UPDATED with related story If nothing else, ____ ____ is not your typical ex-con. At first glance, he looks like the model returning citizen: After serving more than a decade in prison, ____, 70, returned to the District, started a gallery for prison art and ran for mayor. … So, for his latest act, ____ has decided to protest his treatment by creating his own online data base and registering the people who monitor him at the sex offender registry. Full Article Related: Dennis Sobin Has a Registery for People Who…
Read MoreYear: 2014
Who Really Commits New Sex Crimes?
In the recent months there have been a number of articles and news sources about politicians and other prominent people involved in sex crimes. There have also been a significant number involving police officers. This study will focus in part on the offense rate for police officers in comparison to other persons, it will also take a look at the re-offense rate for people on the registry. Full Article
Read MorePA: Juvenile Law Center Wins Second Ruling Declaring Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Sex Offender Registration Requirements Unconstitutional
For the second time in the last three months, a Pennsylvania judge has ruled that Pennsylvania’s juvenile sex offender registration requirements are unconstitutional. On January 16, 2014, Monroe County Court of Common Pleas President Judge Margherita Patti-Worthington ruled that Pennsylvania’s law requiring juveniles convicted of sexual offenses be subjected to lifetime sex offender registration violates their rights under the Pennsylvania Constitution. (Read Judge Patti-Worthington’s opinion here.) Full Article
Read MoreLiving with 290: Traveling to Cabo San Lucas
My boyfriend and I traveled to Cabo San Lucas as we do every year. After several scans of our passports at us airport we board the plane. He’s is a RSO from 20 years ago which was a *** deal to begin with!! We land in Baja head to Mexican customs we are pulled out of line taken into this little room where they proceed to tell him he is not allowed in the country… They fill out all forms escort us with 5 armed guards back to the same…
Read MoreD.A. will take sex-offenders fight to state Supreme Court
[UPDATED 1/14] SANTA ANA The Orange County District Attorney’s Office plans to go to the California Supreme Court to defend local ordinances that ban registered sex offenders from city parks. A state appeals court on Friday struck down an Irvine law that barred registered sex offenders from city parks without written permission from police, a ruling that will become legal precedent. The court also struck down a similar Orange County law. About a dozen other Orange County cities passed similar ordinances banning sex offenders from parks at the urging of District Attorney…
Read MoreRSOL’s SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2014
RSOL’s SIXTH ANNUAL CONFERENCE will be held inDALLAS, TEXASJULY 16-19(that is Wednesday evening through Saturday afternoon – a change from past years) KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Lenore Skenazy (“Free-Range Kids” blogger and TV personality) Focus this year will be on building stronger advocates for the Cause. We’ll be announcing other speakers, and as always looking for experts and experienced advocates to lead workshops on such topics as lobbying, constitutional arguments, fundraising, organization-building, volunteer management, and other concrete skills needed by advocates.
Read MoreMolest victim requests probation for sex offender
A 58-year-old Santa Rosa man who molested his step-grand-daughter was released from custody Thursday after serving about a year in jail. Prosecutors sought a 12-year prison sentence for ____ ____ ____, who was accused of molesting the girl when she was three or four years old and again when she was 10-years-old. They had, however, agreed to a plea bargain that allowed for the possibility of probation. Citing ____’s poor health and the victim’s request for him to avoid prison, Judge Jamie Thistlethwaite set him free. He will serve five years’…
Read MoreVirginia anticipates need for more prison beds if oral sex is banned for teens
A Republican lawmaker in Virginia has proposed re-criminalizing oral and anal sex — but only for teenagers. State Senator Thomas Garrett, who calls himself a “Cuccinelli Conservative,” filed a bill on Wednesday to “amend and reenact § 18.2-361 of the Code of Virginia, relating to crimes against nature.” Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a bid by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to re-establish the ban on oral and anal sex in his state. The law had previously been declared to be unconstitutional by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In its 2003 Lawrence…
Read MorePetition: Pardon all people arrested and coviction of Internet Sex Stings
The internet sex stings concerning the solicitation of a minor are unconstitutional and do nothing more than test the will of average law-abiding males with consensual sex. These stings do not protect anyone because teens do not typically search for adults to have sex with on adult sites. These stings are nothing more than entrapment and the courts do not see the damage nor the rights of all involved. These stings are done on adult websites where age verification is required. Law enforcement posing as minors who are posing as…
Read MoreNY: Danger of a Different Kind – Firefighters Push to Keep Sex Offenders Out
