DAYTONA BEACH — A nationally recognized child abuse survivor — and abuse prevention advocate — is hailing a Volusia County children’s park as a great tool to keep child sex predators away from neighborhoods. Lauren Book is walking from Key West to Tallahassee as part of her fifth-annual Walk In My Shoes campaign aimed at raising awareness about prevention and pushing for change in Florida law to protect children from abuse. Her bus stopped at the Bayberry Lakes neighborhood park, located in Daytona Beach. The park, which is the first of…
Read MoreMonth: April 2014
A Better Path to Community Safety (CASOMB Tiering Paper March 2014)
CASOMB first recommended in its 2010 report to the Legislature that revisions to California’s registration laws are needed and recently selected the issue as one which deserves increased focus and effort. The effectiveness of sex offender registration policies and practices has also been the subject of national focus recently, with a variety of jurisdictions addressing the importance of updating registration practices to reflect new research and evidence based approaches. Modifying registration practices will, CASOMB believes, improve public safety in California by focusing effort and resources on more dangerous offenders. Paper
Read MoreLET’S TALK ABOUT SEX (OFFENDERS)
First, let’s put some things on the table. There is wide consensus that sexual assault is under reported. There is some disagreement about just how under reported sexual assault among adults is (and some controversy about how it is defined and measured), but there are good estimates that only about a tenth of sexual abuse against children is ever reported. Abuse against children is especially heinous because of the lifelong harm it can inflict on the survivors and the subsequent costs it imposes on society. Now, let’s talk about one hugely counterproductive way to deal…
Read MoreVA: ACLU questions validity of massive child pornography investigation in Louisa
LOUISA, VA (WWBT) – The American Civil Liberties Union is speaking out, saying it’s concerned with how police are handling a massive child porn investigation in Central Virginia. NBC12 was the first to tell you that authorities are looking into more than one thousand inappropriate pictures and videos posted online involving teens in Louisa, Hanover and Goochland. The ACLU goes as far to say that minors have the constitutional right to take nude photos of themselves and send it to most whomever they chose. While, according to investigators, they’re trying to save these teens from committing crimes…
Read MoreOH: Law would mandate sex-offender alerts at nursing homes
State lawmakers want to close a loophole that requires neighbors to be notified when a registered sex offender moves into a nursing home but not the people who live there or their families. “As it stands now, if I live next to a nursing home, I’m going to be notified if a sex offender moves in. But if I’m in the room with a sex offender, I probably won’t know it,” said Beverley Laubert, the state’s long-term-care ombudsman with the Ohio Department of Aging. Current law requires notification of anyone living…
Read MoreSB 1027 (Hill) – Criminal record information: commercial use
Existing law requires a business to take reasonable steps to protect unintended disclosure of customer information and limits theway personal information on customers can be used and disseminated. This bill would prohibit a person who publishes criminal record information, as defined, via print or electronic means from soliciting or accepting a fee or other consideration to remove, correct, or modify that information, as specified. The bill would establish civil penalties for violations of these provisions. Bill Information
Read MoreIndia: Call for US-type curbs on offenders
MUMBAI: As sex crimes rise, a section among the legal fraternity and activists is asking if sex offenders in India must have some restrictions imposed on them as is done in the US. In America, the law requires states to register and regulate sex offenders residing within its borders. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Florida becomes the harshest state for sex offenders
Aljazeera America: Florida toughens laws detaining sex offenders indefinitely for crimes they haven’t yet committed In Arcadia, a town of 6,000 east of Sarasota, there’s a facility wrapped in sky-high barbed wire, where no one can choose to get in or out. This isn’t a prison, and its residents aren’t serving a sentence. It’s the Florida Civil Commitment Center, home to 650 men whom the state fears could molest, assault or rape again if released. Full Article (with video)
Read MoreAZ: Court hammers operator of Internet intimidation sites
