Source: martyklein.com 1/28/26 Megan’s Law Keeps Harming America Who cares about a bunch of sex offenders? And if we can keep children safer by destroying molesters’ lives, what’s the problem? That’s the thinking behind Megan’s Law (1994), the Adam Walsh Act (2006), efforts to require special Sex Offender license plates, and dozens of other laws to restrict the movement, residence, employment, privacy, and every other right of convicted sex offenders. Megan’s Law was sponsored by New Jersey congressman Dick Zimmer, who recently died at age 81. Signed by then-president…
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Innocent Until Proven Guilty: A deep dive into the stages of a sex crime investigation
Source: ministrywatch.com 1/7/25 At MinistryWatch, we run reports almost weekly of pastors getting arrested for various crimes — but an arrest doesn’t mean that person has been found guilty. Just recently, a jury found an Arkansas pastor who had been arrested on charges of possessing child sexual abuse material not guilty. Photo by Kendelmedia / Pexels “After 17 long months,” the pastor said, “we finally had our day in court, a moment I had prayed for, not just to clear my name, but to affirm a principle that seems increasingly lost in…
Read MoreCA: As California prisons face ‘wave’ of sex assault lawsuits, new audit highlights slow discipline
Source: calmatters.org 12/9/25 Five California correctional officers who were accused of sexually assaulting incarcerated people over the last dozen years remain employed by the state, according to a new audit from the state prisons’ inspector general. The audit, released last week, is a twice-a-year summary of how the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation addresses complaints about its staff members. Overall, the inspector general found fault with the internal affairs department’s investigations into prison guard misconduct. The audit labeled 86% of the prison system’s internal affairs disciplinary and criminal caseload as…
Read MoreSextortion scams led 38 US teens to die by suicide over five years: ‘I have yr nudes and everything needed to ruin your life’
Source: nypost.com 12/10/25 Thirty-eight teenage boys in the US have died by suicide since 2021 after falling victim to “sextortion” scammers, a top cybercrimes investigator has told The Post. Two networks have been identified as the main ones behind the sick schemes: Nigeria’s Yahoo Boys, who do it for profit, and the US-Europe-centered 764 gang, who are, more worryingly, sexual sadists, according to Paul Raffile, who has personally investigated many of the suicides. “These criminals can add 100 kids [per] Instagram account and hope that 30 accept the friend request…
Read MoreHow Federal Supervision Nearly Derailed Noel’s Second Chance
Source: reformalliance.com 12/1/25 When Noel Barrientos came home from federal prison in 2018, he believed the hardest part of his sentence was behind him. He had served three and a half years for a white-collar offense, and was eager to rebuild his life, reconnect with his two young daughters, and start a career. But Noel was placed on federal supervision, which meant his newfound freedom was fragile. He left prison only to be followed by a long list of unhelpful rules and by a system that fails to promote stability. …
Read MoreAustralia: Brave ACT shows restorative justice for sex offenders can work
Source: johnmenadue.com 12/3/25 A major Australian Institute of Criminology evaluation shows restorative justice in the ACT has improved victim wellbeing and significantly reduced reoffending in domestic and sexual violence cases. The Australian Capital Territory (ACT) was a global leader in extending restorative justice into the fraught area of domestic and sexual violence – and it has resoundingly worked. A comprehensive Australian Institute of Criminology research report has found victims felt better supported, perpetrators learned that victims are not to blame and – most importantly – the frequency of re-offending has…
Read MoreCivil Commitment Failure: More than 6,000 Americans indefinitely detained in a system that wastes money and doesn’t make us safer
Source: reason.com 12/2025 Jennifer Williams’ son, Justin Sanchez, was a teenager when he committed the crimes that would land him behind bars. Now 31, he is still a prisoner—even though he’s served his sentence for the two sexual offenses he committed at ages 15 and 16. Like many others who have served their time for sex crimes, Justin is trapped indefinitely in the Texas Civil Commitment Center (TCCC). The TCCC is a retrofitted former juvenile prison in Littlefield, Texas. Justin is not allowed to leave, to have a job, or…
Read MoreTech 5 takeaways from CNBC’s investigation into ‘nudify’ apps and sites
Source: cnbc.com 9/28/25 Key Points: CNBC investigated “nudify” apps and how a group of friends in Minnesota became key figures in the fight against nonconsensual, AI-generated porn. Experts said these services, which are often promoted via Facebook ads, are available to download on the Apple and Google app stores and are easily accessed using simple web searches. “That’s the reality of where the technology is right now, and that means that any person can really be victimized,” said Haley McNamara, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and programs at the…
Read MoreAutomated Sextortion Spyware Takes Webcam Pics of Victims Watching Porn
