On any given day, anyone in Wisconsin can look up the name, address, photo, age and other identifying information on sex offenders in their area who have been placed on the state’s sex offender registry.
Established in 1997, the registry was created with the aim of making communities safer, said Sarah Wescott, corrections services supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Wescott also manages the registry with other DOC staff.
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The registry includes all sex offenders who live in the state, even those who were convicted out of state.
Some of the crimes that put people on the registry are not explicitly sexual in nature, such as kidnapping, false imprisonment or burglary.
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She said 93% of victims know their perpetrator or are at least acquainted with them. Authorities estimate just 7% of children are victimized by strangers.
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Still, Johnson said some sex offenders do re-offend, underscoring the usefulness of the registry.
Wescott said parents should make sure their children know they can say no to an adult and that they don’t have to do things that make them feel uncomfortable.
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One thing the registry should never be used for, Wescott said, is to make life harder for sex offenders who may be working hard to better their communities and not reoffend.
“It’s a tool for you,” Wescott said. “It’s not something to be used to make the registrant pay again or harass them to leave your town. That’s not the intended use.”
Please Lord, let me get this person on the witness stand for my next FTR trial. Please, Please, Please. Unfortunately she’s in Dane County & I’m in Rock County. To few people are confronting the uselessness of registration to prevent human v human attack! A database can inform, but can not prevent anything. At best its use tends to be by those claiming benefit from entertaining thoughts of potential attack. People go to the website to find out WHO might attack!
Emily the reporter forgot that Jacob’s mom has since decided the registry is more detrimental to people’s lives than what it is worth, but those are just details.
“Still, Johnson said some sex offenders do re-offend, underscoring the usefulness of the registry.”
Ummm, doesn’t this actually prove the registry DOESN’T work? If someone was able to reoffend, the registry clearly didn’t stop the offender nor did it help the victim or his/her family.
“One thing the registry should never be used for, Wescott said, is to make life harder for sex offenders who may be working hard to better their communities and not reoffend.”
*Unless you’re one of the many cities in WI that are using it to effectively banish RCs. Then it’s perfectly fine to make life harder for them.