Commentary Archives - Page 5 of 14

Should We Welcome Sex Offenders into Our Churches?

October 11, 2023 R H

Source: christianitytoday.com 10/5/23 One pastor and his staff considered whether their congregation should accept people with a history of abuse. On Sunday mornings at New York Chinese Alliance Church, where I pastor, several different ethnic congregations come to listen to God’s Word in their mother tongues. Parents drop off their youngsters for children’s worship and Sunday school. Youth gather for fellowship and Bible study. Our seasoned ushers always try to welcome every familiar face and newcomer into the house of God with a warm smile. And while their primary goal…

The Evolving Landscape of Administrative Law [including SORNA]

September 27, 2023 R H

Source: jdsupra.com 9/25/23 Shay Dvoretzky, Emily Kennedy Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP+ Follow Contact Key Points The U.S. Supreme Court’s October 2023 term may bring fundamental changes to administrative law, including by possibly overruling Chevron. Decisions in recent years demonstrate the Court’s skepticism of administrative power and increasing willingness to question government regulation. New limits on agency power may create opportunities for businesses to challenge unfavorable regulations, but they also may open the door to attacks on long-standing rules that businesses find helpful and predictable. One of the…

Sex Offender Registry Reform Is a Harm Reduction Issue

September 7, 2023 R H

Source: filtermag.org 9/7/23 In the United States, anyone convicted of a sex offense is punished with two criminal sentences. The first is the one they serve in prison. The second begins when the first ends, and they are forced to enroll in a Sex Offender Registry (SOR). SOR restrictions aren’t one-size-fits-all, because there isn’t just one registry—there are many. They exist at federal, state and municipal levels, creating a nightmarish tangle of legal requirements under which people can be prosecuted for violating SOR restrictions that don’t even exist in the…

U.S. Spy Agency Dreams of All-Seeing “SMART ePANTS”

September 3, 2023 R H

Source: theintercept.com 9/2/23 The future of wearable technology, beyond now-standard accessories like smartwatches and fitness tracking rings, is ePANTS, according to the intelligence community. The federal government has shelled out at least $22 million in an effort to develop “smart” clothing that spies on the wearer and its surroundings. Similar to previous moonshot projects funded by military and intelligence agencies, the inspiration may have come from science fiction and superpowers, but the basic applications are on brand for the government: surveillance and data collection. Billed as the “largest single investment…

Protection, Punishment, and the Victims Rights Movement

August 9, 2023 R H

Source: thecrimereport.org 8/9/23 In 2018, 156 accusers of Larry Nasser, the former team doctor for USA Gymnastics Team who molested them over and over again during medical appointments, testified at his sentencing hearing about their experiences and the damage done to their lives as a result of his abuse. Their emotional and personal stories helped in sentencing him to between 40 and 175 years in prison. In February of 2023, the testimonies of family members and friends of the victims killed by Sayfullo Saipov, a terrorist convicted of running over…

The Dance of Justice and Mercy: An Integrated Approach to Crime, Addiction, and Recidivism

August 4, 2023 R H

Source: jumpstartvision.org 7/15/23 A perpetual challenge our society grapples with is the issue of crime, addiction, and recidivism. Traditional approaches often prioritize punitive measures as the primary means of addressing these issues, but emerging research suggests that this is not the most effective approach. A more compassionate, empathetic strategy that combines justice and mercy may not only offer more hope for the individuals embroiled in these cycles, but also for the overall health and well-being of society. Justice and Mercy: A Necessary Union According to research, an approach that…

FL: The liability of unreliable crime data in election season

June 30, 2023 R H

Source: themarshallproject.org 6/20/23 In announcing his presidential bid, Florida’s governor relied on data from only half of the state’s law enforcement agencies. When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his bid for the presidency on Twitter Spaces last month, he touted Florida’s low crime rate as a proud accomplishment. “Claiming that Florida is unsafe is a total farce,” DeSantis said in the announcement. “I mean, are you kidding me? You look at cities around this country, they are awash in crime. In Florida, our crime rate is at a 50-year low.”…

AI-generated child sex images spawn new nightmare for the web

June 27, 2023 R H

Source: washingtonpost.com 6/19/23 The revolution in artificial intelligence has sparked an explosion of disturbingly lifelike images showing child sexual exploitation, fueling concerns among child-safety investigators that they will undermine efforts to find victims and combat real-world abuse. Generative-AI tools have set off what one analyst called a “predatory arms race” on pedophile forums because they can create within seconds realistic images of children performing sex acts, commonly known as child pornography. Thousands of AI-generated child-sex images have been found on forums across the dark web, a layer of…

Amplified Voices: Emily Horowitz: Breaking the Stigma: From Rage to Reason Season 4 -Episode 4

