Alerting Faculty, Staff, and Students? Public Opinion on Sex Offender Notification on College Campuses

Institutes of higher education have been called to action to address and prevent sexual violence perpetrated against college students. Based on legislation, one potential pathway is the extension of sex offender registration and notification (SORN) to the campus community. No research has assessed public perceptions of extending SORN, and in particular the perceived importance of notifying faculty, staff, and/or students about an enrolled student on campus that is registered. Via an online survey, this research assessed public perceptions of 1,269 U.S. adults in relation to campus notification. Using logistic regression, influencing factors that increased the odds respondents would find notification important for faculty/staff and students included their level of concern about registered persons attending college, number of children, and perceptions of social problems being worse now compared to 10 years ago. In regard to notifying students, African American respondents were more likely to think notifying students was important. Findings are discussed in relation to prior work on SORN as well as policy implications and considerations.