A Valley man accused of running an Internet extortion racket was dealt a blow last month when a judge found he posted information on websites suggesting a decorated combat veteran with no criminal record was a child molester. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper imposed several sanctions against Charles “Chuck” Rodrick, saying evidence showed he controlled websites where operators demanded money from sex offenders and harassed those who complained. Full Article
Read MoreNATIONAL CITY ORDINANCE CHALLENGED IN FEDERAL COURT
A sex offender ordinance adopted by National City, a city in San Diego County, is the subject of a lawsuit filed on April 4 in federal district court on behalf of a registered sex offender (“registered citizen”). This is the third lawsuit challenging a city’s presence restrictions. The first lawsuit was filed on March 24 against the City of Pomona and the second lawsuit on March 31 against the City of South Lake Tahoe. The National City ordinance includes restrictions regarding where more than 105,000 individuals can reside or be…
Read MoreCounty Launches New Sex Offender Registration, Tracking Site Available to Public
San Mateo County will now be part of a nationwide network of over 5,000 law enforcement agencies, including over 45 California agencies. Full Article
Read MoreDHS Official: US Not ‘Routinely’ Notified When Sex Offenders Enter the Country
(CNSNews.com) – A Homeland Security Department official testified Friday before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security that U.S. authorities are not “routinely” notified when foreign sex offenders enter the United States. Full Article
Read MoreVA: Underage Virginia ‘sexting’ ring ensnares 100 teens, uncovers 1,000 pictures
A sprawling central Virginian “sexting” ring was busted up by authorities after pictures of naked 14- and 15-year-olds sprang up on Instagram, cops say. The disturbing investigation revealed more than 1,000 pictures, some videos and more than 100 involved teens through six different counties who may not realize sharing such photos of underage kids can be a felony, police told the Central Virginian. Out of those thousand images, there are some of them that are not sexually explicit, but are what we would call inappropriate or provocative — in their…
Read MoreIL: Two men charged after child left with child sex offender
A Davis Junction man is accused of leaving a child in the custody of a child sex offender. ___ ___ ___, 45, was charged with leaving a child in the custody of a child sex offender, according to a news release from the Ogle County Sheriff’s Department. Also taken into custody was ___ _ ___, 57, also of Davis Junction, on a charge of violating the provisions of the state’s child sex offender registration law and trespassing, the release said. ___ was being held Wednesday in the Ogle County Jail in lieu…
Read MoreMO: Students to be charged with distributing child porn
ST. CHARLES COUNTY – St. Peters police say some St. Charles County students are likely to be charged with distributing child pornography. NewsChannel 5 has exclusively learned the case involves nude selfies taken and texted out by students at Fort Zumwalt East High School. Full Article / Video
Read MoreNew School Bus Comes with “Predator Finder”
A brief glance won’t tell you the new buses are equipped with voice-over-IP communication systems, or that they transmit data on speed, location and acceleration in real-time. The “Thumbs-Up!” thumbprint scanner, which keeps track of which kids are on the bus and whether they’re supposed to be there, is also hard to see unless you’re really pressing your face to the glass, as are the multiple interior security cameras. Slightly easier to notice is the rear-facing camera, dubbed — no joke — the “Pedophile Finder.” “I wish we could have…
Read MoreLet’s Rethink Our Love of Prisons
Delaware Judge Jan Jurden just helped to destroy the market in human souls, and for that, I am grateful. She refused to send a self-confessed child rapist to prison, letting him instead walk out the courthouse door, to begin a lengthy period of probation and treatment as a sex offender. Robert H. Richards IV, an heir to the DuPont chemical fortune, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his 3-year-old daughter. According to press reports, he penetrated the child with his finger, a twisted and disgusting act. The allegations came to light…
Read MoreIn defense of the judge who sentenced the man who raped his three year old daughter to probation (Op-Ed)
From one of the many, many articles and op/eds written about this case: “A Delaware man convicted of raping his three-year-old daughter only faced probation after a state Superior Court judge ruled he ‘will not fare well’ in prison.” Those words, “will not fare well” in prison may go down as among the most, if not the most, infamous words ever attributed to a judge. What was the judge thinking, critics ask, and the cynical and even not-so-cynical find ready answers: he was rich, one of the DuPont family heirs;…
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