Source: petrieflom.law.harvard.edu 10/24/25 In July, President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” (the Order) to address homelessness — or what his administration called “endemic vagrancy,” disorderly behavior, and violent attacks. By encouraging states to expand civil commitment programs while dismantling initiatives such as “housing first” that provide more holistic support, the Order calls for a blunt solution to the incredibly complex issue of homelessness. Perhaps equally concerning and less publicly discussed is the Order’s quiet reference to the Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) federal program.…
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Punishment by Another Name
Source: sentencing.substack.com 10/13/25 This term, the Supreme Court will hear the case of Ellingburg v. United States, which asks whether criminal restitution under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (MVRA) constitutes punishment for purposes of the Ex Post Facto Clause. The Clause prohibits retroactive increases of criminal punishments, ensuring that the government cannot change the rules after the fact to impose harsher penalties. Criminal restitution — the money paid by a defendant to a victim — has grown into one of the most troubling, yet least examined, features of modern criminal sentencing. Unlike criminal…
Read MoreYou Paid Your Debt, So Why Are You Still in Prison?
Source: substack.com 10/11/25 Most of us have heard the phrase “paid your debt to society.” It wasn’t just a catchy line — it once meant something real. When prisons were first called penitentiaries, the idea was rooted in penitence — serving your time, reflecting, and then rejoining society with a clean slate. Back then, once you finished your sentence, you were done. Your debt was settled. You went home, got back to work, and reintegrated into your community. You weren’t branded forever by the worst moment of your life. But somewhere along the way, America abandoned…
Read MoreThe Sex Offender Registry Shouldn’t Mean We’re Unwelcome at Church
Source: filtermag.org 9/25/25 In the Bible Belt, there’s basically a church on every corner—especially here in Nashville. It feels like there should be so many options to choose from if you want to join a faith community. But the church doors are often closed to people on the sex offender registry, including myself. Sex offender registries are designed so that society treats you like a leper; as if you should be sent away somewhere, so that “decent” people don’t have to worry about you. I’ve felt that shame deeply in the…
Read MoreShould Paying for Sex Be a Crime? A debate between Melanie Thompson and Kaytlin Bailey
Source: reason.com 9/16/25 Melanie Thompson of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Kaytlin Bailey of Old Pros debate the resolution, “Paying for sex should be a crime.” Thompson is arguing in favor of the resolution. She is the chief advocacy and outreach officer at the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women International, an organization working against the trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls. Bailey is arguing against the resolution and is the founder and executive director of Old Pros, a non-profit media organization that uses storytelling to advocate for sex workers’ rights. She is…
Read MoreAustralia: Queensland is creating a public child sex offender register. Will it keep people safer?
Source: theconversation.com 8/26/25 Queensland is creating a public child sex offender register. Will it keep people safer? The Queensland government will this week table legislation creating Australia’s first public child sex offender register. The Queensland legislation, to be known as Daniel’s Law, was named in honour of Sunshine Coast teenager Daniel Morcombe, who was abducted and murdered by a sex offender more than two decades ago. But will this new legislation actually work to make children (and the public) safer? Will it act as a deterrent for those contemplating offending or…
Read MoreParents: Stop Giving Your Kids (And Everyone Else’s) To The Government
Source: thegarrisoncenter.org 8/17/25 At a 1992 debate, an audience member hit incumbent US president George H.W. Bush, as well as candidates Bill Clinton and Ross Perot, with an interesting question. I personally recall the moment, and found it somewhat odd at the time, but I’m trusting AI on the exact quote, so don’t ask for my oath on its accuracy: “I ask the three of you to look into the camera and talk to us about how you would be as a president, as a father of the country. Why…
Read MoreThe Tuna Net Analogy
Source: ampersandsrj.substack.com 8/18/25 The deck of the tuna clipper was alive with activity. A spotter scanning the horizon spotted commotion up ahead. The cacophony of seabirds always gave away the position of the catch. The engines rumbled as the captain steered the boat. The crew worked furiously, and within minutes, the net was dropped into the ocean, forming a wide circle around the flashing shapes in the water just below the surface. The bottom line was cinched tight, sealing the fish in as the water churned silver with their movement.…
Read MoreSex Offenders and The Church
Source: churchleaders.com 8/15/25 Let’s talk about one of those Elephant in the Room subjects that no one wants to talk about. I’m referring to the issues of sex offenders and the local church. Fortunately in recent years we have begun to discuss it, but there’s a long way to go). Early in my career in the field of Criminal Justice I spent several years working with exclusive sex offender populations. It was during those years that I realized that Sex Offenders were one of the few populations behind the walls…
Read MoreSex offenders trying to rebuild their lives find ‘angels’ in Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA)
