'Punishing' Sex Offenders

Abstract

Certain constitutional protections are invoked only if the government is imposing criminal punishment on a person. In the context of sex offender laws such as Megan’s laws and sex offender commitment schemes, considerable litigation has resulted on the very question whether these measures should be treated as civil or criminal in nature, with one consequence being that certain constitutional protections are either in play or not implicated. This article addresses the general concept of “punishment” for constitutional purposes and how that principle has played out in the Supreme Court’s cases in the sex offender context in particular.