Source: wired.com 9/3/25 A new specimen of “infostealer” malware offers a disturbing feature: It monitors a target’s browser for NSFW content, then takes simultaneous screenshots and webcam photos of the victim. Sextortion-based hacking, which hijacks a victim’s webcam or blackmails them with nudes they’re tricked or coerced into sharing, has long represented one of the most disturbing forms of cybercrime. Now one specimen of widely available spyware has turned that relatively manual crime into an automated feature, detecting when the user is browsing pornography on their PC, screenshotting it, and taking…
Read MorePredators trailer explores To Catch A Predator’s complicated legacy
Source: yahoo.com 8/19/25 On the surface, To Catch A Predator may seem like it was a moral net-positive. The Dateline series helped apprehend multiple criminals before they could target more children. That, at least on paper, sounds like a good thing. Predators, a new documentary delving into the repercussions of the popular show, however, argues that its legacy is a lot more complicated than that. “A cultural sensation from its inception in the early 2000s, Dateline NBC’s candid-camera investigative series To Catch A Predator ensnared sex offenders and lured them to a film set, where…
Read MoreDigital punishment, lateral surveillance & the sex offense registry
Source: journals.sagepub.com 8/25/25 Abstract The maintenance of a public sex offense registry has been codified as a non-punitive civil policy since the 2003 Supreme Court case of Smith v. Doe. But since then, sex offense registries have transformed from a centralized state repository of information to a sprawling digital archive of personal data about people required to register. We identify and report the current technological capabilities of state-run sex offense registries through a 50-state survey and draw from the analysis to argue that the digital turn has changed the form…
Read MoreRoblox Banned a Creator for ‘Hunting’ Pedophiles — And Critics Are Pissed
Source: rollingstone.com 8/25/25 The company provoked the ire of its community by banning Schlep, a popular creator who tracks suspected sex predators, even as it faces a flurry of lawsuits claiming it doesn’t protect kids After a popular YouTuber who entraps suspected sexual predators he contacts through Roblox was banned from the youth-targeted gaming platform this month, the company found itself defending its approach to moderation and user safety. But the furor over harm to minors hasn’t been limited to the game’s community. Now a Congressman, state officials, and families are demanding accountability and…
Read MoreDenied for old crimes: The complex challenge of long-term care for America’s aging PFR
Source: mcknights.com 8/18/25 As a case manager for the Department of Veterans Affairs, Stephanie Jerstad once had a client die in transitional housing after being rejected by 212 different nursing homes in Illinois and Indiana. None of them would take the man because he was on a sexual offense registry for a long-ago offense. Admission was repeatedly denied despite professional evaluations of his appropriate behavior during a preceding hospital stay of more than 30 days. He also needed so much assistance with daily activities that he would have been physically…
Read MoreExperience With State Courts Highlights Areas for Improvement
Source: pew.org 8/4/25 Overview Throughout the country, people rely on state and local courts to resolve a wide variety of issues, from traffic tickets and divorces to debt cases and shoplifting charges.1 These interactions can affect their lives, their communities, and their opinions of the legal system. To learn more about how people in the U.S. interact with and view courts, The Pew Charitable Trusts conducted a national poll of 2,016 adults in August and September 2024. The poll, administered by public opinion polling firm SSRS, asked individuals about their general…
Read MoreHotel Sex Trafficking Suit Can Proceed, Inviting Hotels to Profile and Harass Guests
Source: reason.com 8/11/25 Can a hotel be guilty of sex trafficking just because it didn’t surveil its customers enough? A hotel could be legally liable for sex trafficking because it failed to intervene against a guest who wore “sexually explicit clothing” and had condoms in her room, according to a recent ruling from Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Kacsmaryk—who gained national notoriety a few years ago for a ruling that suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone—denied the hotel’s motion…
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 MoreJAMA Study shows dramatic increase in mortality risk among incarcerated and recently released
Source: jamanetwork.com 6/3/25 Key Points: Question Are individual incarceration status and county incarceration rates associated with all-cause and overdose mortality in the US? Findings: In a nationally representative cohort study of approximately 3.26 million adults observed from 2008 through 2019, individuals incarcerated at the time of the survey experienced a 39% higher risk of all-cause mortality and more than 3 times the risk of overdose mortality compared with nonincarcerated individuals. County incarceration rates were also associated with increased all-cause mortality risks, even for nonincarcerated residents. Meaning: These findings suggest that incarceration…
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…
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