Myths and research on sex offender registries

Studies show that while public sex offender registries sound like a good way to keep a community safe, the numbers tell a different story. And widely held beliefs turn out to be myths — among the more prevalent is that most sex offenders are pedophiles who might snatch a child from a park or bus stop. Here are the myths, and the research that debunks them. Full Article

Related from the Detroit Free Press

MI: Does Michigan’s sex offender registry keep us safer?

Related posts

Subscribe
Notify of

We welcome a lively discussion with all view points - keeping in mind...

 

  1. Your submission will be reviewed by one of our volunteer moderators. Moderating decisions may be subjective.
  2. Please keep the tone of your comment civil and courteous. This is a public forum.
  3. Swear words should be starred out such as f*k and s*t and a**
  4. Please avoid the use of derogatory labels.  Use person-first language.
  5. Please stay on topic - both in terms of the organization in general and this post in particular.
  6. Please refrain from general political statements in (dis)favor of one of the major parties or their representatives.
  7. Please take personal conversations off this forum.
  8. We will not publish any comments advocating for violent or any illegal action.
  9. We cannot connect participants privately - feel free to leave your contact info here. You may want to create a new / free, readily available email address that are not personally identifiable.
  10. Please refrain from copying and pasting repetitive and lengthy amounts of text.
  11. Please do not post in all Caps.
  12. If you wish to link to a serious and relevant media article, legitimate advocacy group or other pertinent web site / document, please provide the full link. No abbreviated / obfuscated links. Posts that include a URL may take considerably longer to be approved.
  13. We suggest to compose lengthy comments in a desktop text editor and copy and paste them into the comment form
  14. We will not publish any posts containing any names not mentioned in the original article.
  15. Please choose a short user name that does not contain links to other web sites or identify real people.  Do not use your real name.
  16. Please do not solicit funds
  17. No discussions about weapons
  18. If you use any abbreviation such as Failure To Register (FTR), Person Forced to Register (PFR) or any others, the first time you use it in a thread, please expand it for new people to better understand.
  19. All commenters are required to provide a real email address where we can contact them.  It will not be displayed on the site.
  20. Please send any input regarding moderation or other website issues via email to moderator [at] all4consolaws [dot] org
  21. We no longer post articles about arrests or accusations, only selected convictions. If your comment contains a link to an arrest or accusation article we will not approve your comment.
  22. If addressing another commenter, please address them by exactly their full display name, do not modify their name. 
ACSOL, including but not limited to its board members and agents, does not provide legal advice on this website.  In addition, ACSOL warns that those who provide comments on this website may or may not be legal professionals on whose advice one can reasonably rely.  
 

16 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

I hope allot of people read this short list. But tell me something I don’t already know.

Yep great lil article. Like I’ve been saying the regerstries are completely irrational and acheive no legislative purpose while infringing on a multitude of rights and are arbitrary need to be abolished on those grounds.

Mostly positive comments followed the article. Sadly, the general public suffers seriously from “media bias” and the only stories that the media generally report are those that support the “stranger danger” myth. They obviously don’t report intra-family crimes. You’ll rarely read a news article that “Uncle John Doe of Pottersville was convicted of molesting his 12 yr. old niece Susie Q.” for obvious reasons of victim privacy protection. So the public continues to only see what is presented to them without engaging their capacity for critical thinking.

This is very encouraging news that people are finally seing that the registries are useless and arbitrary its only a matter of time now before we see a end to this draconian set of laws. Completely irrational unreasonable arbitrary oppressive official action. It’s going to happen.

My therapist just returned from a state sponsored mtg on sex offense treatment. He said the state numbers are appalling (his own words). 1 in 19 males in Ca are on the registry. Surprise! Like we didn’t know that already. I told him about the registry board approving a tier system and he asked how I knew. It’s amazing how little the public and even the people involved know about what’s going on. They’re like mushrooms, kept in the dark and buried in shit, then they’re happy. Time to step up our game.

I would certainly not use the term “monster”. Perhaps you use it facetiously. And I should have said “slightly under 7/10 percent” rather than “just”. (I intended the word “just” to be read as “merely”. Obviously, there is nothing that is “just” about the Registry.)