LOS ANGELES – The California law mandating GPS monitoring of sex offenders can provide a false sense of security for the public, according to a report released Wednesday. While it can help law enforcement authorities find suspects after a crime has occurred, it has only limited benefits in preventing crime in the first place, the report says. The report from the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Inspector General was requested after two Orange County sex offenders who were required to wear GPS devices were arrested last spring in the…
Read MoreDay: November 5, 2014
OR: Portland City Club Report Says Fewer Youth should Register as Sex Offenders
The City Club of Portland has released a research report on juvenile sex offender registration in Oregon. After interviewing 17 experts and reviewing almost 50 research reports, the committee recommends changes that would identify youth who are at most risk of re-offending and reduce the number who are placed on the registry. Full Article
Read MoreTo Lena Dunham: From A Person Placed on the Sex Offender Registry as a Child
Dear Lena Dunham, You have been taking some heat for a passage from your book outlining what most psychological and developmental experts would call childhood sexual curiosity, if not just plain curiosity. I am glad you have defended your actions as a child as just that—childhood exploration. While the behavior might be considered by a puritanical society as taboo, it should not be a criminalized behavior. Ms. Dunham, many children around the country did the same thing you did. For example, a 9-year-old in South Carolina is now on the sex…
Read MoreCars kill more kids on Halloween than Registered Sex Offenders, so we should ban Trunk or Treat
Over the past few years, we see the barrage of Halloween stories designed to scare the people in a different way. There was no shortage of news stories warning parents to check the registry before they send their kids out trick-or-treating. Still, there has not been a “stereotypical kidnapping” of a child by a “Registered Sex Offender” on Halloween so long as the registry has existed. In 2014, no child was murdered by a Registered Sex Offender. Full Blog Item
Read MoreDeadly Halloween Across the Nation
Halloween took a deadly turn for trick-or-treaters, paradegoers and party guests across the country, on a holiday that federal safety regulators say is one of the deadliest on America’s roadways. At least 15 people were killed and nine others were injured in accidents and a fire connected to the festivities in the past few days, in states from California to New York, and Washington to Maine. Full Article
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