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…
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Ellingburg 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…
Read MoreA law seeks to protect children from sex offenders − 20 years later, the jury is still out
Source: theconversation.com Before his sentencing in March 2025, a convicted child rapist asked for a judgment that would have set him free in 2027. The Kansas resident received 25 years with no chance of parole. The reason? Jessica’s Law, which Kansas lawmakers passed in 2006. Kansas was one of the first states to follow Florida’s initial enactment of Jessica’s Law 20 years ago in response to the rape and murder of 9-year-old Jessica “Jessie” Lunsford in Homosassa, Florida. Forty-four other states have followed, altering how America polices, punishes and paroles pedophiles. Although the law differs…
Read MoreThey Served Their Time. But They May Still Die in State Custody.
Source: theappeal.org 4/21/25 In half the country, sex offense civil commitment incarcerates people after they complete their prison sentences. Eliseo Padrón is a 50-year-old Mexican American man from St. Paul, Minnesota. Padrón told The Appeal he grew up surrounded by gang culture. He spent his early adulthood in and out of prison. “Living that lifestyle led to me doing a lot of things that I regret,” Padrón says. He was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in 1995. After he violated his parole terms by returning late to the halfway…
Read MoreGuilty by Association: How Our Convictions Affect Our Families
Source: prisonjournalismproject.org 4/15/25 When a person is convicted, it is easy to forget they are more than a felon. They are someone’s son or daughter. They might even be someone’s father or mother. They are also someone’s friend. A person might be sitting alone at the defendant’s table, but there are more people involved in the aftermath of a verdict. The conviction process affects everyone in a person’s social circle. In October 2021, I pleaded guilty to a sex crime — one count of possession of child pornography. I was…
Read MoreMy Release Came with Another Set of Shackles
Source: prisonerswithchildren.org 3/25/25 Being released from incarceration was supposed to be a step toward freedom, but the reality of wearing an ankle monitor made it feel like another form of imprisonment. The heavy, restrictive device clamped around my ankle was more than just an inconvenience—it was painful, physically damaging, and emotionally degrading. One of the first issues I encountered was the physical harm caused by the monitor. The device was bulky, and with every step, it rubbed against my skin. Within days, painful blisters formed, making walking difficult. The irritation…
Read MoreThe never-ending sentence: How parole and probation fuel mass incarceration
Source: theconversation.com 4/2/25 The U.S. operates one of the largest and most punitive criminal justice systems in the world. On any given day, 1.9 million people are incarcerated in more than 6,000 federal, state and local facilities. Another 3.7 million remain under what scholars call “correctional control” through probation or parole supervision. That means one out of every 60 Americans is entangled in the system — one of the highest rates globally. Yet despite its vast reach, the criminal justice system often fails at its most basic goal: preventing people from being rearrested, reconvicted or reincarcerated. Criminal justice…
Read MoreApartheid’s shadow vs. America’s Stain: which country’s sex offender registry leads on human rights?
Source: Florida Action Committee 3/20/25 On one side we have the United States – the “land of the free”, “with liberty and justice for all” and the self-appointed global moral compass. On the other side we have South Africa, a nation historically scarred by apartheid, oppression and human rights violations. Which country is showing the world what real progress looks like? In this case, South Africa, is putting the U.S. to shame when it comes to respecting human rights and insight into effective criminal justice. Earlier this year South Africa…
Read MoreThe ineffective registry: SOLPRC’s Policy Brief on Sex Offense Registration and Notification (SORN) Laws
Source: mitchellhamline.edu 3/1/25 The Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center has published a policy brief on Sex Offense Registration and Notification (SORN) Laws. Download the policy brief From the Executive Summary: The modern sex offense registry was borne out of the belief that a public registry listing people who had been convicted of a sex offense would make communities safer. That premise was wrong. We now have thirty years of data concluding that public registries do not work as intended—in fact, there is evidence that public registries actually increase registrant…
Read MoreAZ: Arizona’s sex offender registry harms communities and families
Source: azcapitoltimes.com 3/13/25 In an era where evidence-based policy is increasingly valued, Arizona continues to maintain a sexual offense registry system that fails to deliver on its promises while creating serious collateral damage. Our current approach, originally designed to protect communities, has evolved into a system that paradoxically undermines public safety while devastating lives. As Arizona lawmakers consider criminal justice reforms, it’s time to fundamentally reassess this flawed system. Arizona’s registry fails victims Contrary to popular belief, the registry system often works against the interests of survivors. Sexual harm is…
Read MoreThe Untouchables: How Prosecutorial Immunity Breeds Injustice
Source: cato.org 3/11/25 Last month, a Maryland judge declared a mistrial in the case of Charles Smith, who was charged in connection with a 2023 mass shooting in Annapolis. The judge found that Assistant District Attorney Anne Colt Leitess mischaracterized evidence and blatantly disregarded the rules of evidence during the high-profile trial. Whether this was a deliberate choice or the byproduct of deficient trial skills—exacerbated by a culture of plea-driven mass adjudication that has almost completely displaced constitutionally prescribed jury trials—the result revealed an intolerable lack of due process for the defendant. Thanks to…
Read MoreWicked Riches: Victims’ compensation rewards liars and cheats
Source: bettinaarndt.substack.com 2/26/25 What a story! Our media was agog at the recent NSW police announcement that they had exposed a $1.3 billion scheme for making fraudulent child sexual abuse claims. All the major media outlets excitedly reported on this huge “claim farming” scheme which recruited former young offenders, prison inmates and school students to file fake sex abuse compensation claims. At one prison, a third of the inmates had submitted claims. The investigation revealed 4,000 faked claims, with the many law firms involved paying the claim farmers a benefit of…
Read MoreCan YouTube group’s child-predator busts hold up in court? Attorneys are skeptical they will
Source: palmbeachpost.com 2/6/25 Among the issues the predator cases will face: Did those arrested know their rights? Did the YouTubers collect enough evidence? Was there entrapment? WEST PALM BEACH — By late January, nearly two dozen men awaited trial on the suspicion that they drove to Delray Beach in hopes of raping a child. None was caught by police. Instead, a team of civilian “predator catchers” — adult YouTubers who pose online as children in hopes of identifying would-be pedophiles — lured each to a public place, confronted them with the…
Read MoreNo One Prepares You for the Sex Offender Registry Phone Scams
Source: filtermag.org 2/5/25 In April 2024 I picked up a call from an unknown number at the grocery store where I work. The first few moments were enough to send shocks of terror through my body. “Jeff Noland? This is Officer Walker with Davidson County Police Department. We have a warrant out on you.” My mind raced. What did I do? I can’t go back to prison. I can’t ever go back to prison. I won’t make it out alive this time. The person on the other end of the call…
Read MoreNever eat the candy on your pillow: Life as an undesirable
Source: prismreports.org 1/28/25 Many so-called undesirables in prison fit into social categories like nerds, geeks, and weirdos. Just like on the outside, they are bullied and unaccepted Dear Reader, Prisons often lack humanity and are places where hope is far from abundant, and emotions are usually restrained. Lingering like a ghost in the corner, expressions of pain are often frowned upon by officers and incarcerated people alike, so trauma spreads inward and often goes unnoticed. This reality is even more pronounced when the person experiencing the trauma is considered one…
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