Registration Influenced by Racial Bias, Ohio Study Claims
The classification of sex offenders based on the risks they pose to the community following their release from prison is subject to racial bias, according to a study published in…
On America’s Civil Death Penalty: The Sexual Offense Registry
Oscar Wilde, writing from his cell in the Reading Gaol where he was imprisoned for homosexuality at the end of the nineteenth century, observed that "society reserves for itself the…
CA: Scammers Target Los Angeles Registrants, Families
Scammers, who often pose on the phone as law enforcement officials, are threatening registrants with arrest and demanding immediate payment of sums up to $3,000 in order to avoid jail…
Case Spotlight: International Travel Notification
In 2011, the Supplemental Guidelines for Sex Offender Registration and Notification officially included in SORNA’s standards the obligation that jurisdictions require their registered sex offenders to provide 21 days’ notice…
General Comments August 2018
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of August 2018. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and…
Failure-to-Comply Arrests Reveal Flaws in Sex Offender Registries
In one Pennsylvania county, more than three times as many people on the registry were charged in 2016 with failing to follow registry requirements than were charged with a new…
EXPERT: CRIME REGISTRIES TURN PEOPLE INTO PARIAHS WITH ‘VERY LITTLE TO LOSE’
... While public sex offender registries are now required by federal law, other registries for people who have committed certain types of crimes—such as domestic violence or drug-related crimes—are on…
Is a life sentence for child sexual abuse just?
Arguably Chicago’s most notorious figure in the national Roman Catholic priest sex abuse scandal was committed indefinitely Wednesday to a state facility for sex offenders. In refusing to release ____…
Sex, Race, and the Law: Considering America ‘In the Dark’
[thenation.com - 7/18/18] If Childish Gambino’s song “This is America” and Boots Riley’s film Sorry to Bother You perfectly distill the absurd comedy and violent hell of the United States…
Conference Call Audio for July 2018 Monthly Meeting uploaded
Please join me and ACSOL President Chance Oberstein, a criminal defense attorney, for our "monthly" meeting to be held telephonically. The conference call will be on Saturday, July 14 at…
IML Judge Cancels Hearing on Motion to Dismiss
The federal judge to whom the IML lawsuit was assigned has canceled today's hearing on the government's Motion to Dismiss the entire case. According to Judge John F. Walter, he…
General Comments July 2018
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of July 2018. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and…
Thomas Jefferson: America’s most esteemed child predator
[narsol.org - 7/4/18] By Robin Vander Wall . . . July 4th. A sex offender died today. Well, not precisely. But, on this day 192 years ago, a sex offender…
WHY SEX OFFENDER REGISTRIES KEEP GROWING EVEN AS SEXUAL VIOLENCE RATES FALL
Quentin (not his real name) was convicted eight years ago of child pornography possession in Florida. He served his time and has since moved to another state. But his sentence…
OffenderWatch, Largest Sex Offender Registry Network in the U.S., Launches International Division (Press Release)
According to a report from the Ministry of Justice, the number of jailed registered sex offenders in England and Wales rose 82 percent from 2007–2017. As the number of sex…
Sex Offender Registries: Common Sense or Nonsense?
In October 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped at gunpoint and never seen again. When the boy’s mother, Patty Wetterling, learned that her home state of Minnesota did not have…
Federal District Court Dismisses IML Challenge
A federal district court dismissed the recent IML challenge yesterday when it granted the government's Motion to Dismiss a legal challenge to the International Megan's Law (IML). That challenge, filed…
Challenging the Punitiveness of ‘New-Generation’ SORN Laws (Paper)
Sex offender registration and notification (SORN) laws have been in effect nationwide since the 1990s, and publicly available registries today contain information on hundreds of thousands of individuals. To date,…