included offenders themselves, defense attorneys, and friends and family of offenders,
whereas individuals commonly representing the “pro-victim” position included parents of
victims, politicians, prosecutors, and police officers. Two sets of organized groups
figured in arguments from both offender and victim positions, the ACLU, who were cited
in 8 of the 35 articles, and specific but different victims’ rights groups, who were cited in
9 of the 35 articles. Three of the “pro-victims” citations were from the group, Parents for
Megan’s Law, a state initiated and state funded organization.
Arguably, however, the most commonly cited sources of quotes in all of the 35
articles were politicians, and all of them supported increased punitive legislation for sex
offending. Politicians, including state and national congressional representatives,
governors, presidents, judges (other than Supreme Court judges), and attorney generals
were cited 31 times in the 35 articles. This analysis provides support for arguments that
identify politicians, more than victims rights groups, as the main source for increasingly
punitive sexual assault policy. It also supports arguments that feminists have had very
little to do with increasingly punitive sexual assault policy. Neither feminist accounts of
the problem of the sexual assault of women and children or feminist groups who support
victims are mentioned at all in the 220 articles that I examined.
Works Cited
Beckett, Katherine. 1996. "Culture and the Politics of Signification: the Case of Child
Sexual Abuse." Social Problems. 43:57-77.
Beckett, Katherine. 1997. Making Crime Pay: Law and Order in Contemporary
America Politics. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Beckett, Katherine and Theodore Sasson. 2000. The Politics of Injustice: Crime and
Punishment in America. Thousands Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Benedict, Helen. 1992. Virgin or Vamp: How the Press Covers Sex Crimes. New York
Convention