Source: catholicregister.org 8/10/25 EDITOR’S NOTE: Some of the names in this article have been changed to protect the identity of the individuals. Few crimes elicit society’s rancor and scorn like sex abuse. Whether it’s the vulnerability of the victims or the intimacy of the assault, sex crimes have a unique stigma that follows offenders into prison. This presents a challenge not just for society, but especially for Christians, who believe in God’s radical love and forgiveness, even for sex offenders. Circles of Support and Accountability volunteers are helping sex offenders…
Read MoreEmerging Technology and Risk Analysis for Crimes That Involve Targeting and Exploitation of Children
Source: rand.org 6/18/25 Paper overview: his report is one in a series of analyses on the effects of emerging technologies on U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) missions and capabilities. As part of this work, the research team was charged with developing a technology and risk assessment methodology for evaluating emerging technologies and understanding their implications in a homeland security context. The methodology and analyses provide a basis for DHS to better understand the emerging technologies and the risks presented. This report describes the implications that the metaverse could have…
Read MoreTaking Child Pornography Seriously by Improving Restitution for Victims
Source: heritage.org 8/4/25 With President Trump again in office and the Justice Department under new leadership, this is a good time to evaluate the vital task of providing restitution for victims of child pornography. This Legal Memorandum explains the unique nature of child pornography and how it impacts victims and highlights ways in which it has not been taken as seriously as it should be. It then examines how the Supreme Court’s misguided interpretation of the existing restitution statute in Paroline v. United States actually made obtaining restitution more complicated…
Read MoreThe Registry Paradox: Why Ending Sex Offense Registries Could Make Us Safer
Source: Nebraskans Unafraid 7/22/25 For decades, sex offense registries have stood as a seemingly unshakeable pillar of public safety. The logic is intuitive: track people convicted of certain offenses, make their presence known, and communities will be safer. Yet, a growing body of research suggests that this widely accepted strategy is not only largely ineffective in preventing new crimes but may, in fact, be counterproductive, creating a false sense of security while imposing immense, often debilitating, burdens on individuals. It’s time to critically examine whether these registries truly serve their intended…
Read MoreAI-generated child pornography is surging − a legal scholar explains why the fight against it is complicated and how the law could catch up
Source: theconversation.com 2/11/25 The Internet Watch Foundation, an organization that tracks child sexual abuse material posted online, has documented a surge over the first half of 2025 in AI-generated, realistic sexually explicit videos depicting minors. Some of the material was derived from images of real minors, and some was wholly synthetic. The Supreme Court has implicitly concluded that computer-generated pornographic images that are based on images of real children are illegal. The use of generative AI technologies to make deepfake pornographic images of minors almost certainly falls under the scope of that ruling. But the…
Read MoreEllingburg v. United States Brief: Criminal Restitution Counts as Criminal Punishment
Source: cato.org 6/30/25 [This is the case that the Supreme court will hear in the fall term. This friend of the court in favor of the defendant is asking for a wider scope of view that includes revisiting issues like sex-offense registration, monetary penalties, and civil asset forfeiture.] In 1995, when petitioner Holsey Ellingburg, Jr., robbed a bank, federal criminal restitution was governed by the Victim and Witness Protection Act (VWPA). The VWPA provided that a defendant’s liability to pay restitution ended twenty years after the entry of judgment. Then,…
Read MoreThese States Are Debating Castration for Sex Crimes. Experts Call It Cruel and Pointless.
Source: themarshallproject.org 6/21/25 Critics say there’s no evidence that castration prevents future sex offenses. Yet several states are weighing such measures. Last year, Louisiana sparked a slew of sensational headlines when state legislators passed a law allowing surgical castration as punishment for people convicted of sex crimes against children. That was the first successful legislation in a new wave of bills proposing both chemical and surgical castration in states such as New Mexico, Mississippi, and South Carolina. This March, Oklahoma’s House of Representatives passed a bill that would make chemical castration a precondition of…
Read MoreAfter Kennedy: pondering Eighth Amendment functioning and litigating (e.g. child rape laws)
Source: sentencing.substack.com 6/9/25 With states enacting new capital child rape laws, whither the Supreme Court’s 2008 ruling Kennedy v. Louisiana? The U.S. Supreme Court in 2008, by a 5-4 vote in Kennedy v. Louisiana, overturned a state death sentence for a man convicted of child rape. Though rape was commonly a capital offense in the Founding era and for centuries thereafter, the Kennedy opinion said the Eighth Amendment was dynamic: the “Amendment draws its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society, … because the…
Read MoreAirport Human-Trafficking Posters Are Overstating the Risks to Young People
Source: reason.com 5/13/25 “That guy isn’t being trafficked by anyone,” says sociologist Emily Horowitz. If you’ve recently been to a U.S. airport, you might have seen posters depicting an attractive, unsmiling young person. These posters are accompanied by sensationalist, hyperbolic claims that young people are at risk of predation from human traffickers. They include a contact number to report suspected trafficking. The posters are part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign, “a national public awareness campaign designed to educate the public, law enforcement, and other industry partners to recognize…
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