Despite revisions last year to an ordinance that severely limits housing options for potential residents convicted of sex crimes, a registered sex offender has filed a lawsuit against the city of Arcadia that seeks to repeal the law entirely. Recent state court decisions have challenged similar ordinances in other California municipalities, as advocates for sex offenders’ constitutional rights have over the last several years filed lawsuits aimed at rolling back what they claim are unfairly restrictive and discriminatory enforcement actions by Arcadia and a number of other locales statewide. Full…
Read MoreYear: 2015
Folsom registered sex offenders live near elementary school
FOLSOM, Calif. (KCRA) —While researching nearby schools in Folsom for his 5-year-old daughter, Simon Varley also checked the Megan’s Law website to see where the nearest sex offenders live. Full Article
Read MoreMN: Federal judge demands swift action on reforming Minnesota’s sex offender program
Frustrated by legislative inaction, the federal judge who found Minnesota’s sex offender program unconstitutional has threatened a “more forceful solution” if state leaders fail to implement immediate reforms. In a harshly worded order issued Wednesday, Judge Donovan Frank of the U.S. District Court in St. Paul called on the state to correct systemic problems with the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP), which locks up about 720 sex offenders who have completed their prison terms but are deemed unsafe for public release. Frank gave the state until Sept. 21 to file…
Read MoreCA RSOL Meeting in San Diego – September 26
Please join us in San Diego for a monthly meeting on Saturday, September 26, 10 am. The meeting will take place at Cal Western Law School, 225 Cedar Street, San Diego. We will focus on current topics, including pending legislation and legal actions as well as offer an opportunity for networking with others. We welcome registrants, friends and family and other supporters to attend. The meeting is off-limits to media and government officials in order to ensure everyone’s privacy. There is no charge to attend. Show up, Stand Up, Speak…
Read MoreHuman Trafficking in America: Myths and Realities
Are politicians making the same mistakes with sex trafficking as they did with the war on drugs? What effects have stricter laws had on consenting sex workers? Is forced prostitution a growing problem? Video Discussion
Read More“Yes Means Yes” Date-Rape Consent Rule Unconstitutional – Judge
In what may foreshadow the end to a new “yes means yes” standard of consent for date rape, already been adopted in California and New York as well as on many other campuses, a judge has ruled – in a case in which both parties were so drunk they did not even know if sex had actually occurred – that the new standard violated the U.S. Constitution. Full Article
Read MoreA Grandma Reflects on Sex Offender Laws: “My Husband Would Have Gone to Jail”
Following up on the Zach Anderson case — the 19 year old on the Sex Offender Registry for 25 years for having consensual sex with a girl who said she was 17 (but was really 14) — comes this grandma’s letter. The Sex Offender Registry is a Free-Range issue because it grows out of the belief our kids are in constant danger and it perpetuates that belief, by making many non-threatening people like Zach into scary dots on the “maps of local sex offenders.” Full Article (FreeRangeKids)
Read MoreMany sex offenders denied entry into Mexico. But others live here.
