The Virginia Senate passed a bill 22 to 17 that would remove a requirement that businesses who employ sex offenders have their name included in the sex offender registry. Democratic Senator Janet Howell of Northern Fairfax, the bill’s patron, says the current requirement serves as a barrier to hiring those who have served their time, and making it harder for them to get on with their lives. Full Article
Read MoreYear: 2016
Sex Offender Rehab Center Moving To Former ‘Out Of The Closet’ Space
It’s been over a year since Out Of The Closet and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation moved out of the yellow building on the corner of Church and Duboce, and finally, a new tenant has emerged. Sharper Future, an outpatient clinic which helps rehabilitate individuals who have been convicted of sex crimes, will be moving into the 7,400 square foot space at the end of this month. Full Article
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: A Blizzard in the Nation’s Capitol Provides a Window of Opportunity
It took a miracle, a miracle in the form of a blizzard in Washington, D.C., to slow down Congress’ consideration of HR 515, the International Megan’s Law bill. Prior to the blizzard, the bill was on a fast track to a speedy vote under a “suspension of the rules” which would have ruled out any discussion or debate of this historic and misguided legislation. We haven’t won yet. The bill has not been stopped. But it has given us a window of opportunity to educate our Congressional representatives about the…
Read MoreThe Myth of Super Bowl Sex Trafficking Obscures Real Issues
East Bay rapper Joshua “Five Hunnet” Durham had a busy August. He forced an underage runaway girl into paid sex with him and others, according to law enforcement, keeping her addled with a drug cocktail of weed, cocaine and meth. He advertised her services on social media next to boasts about opening for hip-hop mega-couple Meek Mill and Nicki Minaj, a show that would be stopped after a pepper spray fight between fans. Sex trafficking, Durham’s alleged crime, has become a major focus of Bay Area law enforcement agencies in…
Read MoreOppose HR 515 Online Today at Change.Org
Please sign an online petition at Change.Org regarding your opposition to HR 515, International Megan’s Law. It takes less than 5 minutes and it is a way to express your opinion regarding this terrible bill. The link to the petition is below and once you sign the petition, be sure to ask others to do it, too. There are more than 800,000 registrants and each person has at least one family member or friend. With those numbers, the voices of more than 1 million people could be heard. http://www.change.org/p/u-s-house-of-representatives-vote-against-hr-515
Read MoreNV: Ruling approves stricter sex offender registration
A ruling by the Nevada Supreme Court on Friday gave the go-ahead for the state to implement stricter registration requirements for sex offenders. Justices, in a unanimous ruling, denied a petition sought by 24 unnamed, previously convicted sex offenders to block the nearly decade-old law from being implemented while a lower court considers constitutional challenges. Justices said the judicial record of facts was insufficient for the high court’s review. … Assembly Bill 579 was passed by lawmakers in 2007 to make Nevada compliant with the Adam Walsh Act, a federal…
Read MoreUK: York man is banned from having sex unless he gives police 24 hours’ notice
A YORK man has been banned from having any form of sexual activity with a woman – unless he tells police 24 hours in advance. He is also subject to controls on his use of the internet and must tell the police about every phone and device that he has that he could use for accessing the internet or calling or texting people. The restrictions are part of an interim sexual risk order and will continue until May 19, when York magistrates will decide whether to make a full order…
Read MoreIML Set for Concurrence Vote Tuesday, 26th We Must Act Now! [updated with postponement of vote]
The U.S. House of Representatives will not vote on legislation on Tuesday and Wednesday because of the severe winter storm that hit the country’s capital city over the weekend, according to Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s office. The next vote by the congressional chamber is expected on Feb. 1. THIS MEANS ONE EXTRA WEEK TO CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO RECORD YOUR OPPOSITION TO HR 515. ACTION ALERT! Contact YOUR national HOUSE representatives TODAY via email, and then CALL their office again on Monday. Here is a link to locate YOUR representative:…
Read MoreInternational Megan’s Law, A Law That Fails Miserably To Make Its Case (But Which Is About To Be Enacted, Even So)
The erosion of the rights of the Registered Sex Offender to travel despite no evidence that they are committing crimes We are assured, both by the media, who have mastered the art of feeding a credulous (and hungry) public, as well as by our government minders who continue to whittle away our few remaining rights that, on the strength of their pervasive hunches, sex offender registrants are surely committing waves of sex crimes in their travels abroad and must be stopped with the broadest strokes possible. Since, in their estimation,…
Read MoreA Government Which Simultaneously Murders Children Abroad While Barring U.S. Citizens From International Travel
