In the early 1980s, rehabilitation counselor Robert Longo could hardly have known that his work with convicted sex offenders would make him a minor celebrity. At the time, he was running a program at the Oregon State Hospital to treat and rehabilitate prisoners who had committed sex crimes. It was a new field, and Longo says they were using what at the time were considered innovative approaches: aversive conditioning, administration of Depo-Provera to reduce testosterone levels, and penile plethysmography to measure arousal. Full Article
Read MoreMonth: May 2016
A “Chilling New Portrait” of Child Predators? Or a Craven Old Way to Scare Us Sh*tless
Trying not to scream about this article in the Toronto Star, “Child Abduction and Murder Paint a Chilling New Portrait.” As reader Frankie wrote: Just the WORST kind of scaremongering!! They use these huge scary numbers but the bottom line is that in all of Canada, coast to coast, there have been an average of THREE kidnappings a year over the past 50 years. THREE. Seems they had to go back 50 years to get enough data to even do a statistical analysis. More pedestrians were killed just in Toronto…
Read MoreNew War on Drugs, Which Means It’s About Race
More than 750,000 Americans are currently registered as sex offenders. That is a fact. But that is just about the only hard fact when it comes to sex offenders, a group that social scientists struggle to secure funding to study and that communities react to with predictable opprobrium. It’s an untenable situation and it’s getting worse. Trevor Hoppe, a sociology professor at the University at Albany, has documented the growth of the sex offender class between 2005 and 2013 for Law and Social Inquiry and found compounding failures on the…
Read MoreNY: For Some Prisoners, Finishing Their Sentences Doesn’t Mean They Get Out
After serving a year and two months for a probation violation, ____ ____ should have been able to walk out of a New York state prison on June 26, 2015. But officials would not let him leave. Full Article
Read MoreSheriff’s sex offender sweep of Camarillo and County find all in compliance
On Saturday, May 21st, 2016, Sheriff’s detectives conducted compliance checks at the residences of eighty (80) registered sex offenders throughout the city and county areas of Camarillo. The compliance checks were part of the Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE / ELEAS) Grant. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Why Would a GOP Lawmaker Team Up with the ACLU to Block Child Abuse Law?
After the near-death of her 1-year-old son, Wyatt, at the hands of a child abuser, Erica Hammel set out to change Michigan law. Full Article
Read MoreSenate Passes Grassley’s Bill to Track Sex Offenders, Protect Rights of Victims
The U.S. Senate passed legislation championed by Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley to keep communities informed of the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders and to expand and protect the rights of sex assault victims. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act Reauthorization passed the Senate by a vote of 89-0. Full Article
Read MoreSex offender compliance checks throughout San Bernardino County nets 27 arrests
A sheriff’s operation to ensure registered sex offenders are compliant in their terms of release netted 27 arrests during a two-month span. San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies assigned to the Crimes Against Children detail along with State Parole agents, County Probation officers, and officers from the San Bernardino and Redlands police departments fanned out around the county making compliance checks in part of a national program known as Operation Broken Heart. Full Article
Read MoreSC: Issues arise with South Carolina sex offender registry
Victims of sexual assault and anyone else who monitors South Carolina’s sex offender registry may be viewing false information, The Greenville News found during a review of the state’s sex offender registry. Full Article
Read MoreStudy: 1 Percent of Black Men in US Are Registered Sex Offenders
One percent of all black men in the U.S. are registered sex offenders, and black men enter the sex offender registry at nearly twice the rate of white men, a new University at Albany study finds. Full Article
Read MoreOH: Sex-Offender Registration Termination Not Available for Pre-2008 Offenses
The Ohio Supreme Court today ruled that a statutory procedure allowing sex offenders to terminate reporting requirements available to Adam Walsh Act (AWA) offenders who committed certain sexual offenses after the state’s 2008 implementation of the AWA is not available to Megan’s Law sex offenders who committed crimes prior to the 2008 implementation date. Full Article
Read MoreAR: How State Handles Teen Sex Offenders
to one in three cases of child sexual assault will be at the hands of a teenager, and cases of teens with a history in the juvenile system assaulting younger children can lead to calls of tougher restrictions and more widespread notifications. In Arkansas, juveniles convicted of sex offenses are treated differently than adults, with a focus on rehabilitation to make offenders less likely to reoffend. But some victims’ families are saying they don’t understand how the system works or why we don’t have a count of youth offenders across…
Read MoreSex offender registry has unintended consequences: Women Against Registry
Theresa Robertson of York County said “pariah” is the word most people think of when the sex offender registry is mentioned, and she and the group Women Against Registry feel that needs to change. Full Article
Read MoreInside ‘Pervert Park’: Safe Haven For Sex Offenders
There are over 500,000 convicted sex offenders in the United States, according to a text crawl at the start of Pervert Park, a documentary that aims to do the near-impossible for the most stigmatized of crimes: stir sympathy for child molesters and sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreNC: On ‘ample alternative channels of communication,’ the First Amendment and social networking
A couple of weeks ago, I joined 16 law professors in an amicus brief (authored by Eugene Volokh and several of his students) urging the Supreme Court to grant certiorari in the case of North Carolina v. Packingham. Full Article
Read MoreLA: JPSO unveils state-of-the-art sex offender ID system
The sheriff’s office announced Friday that the Sex Offender Registry and Identification System, or SORIS, captures a high-resolution digital picture of the offender’s iris. The system can tell the difference between twins, and even a person’s right and left eye. Full Article
Read MorePA: Challenge to SORNA retroactivity reaches Pennsylvania Supreme Court
In the last few years, Pennsylvania’s courts have taken an active role in defining the propriety and scope of the state’s sex offender registration program. Following on the heels of a December 2014 decision striking down sex offender registration for juveniles, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a sweeping challenge to the retroactive application of Pennsylvania’s adult sex offender registry. Full Article
Read MoreNC: Couple Jolly After Getting Sentenced To Life In Prison Because They Say They Did The World A Favor
A white supremacist couple smiled and kissed yesterday when sentenced to two consecutive life sentences each for killing a sex offender and his wife. Full Article . wife.
Read More