June 20, 2023 R H

Source: amplifiedvoices.buzzsprout.com 6/20/23 Summary: How does society treat people based on their criminal conviction history and how can we better understand the unique experiences of people who are convicted of sexual offenses? Why, in an age where second chances and demands to reduce mass incarceration have become mainstream, are people with these convictions often excluded from reform and relief efforts? In this episode of Amplified Voices, Jason and Amber speak with Emily Horowitz, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at St. Francis College, ahead of the release of her…

AZ: Arizona Opinion: Sexual Offense Laws

June 11, 2023 R H

Source: tucson.com 6/11/23 The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer: Meet Ryan, who, as a young man, had a caring and consensual relationship with his high school sweetheart. After months of dating, just before her 15th birthday and shortly after his 18th, their relationship became sexual. These young people were in love, hoping to build a life together, but because of their slight age difference, Ryan will spend the rest of his life on Arizona’s sexual offense registry and will carry the label of “child sexual predator”…

California: The State of Incarceration

April 26, 2023 R H

Source: vera.org Despite California’s reputation as a progressive state, it is one of the epicenters of mass incarceration in the United States, incarcerating more people than any other state except Texas. Annually, California law enforcement agencies make almost 800,000 arrests and more than 600,000 bookings into county jails, and courts send almost 30,000 people to prison.† The result is that, on an average day in California, around 60,000 people are held in county jails and close to 100,000 people are incarcerated in state prisons.† In addition to people in criminal…

Revisiting the Brock Turner Case

March 29, 2023 R H

Source: newyorker.com 3/29/23 In the midst of the #MeToo movement, California voters recalled a judge for being lenient on sexual assault. As a new documentary argues, that recall campaign had unintended results. In 2016, Brock Turner, a former swimmer at Stanford University, was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman outside of a fraternity party. Two passersby saw the nineteen-year-old freshman thrusting upon an immobile, partially unclothed woman, next to a dumpster, and restrained him while they called the police. At Turner’s sentencing hearing, the woman, known in court proceedings…

How SCOTUS Promoted Pernicious Myths About Sex Offender Registries

March 1, 2023 R H

Source: reason.com 3/1/23 This Sunday marks the 20th anniversary of Smith v. Doe, a Supreme Court decision that approved the retroactive application of Alaska’s sex offender registry, deeming it preventive rather than punitive. That ruling helped propagate several pernicious myths underlying a policy that every state has adopted without regard to its justice or effectiveness. Writing for the majority in Smith, Justice Anthony Kennedy took it for granted that collecting and disseminating information about people convicted of sex offenses made sense as a public safety measure. But that premise was…

Why Do We Treat Sex Crimes Differently Than Other Violent Crimes?

February 25, 2023 R H

Source: thecrimereport.org 2/21/23 In a recently published research paper in the Stanford Law Review, Aya Gruber, a law professor at the University of Colorado, considers the concept of “sex exceptionalism” in the United States criminal justice system and asks readers to take a second look at how we treat sex crimes. Gruber previously published “The Feminist War on Crime: The Unexpected Role of Women’s Liberation in Mass Incarceration” with University of California Press. In “Sex Exceptionalism in Criminal Law,” Gruber argues that treating sex crimes differently than other crimes is…

Emily Horowitz Debate Podcast: Does the Sex Offender Registry Do More Harm Than Good?

February 10, 2023February 10, 2023 R H

Source: intelligencesquaredus.org 2/3/2023 [Note by Janice: Emily Horowitz recently did a fantastic job debating “Does the Sex Offender Registry Do More Harm Than Good?” During the debate, Emily successfully debunked many of the myths related to registrants including the “frightening and high” rate of re-offense. It’s important to listen to this debate in order to better understand the position of those who oppose us. Hope you will do so soon. Well done, Emily!] Summary: Sexual violence is arguably the most devastating kind. And over the past few decades, the legal…

ACSOL Board Member Publishes Updated Version of Important Book

February 6, 2023 R H

ACSOL board member Alex Landon, who has been a criminal defense attorney for more than 40 years and is also a part-time law professor, has just published an updated version of an important book, “A Parallel Universe.” The updated version of the book includes six new chapters including a robust discussion of the Tiered Registry Law. “Once again, Alex Landon and his co-author Elaine Halleck have captured a vivid picture of how and why registries came about as well as how registries continue to punish both registrants and their families,”…

The Progressive Case for Ankle Bracelets – Opinion

November 28, 2022 R H

Source: newsweek.com 11/28/22 Many of the most progressive countries in the world are making use of technology to promote rehabilitation and reduce incarceration. Yet blue states like Massachusetts and left-leaning advocacy organizations remain hostile to use of electronic monitoring (EM) methods. They are overlooking the benefits of EM—even from a progressive standpoint. Progressives’ typically formulated criminal justice goal is laudatory: to minimize incarceration consistent with public safety, and to maximize the rehabilitation of offenders. But achieving these ends has been, to say the least, problematic. Progressives commonly urge more addiction…