Areas of Expertise

• Sexual offending
• Sex offender law
• Prostitution and sex work
• Sociology of law

Key Findings

• At all three sites, Baltimore, Philadelphia and “Peterson County,” participants reported feeling burdened by the supervision the programs required (e.g. multiple drug tests that were inconvenient). MORE
• At the Peterson County site, participants noted that services needed to be in more convenient locations. MORE
• Prostitute women share resources, mentor one another, and offer solidarity and moral support to each other, all of which their strong friendships. MORE
• Relationships between females in prostitution helps individuals cope with stigma. MORE
• The goals of the parties involved in sexual assault reform (survivors, campus counselors, legislators) are not aligned. MORE
• Legislators primarily focus on following protocol and having sexual assault incidents reported to Title IX officers, students are focused on justice, safety, and evidence, and counselors focused on resources for victims. MORE

Biography

Chrysanthi Leon, Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at the University of Delaware, is an expert in sexual offending, sex offender law and policy, sociology of law, prostitution and sex work.

Leon consulted with the U.S. Office on Women’s Health within the Office of Public Health and Science at the Department of Health and Human Services, the ACLU of Delaware, the LGBT/HIV Federal De-Criminalization Task Force Subcommittee on Sex Offender Registration and the National Sex Abuse Treatment Alliance. She received the Governor’s Award for Team Excellence from the State of Delaware as well as several honors and awards from the University of Delaware. She is a member of the American Society of Criminology’s Division on Corrections and Sentencing, the Law and Society Association, the Mid-Atlantic Law and Society Association and the Sociolegal Justice Project.

She has been published in numerous academic journals and is the author of the book, “Sex Friends, Perverts and Pedophiles: Understanding Sex Crime in America”.

Leon received her Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy and J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and her B.A. in American Studies from Yale University.