My goal in the coming year is to better understand why some things, in this brief and transitory life, are as they seem to be. Not to accept it, necessarily, but just to be able to make sense of it. For instance, I am unable to figure out why D.C. taxpayers are being called upon to provide shelter for a man who, according to Mark Segraves of WRC-TV (Channel 4), was charged with several sex offenses and assaults in Prince George’s County nine years ago, pleaded guilty and was sentenced…
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San Bernardino County, Victorville revise sex offender ordinances after civil rights lawsuits
San Bernardino County and the city of Victorville have settled lawsuits with a civil rights attorney challenging the constitutionality of both municipalities’ sex offender ordinances. Victorville has agreed to revise its 8-year-old ordinance to conform with state law, which prohibits registered sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of a school or park and bans those on parole and whose victims were under the age of 14 from visiting public parks without the express permission of their parole agent. Full Article
Read MoreFL: Hillsborough’s controversial sex offender court is disbanded
TAMPA — For 14 years, criminal cases involving accused rapists, molesters and child abusers in Hillsborough County have been heard by a single judge in the sex offender division. Full Article
Read MoreOnce punished, criminals deserve a second chance
It was a troublesome Facebook post from a conservative talk show host at a Santa Rosa radio station. Promoting an upcoming segment, last week’s post read: “Former KGO Radio Talk Show Host _____ _____, convicted of child pornography seven years ago, is going to be released from federal prison in time for Christmas. Where will he go? Are your children safe? Is he truly rehabilitated as he claims?” Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreFL: Protecting public creates pools of sex-crime felons in rural, less affluent areas in, around Jacksonville
When a 35-year-old mother was stabbed to death and a 10-year-old girl raped in Clay County on Dec. 1, many in the small Middleburg community learned for the first time that the sexual predator suspect was among 143 offenders who lived within five miles of the crime scene. Full Article
Read MoreIreland: Greater threat of sex offenders denied new start
Sex Offenders who are denied the opportunity to start a fresh life within the community pose greater risks of striking again than those who are housed. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Sex offender housing restrictions not enforced in Utica
Oneida County and state laws restricting where registered sex offenders can live aren’t being enforced in Utica. Full Article
Read MoreVA: 1 out of every 148 Adult Males in Virginia is a Registered Sex Offender
The 2015 Report from Virginia State Police on the Monitoring of Sex Offenders Required to Comply with the Registry – We’ve Exceeded 21,300 RSO’s AND As of November 2014 1 out of every 148 Adult Males in Virginia is a Registered Sex Offender Full Article
Read MoreAbout a Dozen Sex Offenders Work, Learn at SDSU
About a dozen registered sex offenders are employed or enrolled at San Diego State University, school police confirmed Monday. SDSU’s list of 11 or 12 offenders includes at least one student and a handful of faculty, staff and contract workers, according to SDSU Police Lt. Randy Lawrence. None of them live on campus, and they are not allowed to work at the child care center. Full Article
Read MoreUnderstanding collateral consequences of registry laws: An examination of the perceptions of sex offender registrants
Sex offender registration and notification laws have been widely studied since their implementation during the mid-1990s. Within the last decade, researchers have turned their focus towards the unintended and collateral consequences that registered sex off enders (RSO) experience as a byproduct of being listed on a registry. This study of the consequences that RSOs in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin endure mirrors research that has studied offenders in Kentucky and Indiana (Tewksbury, 2004, 2005). Research Paper (PDF)
Read MoreNY: Parents for Megan’s Law touts record on sex offenders as it seeks to expand into Nassau
Parents for Megan’s Law, a nonprofit that monitors convicted sex offenders in Suffolk County, has alerted police to 173 cases in which offenders allegedly reported inaccurate addresses, contributing to 38 arrests, according to the agency and new county data. Full Article
Read MoreIL: Former Illinois lawmaker registers as sex offender
ELGIN, Ill. (AP) – A former Illinois lawmaker who traded in child pornography has registered as a sex offender. Keith Farnham of Elgin is now listed on the Illinois State Police sex offender site as a “sexual predator” who possessed child pornography of a victim less than 13 years of age. The 67-year-old pleaded guilty to transporting child pornography in a federal courtroom in Chicago earlier this month. He faces up to 20 years in prison and remains under house arrest until his sentencing in March. Full Article
Read MoreVictorville to mull sex offender laws [UPDATED]
12/17/2014: Victorville aligns sex offender laws with state VICTORVILLE — The City Council this week reluctantly agreed to align its local ordinance restricting the movements of registered sex offenders with a statewide system already in place. Victorville on Tuesday became one of at least 15 municipalities throughout the state this year to either repeal their ordinances or rewrite them to mirror state law. Others who have done so include Hesperia, Adelanto and Apple Valley. Full Article — VICTORVILLE — Amid a growing precedent and under pressure from a reform activist…
Read MoreThe overpolicing of American sex
Rape and sexual assault often do not get the police attention they deserve in the United States, whether on college campuses, in the military or in major American cities. This isn’t arguable. But sex is also vastly overpoliced in this country, and this ought to concern us, too. Full Op-Ed Piece
Read MoreJessica’s Law promised more than it could deliver
Jessica’s Law, the ballot measure to harness sex offenders, began eight years ago with a promise – one that parents whose daughters have disappeared, as well as law enforcement experts, now say lulled California into a false sense of security. Full Article
Read MoreTime for a Police Offenders Registry
This week, the Department of Justice announced new guidelines against racial profiling. The changes don’t actually change all that much. As regular incidents of police brutality get more and more mainstream media attention, it’s time for a bold move from the White House. Full Op-Ed Piece
Read MoreFL: SEX OFFENDERS should not be allowed to purchase lottery tickets; they just might win
If proof were ever needed that an individual, once listed on a sex offender registry, no matter for what offense nor how long ago, is forever more thereafter considered unworthy of anything good ever happening in his life, this is it. A registrant in Florida won a three million dollar scratch-off lottery, and the wrath of every hater in the United States and then some was raised beyond the boiling point. Full Op-Ed Piece
Read MoreH.R.4573 – International Megan’s Law Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar (Updated – reintroduced as HB515)
UPDATED WITH VOTE: WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives today passed legislation to extend Megan’s Law beyond American borders. The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.), would require the U.S. to tell other countries when convicted sex offenders are traveling there. It would also try to set up reciprocal notification systems so the U.S. is told when convicted sex offenders travel to this country. A 2010 Government Accountability Office report said that at least 4,500 U.S. passports went to registered sex offenders in fiscal year 2008.…
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