Let’s put the whole sex-offender-as-existential-threat-to-children trope in perspective, shall we? While our government, the U.S., has made it difficult-to-impossible for “sex offender registrants” to travel to foreign countries due to its implementation of an alert system to notify foreign governments of the sex offender status of U.S. citizens (and is about to make that system even more egregious through the anticipated passage of the current International Megan’s Law bill) it has killed thousands of children in the Middle East in its ongoing, and massively failed, military adventures which we, the…
Read MoreNJ: Court Sets Polygraph Limits for Sex Offenders
TRENTON, N.J. (CN) – Polygraph testing is par for the course when New Jersey releases sexual offenders on permanent supervision, but the state’s parole board is barred from using such tests as evidence, a state appeals court ruled today. The decision comes in answer to a lawsuit five convicted sex offenders brought in 2013. Full Article Related Decision N.J. court upholds lie detector tests for sex offenders
Read MoreFBI ran website sharing thousands of child porn images
WASHINGTON — For nearly two weeks last year, the FBI operated what it described as one of the Internet’s largest child pornography websites, allowing users to download thousands of illicit images and videos from a government site in the Washington suburbs. The operation — whose details remain largely secret — was at least the third time in recent years that FBI agents took control of a child pornography site but left it online in an attempt to catch users who officials said would otherwise remain hidden behind an encrypted and…
Read MoreEmotional Support Group to Meet on Jan. 30 in Los Angeles
The second meeting of the Emotional Support Group for registered citizens and family members will be held on Saturday, January 30, starting at 10 a.m. at the ACLU Building, 1313 W. 8th Street, in Los Angeles. There is no cost to attend and free underground parking is available. The meeting will focus upon emotional challenges that registrants and their family members face in their personal and professional lives. No legal advice will be available during the meeting. Attendance at the meeting is open only to registered citizens and members of…
Read MoreLiving with 290: The Inevitable Question
Part of the process in being a student in the field of psychology is trying to figure out the career path that you think will be the best fit for you. In psychology there are many different paths you can take with the degree such as private practice, forensic, schools, hospitals, teaching etc. While attending school, we are encouraged to try different populations and different settings whilst keep an open mind so we are better able to choose a path after graduation. I have always been interested in forensic settings,…
Read MoreGroup says 350 sex offenders in city
VICTORVILLE — The California Department of Justice might be under-reporting the number of registered sex offenders in the city by as much as 24 percent, according to a state and federally contracted counseling agency seeking to establish a presence here. “Currently, from the last numbers we ran, there are approximately 350 individuals who register as sex offenders that are in Victorville,” Scott Smith with Open Door Counseling Agency told the Planning Commission last Wednesday. … “There are so many people that’ve been let out of jail,” Smith said, “the least…
Read MoreLiving with 290: About to Discharge Parole. Now What?
After being convicted of a felony and 3 misdemeanors, I served 50% of 5 years (2.5 years) in prison and am now approaching the end of my 3 year parole. For all of the negatives that can come with Parole, there is at least one positive: someone tells you exactly what you must comply with. You’re told where you can and cannot live, you’re told what you can and cannot do for Halloween, and you’re told where you can or cannot be. I’m excited to have most of my limitations…
Read MoreKids As Young As 9 Are on the Sex Offender Registry…for Life
Southwestern Law School Professor Catherine L.Carpenter puts it bluntly in her new research paper, Throwaway Children: The Tragic Consequences of a False Narrative. “Truth be told,” she writes, “we are afraid for our children and we are afraid of our children.” Being afraid for our kids has lead us to create ever harsher sex offender registration laws. We want to protect our kids from creeps. But this protection plan of ours has backfired. And now, Carpenter writes, whenever we arrest a minor for a sex crime, our fear “of our children…
Read MoreThe Relationship Between Juvenile Sex Offender Registration and Depression in Adulthood
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies – Abstract: Accounts of sexual abuse appear daily in the media. Rightfully, this issue demands attention. Juveniles may be victims; they may also be offenders who are subject to sex offender registration and notification (SORN) policies. Growing research finds that SORN policies fail to achieve intended public policy outcomes. Little is known, however, about the unintended consequences of SORN for juvenile offenders. This study contributed to a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of these policies on this population. Merton’s concept of manifest and latent…
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