The dangers of being a firefighter. Some are obvious. And others, not so much. That’s why the New York State Firemen’s Association is fighting to prevent what it claims is a danger of a different kind. Convicted sex offenders volunteering as firefighters. “Current labor law does give certain considerations and prohibits sex offenders from working in positions similar to firefighters that are entrusted with people’s safety and well-being. And so we just want some parity brought into our field,” said Andrew Maracco, FASNY lobbyist. Hundreds of firefighters and emergency responders are pushing…
Read More2014 Women Against Registry’s Operation Push Back
This Press Release was just sent out to all Missouri Media and Legislators: As Director of Women Against Registry, I am contacting your agency on behalf of over two million women, family members and those affected by the public sex offender registry. We have grown tired of the continued penalties registrants and their FAMILY members increasingly face. We have begun “Pushing Back” on legislation and false media representation. For too long we have heard heart-breaking stories from families being destroyed, children beaten, passed over for higher education opportunities, family homes/property…
Read MorePutting the Cart Before the Horse: The Forensic Application of the SRA-FV
As the developers of actuarial instruments such as the Static-99R acknowledge that their original norms inflated the risk of re-offense for sex offenders, a brand-new method is cropping up to preserve those inflated risk estimates in sexually violent predator civil commitment trials. The method introduces a new instrument, the “SRA-FV,” in order to bootstrap special “high-risk” norms on the Static-99R. Curious about the scientific support for this novel approach, I asked forensic psychologist and statistics expert Brian Abbott to weigh in. Full Article
Read MoreAppeals court rules against Orange County on sex offender law
A panel of California appeals court judges found Friday that state law trumps Orange County’s regulations on sex offenders that ban them from parks and beaches. The fourth appellate district decision reverses the conviction of ____ ____, a registered sex offender who was convicted of a misdemeanor for violating the county ordinance after he went to a company picnic at Mile Square Regional Park in Fountain Valley in 2011. ____ had been convicted of misdemeanor sexual battery in 2010. The county’s restrictions on sex offenders, passed in 2011, were among the…
Read MoreAre Americans increasingly taking the law into their own hands?
WASHINGTON, January 8, 2014 — Instances of citizen vigilantism – citizens exercising law enforcement practices without legal authority – have been showing up in the media more frequently. Apparently a growing number of American citizens feel as if their law enforcement officials are not doing enough to prevent crime and do not want to solely rely on the government for their personal security.While violent crime in the U.S. is on the rise again for the first time after 2006 – 1.2 percent increase compared to 2012 after years of steep…
Read MoreAL: National Women’s Organization Opposes HB 14
The question we are asking is an obvious one; “do laws such as this truly PROTECT children?” Alabama Representative Steve Hurst seems to think so. His previous years’ and newly introduced legislation, if enacted, would mandate the Department of Corrections to surgically castrate any person over the age of 21 who has been convicted of a sexual crime against a minor under the age of 12 years. But a national women’s organization is challenging the usefulness of such a law, asserting that it does nothing to increase community safety but seriously…
Read MoreALERT: Serial killer targeting registered sex offenders in New Hampshire
There is a serial killer at large in Keene, New Hampshire. The killer is targeting individuals whose names and addresses appear on New Hampshire’s Registry of Criminal Offenders and whose residences are pinpointed on the Keene Police Department’s online “CrimeReports” map. This killer has struck twice in the past three months, killing one man and severely maiming another. Citizens for Criminal Justice Reform is asking the State of New Hampshire and the City of Keene to take immediate steps to prevent further tragedy by taking down the State’s online sex offender registry…
Read MoreWebsites will no longer bill to remove mug shots
TOLEDO, Ohio – Two Internet sites that make money by posting millions of mug shots of people who’ve been arrested have agreed to stop charging them to take down their photos as part of a settlement in a federal lawsuit. The lawsuit came about after a number of complaints from people who said the websites were charging hundreds of dollars to remove the mug shots even if the cases against those arrested had been dropped. The settlement in U.S. District Court in Toledo doesn’t apply to all of the mug…
Read MoreIn Wake of NY Times Editorial, CPI Unveils Registry of Prosecutorial Misconduct
WASHINGTON / January 8, 2014 – Today the non-profit Center for Prosecutor Integrity (CPI) announces the launching of the new Registry of Prosecutorial Misconduct. The unveiling comes three days after a New York Times’ editorial charged ethical violations by prosecutors have become “rampant” across the nation: http://nyti.ms/1hu7K7V The Registry is the first publicly available national online database to catalog judicial or legal disciplinary committee findings of prosecutorial misconduct. The Registry of Prosecutorial Misconduct will allow lawmakers, researchers, legal organizations, criminal justice reform groups, and others to identify common types of misconduct, assess trends, and…
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