A local lawmaker has sponsored several bills in the N.H. House of Representatives that would increase protections for people on the state’s registry of sex offenders. Rep. Timothy N. Robertson, D-Keene, said he was motivated by information about two recent local attacks that he said may have been committed by someone who targeted people listed on the registry. Full Article
Read MoreMonth: January 2015
TX: Re-commitment of sex offenders in Texas is unfair
Sex offenders, especially child predators, are some of the most reviled people on Earth. And because of the nature of their crimes, the public generally wants them put away for a long, long time. The question is: What’s long enough? Full article
Read MoreWI: Sex offender ordinance passed by Park Falls Common Council
At the Park Falls Common Council meeting Monday, Jan. 12, one topic high on the agenda was the passing of an ordinance that will regulate the movements and residential areas of sex offenders in the City of Park Falls. A draft of the proposed ordinance was previously reviewed and approved at the December 8 meeting of the Public Services Committee. Full article
Read MoreVA: ACLU questions new sex offender bill
VIRGINIA (WAVY) — Their faces and address are already public, now one Virginia lawmaker wants registered sex offenders to face public hearings before going inside schools. To have access to Virginia public schools, House Bill 1366 would require violent sex offenders to pay for a newspaper ad publicizing a personal court hearing. It would run once a week for two weeks. Then anyone could attend the hearing and testify against them. Full Article
Read MoreVA: Bill – Add to Virginia’s sex offender registry
Sex offenders from decades ago, who committed their crimes before the state’s registry was created in 1994, would have their names added to a registry supplement under legislation that advanced Monday. Full article
Read MoreMoral panic over sex offenses results in cruel and self-defeating overpunishment
I can think of no area of the criminal law, except perhaps international terrorism, into which contemporary American society has terrified itself into more ignorance than this. One of the guiding principles of western philosophy, etched in same Greek language spoken by Socrates and Plato into Apollo’s shrine at Delphi, is the maxim “Know Thyself.” When it comes to the darker side of human sexual conduct, we’d rather not. To do so will almost certainly force us to reckon with the fact that many of us aren’t the neat and tidy sexual beings we’ve convinced ourselves we…
Read MoreFifth Circuit reverses computer filter lifetime supervised release condition for sex offender
A Fifth Circuit panel yesterday handed down an intriguing little ruling in US v. Fernandez, No. 14-30151 (5th Cir. Jan. 14, 2015) (available here), reversing a notable condition of supervised release. Full Article
Read MoreCO: Should we stop labeling people ‘sex offender’?
KUSA – A state regulatory board debated Friday whether the label “sex offender” was too stigmatizing to people who committed sex crimes. Colorado’s Sex Offender Management Board regulates treatment, rehabilitation, and monitoring of sex offenders. Friday’s board meeting included a vote whether to eliminate the word “sex offender” from the board’s official policies. Suggestions for replacement words included “clients,” “defendants” and “individuals.” Full Article
Read MoreME: Maine’s highest court finds decision in sex offender case flawed
Justices tell a lower court to look again at a man’s challenge to being placed on the list retroactively in the wake of new legislation. A Maine judge must give further consideration to whether a man’s rights were violated by legislative action requiring him to be placed on the state sex offender registry retroactively, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled Tuesday. Full Article
Read MoreDisgust, Dehumanization, and the Courts’ Response to Sex Offender Legislation
Sex offenders have been subject to unprecedented restrictions and punishment. The government’s treatment of sex offenders is a clear example of the dangers of laws derived from and upheld because of the emotion of disgust. Disgust has led to a dehumanization of this category of people, which has led to a stripping of their constitutional rights. The law’s treatment of sex offenders is a clear example of why the law should eschew employing the emotion of disgust during all proceedings. In addition, the courts’, particularly the Supreme Court’s, treatment of…
Read MoreLocals Call California’s Sex Offender Registry Into Question
Sex offenders are required by law to register their name, photo and address online at meganslaw.ca.gov. A disclaimer on the website says The Department of Justice does not assess the specific risk that any convicted sex offender on the site will commit another offense. However, the website does have a Risk Assessment Score. Another disclaimer says that score determines the statistical probability that an offender will commit another sexual offense. Risk assessment scores for many of the sex offenders on the registry are currently left blank. Full Article
Read MoreCalifornia RSOL to Lobby Sacramento in Support of Tiered Registry
California RSOL will lobby state legislators in Sacramento on January 27 and 28 in support of a tiered registry. Registered citizens, family members and supporters are invited. The legislative effort will begin with a two-hour training session on Tuesday, January 27, at 9 a.m. in the offices of MVM Strategy Group, 1211 L Street, Suite 607. Attendees will then be divided into teams comprised of a registered citizen, family member and/or supporters. Participants will attend scheduled meetings with members of the Assembly and Senate as well as senior staff who…
Read More$18 Million in Taxpayer Dollars for a Program That Feeds the Sex-Offender Industry and Does Little Else
The Associated Press not only buries the lead in a story about California’s paroled Registered Citizens now being subject to periodic polygraph exams. The AP utterly misses the point. Never mind that polygraphs simply are not reliable. They’re boogie-men used mainly to scare people into admitting to crimes they probably didn’t commit. The real story here, the story The AP can’t see, is about the sex-offender industry. Full Opinion
Read MoreFL: To Entrap an Innocent
Florida police use sex-crime laws to bait men with no apparent interest in underage trysts. After a year-long investigation, WTSP, a CBS affiliate in Tampa Bay, Florida, has uncovered an alarming pattern of police trying to entrap innocent adults in sex crimes. The stings follow the basic pattern familiar to anyone who has seen To Catch a Predator, except “many of the men whose mugshots have been paraded out by local sheriffs in made-for-TV press conferences were not seeking to meet children online. Instead, they were minding their own business,…
Read MoreLiving with 290: Continuous and Greater Punishment
Living with 290 Unlike most post on the subject, I am not going to share, much, details about my crime, except I pleaded to 1 count 288(a) and four counts 647.6 in 1989 and I received some jail time, SO Treatment and 5 years probation, which I deserved. I was able to keep my government job and after becoming adults, my victims voluntarily sought me and we have been reconciled. My conviction was “Set-a side” and I have a “Expungement” and “COR” all before 1997. Therefore, my punishment was light…
Read MoreLiving with 290: My Life
I was born in california in 1972, I come from a small town near our state capital. As a child i was very naive and friendly, always talking to everyone, no one was a bad person in my eyes. my father left my mother when i was two and she remarried to the man that later adopted me. I had a young uncle through this marriage who i became very close to. At the age of three he propositioned me to give him oral copulation. I began to act recluse…
Read MoreSex offender laws loosened
Three cities in San Diego County repealed their laws restricting sex offender access to city parks and schools last year, and one is still working to resolve a lawsuit filed over the now defunct rules. La Mesa, Santee, National City and more than 70 other cities across the state received letters last Spring warning them they could be sued if they didn’t rescind their rules barring registered sex offenders from certain city spaces. Full Article
Read MoreCalifornia making sex offenders take lie-detector tests
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For the first time, California will make paroled sex offenders take periodic lie detector tests as a way to gauge their behavior patterns and perhaps prevent new sex crimes. The move came in response to several high-profile cases involving parolees who raped and killed. Full Article
Read More