Mexico has no national registry of sex offenders, but it’s been able to use an international database to bar entry to more than a thousand known abusers and would-be child sex tourists over the last 22 months. Full Article Related All Posts in International Travel International Travel (Main Post)
Read MoreCT: Sex Offender Registry Review A Tricky Task [Editorial]
Connecticut’s sex offender registry was created in 1998 to protect the public. Does it work? A committee of the Connecticut Sentencing Commission hopes to answer that question in the next 30 months as it reviews the state’s laws and policies relating to sex offenders. “This is not an easy topic,” said committee co-Chairman Robert Farr, former chairman of the Connecticut Board of Pardons and Paroles. Full Editorial
Read MoreIN: Indiana sex offender’s porn ban tossed out by appeals court
A federal appeals court panel has overturned a lower court’s order banning an Indiana sex offender from viewing adult pornography. The panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled Thursday that a probation requirement barring convicted sex offender Jeffrey P. Taylor of Logansport from accessing “legal adult pornography” was not supported by evidence in his criminal case. The decision, however, has little actual impact on Taylor. His probation period ended Friday — the day after the appeals court decision was issued. “Since the service…
Read MoreWhen the sex offender registry goes too far
You may have heard about questionable instances of people being put on a sex offender registry: teenagers having sex with other teenagers, overly curious children touching each other’s private parts, someone urinating in public. These are hardly the pedophiles and violent criminals who abduct and rape the innocent, but oftentimes they are subject to the same stringent restrictions on where to live and shop and the same stigma that makes finding a job very difficult. The case of Zachary Anderson helps to illustrate the failure of this one-size-fits-all punishment. ……
Read MoreGoogle, Facebook, Twitter join crackdown on child porn
Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Yahoo will be among the first technology companies to use the Internet Watch Foundation’s “hash list” to identify and remove child abuse images uploaded to their services, the British anti-abuse organization announced Monday. Not to be confused with a hashtag, a hash is a string of code that can serve as the digital fingerprint of an image. Sharing the list of fingerprints with Internet companies will allow victims’ images to be identified and removed more quickly, preventing them from being repeatedly shared. Full Article
Read MoreIL: Judge: Sex offender rule unconstitutional
BLOOMINGTON — A requirement that Illinois sex offenders report all Internet sites they use to police is unconstitutional because it violates the offenders’ free speech rights, according to a ruling by a McLean County judge. Judge Robert Freitag agreed with arguments from the defense lawyer for ____ ____, 22, of Normal, that state law is overly broad in its mandate that all email addresses and sites a sex offender uses or plans to use, including Facebook, must be registered with police. Full Article
Read MoreMD: In Havre de Grace, festival sees protest against former councilman convicted of sex offense
As families browsed the selection of seafood and frozen treats at the Havre de Grace Seafood Festival on Friday, protesters circulated fliers cautioning attendees about one of the event’s vendors. More than a dozen people handed out literature about ____ ____ _____, a 58-year-old food and ice cream truck operator who was convicted in 1999 of child sex abuse. Kayli Veres, a 28-year-old mother of five, said she organized the event to inform attendees who aren’t familiar with _____, ‘s past. She said she’s concerned because Maslin has been removed…
Read MoreCA RSOL Meeting in Los Angeles – October 24
California RSOL will return its monthly meeting to Los Angeles on October 24. As usual, the location is the ACLU Building at 1313 W. 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017. Start time is 10 am. We will focus on current topics, including pending legislation and legal actions as well as offer an opportunity for networking with others. We welcome registrants, friends and family and other supporters to attend. The meeting is off-limits to media and government officials in order to ensure everyone’s privacy. There is no charge to attend. Show…
Read MoreMN: Gov. Dayton unveils possible reforms to troubled sex offender program
Gov. Mark Dayton spelled out a costly set of changes to Minnesota’s troubled sex offender treatment system on Monday, proposing new community facilities and closer evaluations in an attempt to satisfy a federal judge who says the program is unconstitutional and in need of an overhaul. Dayton and legislative leaders were called to appear in U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank’s court Monday morning for a closed-door hearing designed to hash out a political solution to a thorny legal problem. Full Article
Read MoreThe Crimes of Children
Round Rock High School, just north of Austin in the Texas Hill Country, sprawls over 88 acres. It feels like a small liberal-arts college: There is a junior R.O.T.C. Training center. There are basketball courts, a gymnastics facility, a swimming pool, a football field, soccer fields, and a baseball diamond that, along its outfield fence, bears a faded sign commemorating the school’s 1997 state championship victory. Full Article
Read MoreOK: Mobile home park offers residence for sex offenders
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – David Nichols drives through his trailer park on the southeast side of Oklahoma City surveying the seemingly constant buzz of activity. Men toil under the blazing summer sun, patching the leaky roofs of trailers, while others try to fix an old car parked in a makeshift garage. Full Article
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