Google is targeting 100,000 terms associated with online child sexual abuse in a move hailed by David Cameron, who will announce a series of measures to tackle the problem at a cyber-summit in Downing Street. The prime minister said that Google and Yahoo had “come a long way” after the internet firms announced a series of initiatives to try to block access to images of child sexual abuse. Full Article
Read MoreDay: November 18, 2013
Sex Offender Was Deprived of Equal Protection, CA Rules
Panel Says Law Allowing Some Child Molesters to Seek Pardon, but Not Others, Is Irrational and Unconstitutional A state law that allows a defendant convicted of a sex crime against a child under the age of 10 years to obtain a certificate of rehabilitation and pardon, but denies a similar opportunity to one convicted of molesting a child under the age of 14, is unconstitutional, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled Friday. “[W]e can discern no rational basis for the unequal treatment of these two similarly situated groups of…
Read MoreStatic-99 “norms du jour” get yet another makeover
It would be humorous if the real-world consequences were not so grave. Every year, at a jam-packed session of the annual conference of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (ATSA), the developers of the Static-99 family of actuarial risk assessment tools roll out yet a new methodology to replace the old. This year, they announced that they are scrapping two of three sets of “non-routine” comparison norms that they introduced at an ATSA conference just four years ago. Stay tuned, they told their rapt audience, for further instructions on…
Read MoreCO: Draconian sex-offender laws need reform (Op-Ed)
In 1855, a 19-year-old woman named Celia was executed by hanging in Missouri. Her crime? She had murdered her owner, a man who purchased her when she was just 14 years old and had been forcing her to be his concubine ever since. There was no dispute that she had killed him. She had even confessed. But Celia’s defense attorneys boldly argued that Celia was permitted to use deadly force to protect herself from rape, basing their argument on a Missouri statute intended to protect white women. Elsewhere in the…
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