staying at least six feet from other persons, avoidance of group gatherings or crowded places), the actual implementation of these recommendations is highly problematic for those in US custodial settings given constraints on physical space and resources. This is particularly true in states where prisons and immigration detention centers have dangerous levels of overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and a lack of adequate medical care. Facilities are also far from state-of-the-art and instead have outdated infrastructures, poor ventilation, and filtration systems that promote the flow of airborne diseases. Daily life of incarcerated and detained individuals involves a communal lifestyle with shared living and bathroom facilities and food service. Moreover, social processes within and between custodial settings make the spread of COVID-19 more likely. For instance, prison-to-prison transfers heighten the risk of spreading the virus.

This volume, Social Problems in the Age of COVID-19, is a rapid-response project intended to deliver rigorous academic knowledge on social problems during the coronavirus pandemic, also known as COVID-19, to a broad readership. The focus is the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent disruptions on key social problems of widespread concern. The editorial team, chapter contributors, and publisher have pulled together to produce this volume in a fraction of the time such a project normally requires. All participants have been motivated by the need to get quality information rapidly disseminated as the world is living through the uncertain days, weeks, and months of this pandemic. In times of crisis, sociology and other social sciences seem more essential than ever to clarify new social development and challenges, not only for those working to understand what is happening, but also for those in positions to implement realistic, positive policy responses.

This volume is a special project within the larger academic project of public sociology. It is produced by the Justice 21 Committee (J-21) of the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP), which periodically produces two series titled Agenda for Social Justice and Global Agenda for Social Justice. The project was inspired by the 2000 Presidential Address of Professor Robert Perrucci, 48th President of the SSSP (reprinted as Perrucci, 2001). In his address, Dr Perrucci offered a clear censure of academic social sciences, as he noted that social problems research had become increasingly abstract and detached, and therefore less useful for solving social problems or reducing human suffering. He reminded social problems researchers that they were missing the point, which was not only to study social problems, but also to reduce or abolish them. Indeed, the SSSP was founded as an academic society to study social problems with the intent to generate knowledge, which should be translated into strategies for social action and policy intervention. Dr Perrucci's speech provided an early contribution to the nascent conversation about public sociology, and within the SSSP it inspired the establishment of the J-21 Committee, whose mandate is to produce volumes studying pressing social problems while providing practical suggestions to improve the situation.