Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2018. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreCategory: General News
Media face challenges in rush to sexual misconduct reckoning
[richmond.com] NEW YORK (AP) — Talk-show host Tavis Smiley isn’t just upset with PBS for firing him on sexual misconduct charges. He’s upset about his depiction in the media. Smiley believes that if he hadn’t talked publicly about romantic relationships with subordinates at his company, the behavior that led to his downfall, the public would make little distinction between him and those who have been accused of sexual assault or rape. Conflation of different forms of misbehavior — the idea itself is controversial — is one of the issues…
Read MoreThe Christmas I Sat Next to a Sex Offender
Last year my husband and I celebrated our first Christmas with our infant daughter. She couldn’t understand the holiday, of course, but that didn’t stop us from discussing Advent calendars, wreaths, and Jesse Trees in depth, continuing a friendly argument about Santa Claus that has been going on since our engagement. Citing our childhood experiences as rationale, we hashed out the significance of the Incarnation in the form of felt, cardboard calendars filled with chocolate, and a fat man driven around by reindeer. Christmas in my youth meant festive cooking…
Read MoreCA: Federal Court Limits Residency Restrictions to Parolees
A federal district court ruled on Dec. 22 that residency restrictions adopted by cities and counties may only be applied to registrants while on parole. “This is a significant victory for registrants and their families,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “The Court’s decision dramatically reduces the ability of a city or a county to restrict where a registrant may live.” According to the court’s decision, the general rule is that local governments are preempted by state law from adopting laws that restrict the daily lives of registrants because state law “fully occupies” the field of…
Read MoreNE: Registering with Dignity: A Practical Guide to Reentry and Life on the Registry
[nebfacts.blogspot.com] The Sex Law and Policy Center has compiled a useful and informative guide for people forced to register as sex offenders and their loved ones. From the SLAP website: Over the past year, we’ve diligently worked to draft a reentry guidebook specifically for people on the registry and the people that love and support them as they navigate the ins and outs of registration and reentry. There is a discussion about the varying pieces of federal legislation requiring registration for sex offenses. One section details constitutional protections, while another…
Read MoreNY Daily News Needs to Shame Sex offenders Posthumously
[floridaactioncommittee.org and nydailynews.com] This week’s tragedy in Washington, when an Amtrak train derailed killing several passengers, could have stood alone as “big news” for the NY Daily News. So why did the news outlet need to run as story titled, “Third man killed in Washington state Amtrak derailment was convicted for child pornography.” Were they trying to suggest that the deaths were not a complete tragedy? Were they trying to further wound an already deceased man? Read more
Read MoreSex Registries as Modern-Day Witch Pyres
[injusticetoday.com] Perhaps the most irrefutable statement that can be made about modern day America is this: we have a penchant for putting people in cages. More than any other nation on the planet, we rely on incarceration as the fix for our social ills. America’s unprecedented prison boom spawned advocates who work tirelessly to put the police state toothpaste back into the tube. As a result, despite a steady media diet of cops and robbers police procedurals, the rhetoric on crime policy has begun to shift. The country appears…
Read More#DontLookAway: The difference between paedophiles and sex offenders
[The Star, Johannesburg, South Africa] Johannesburg – Every now and then police report busting international paedophile rings. The details are gory, adults – usually men – sharing pictures and videos of young children being abused. In one of the cases early this year, one of the worst paedophiles was sentenced to 32 life sentences and a further 170 years for, among other things, sexually abusing his girlfriend’s two-year-old daughter. Other than raping her, he used a toy dinosaur, thermometer and a sex toy to penetrate the child. The man, who…
Read MoreWill Feminism’s Past Mistakes Haunt #MeToo?
Women’s fight for the right to work free of sexual insult or molestation has been a long, long one. For nearly two centuries, in labor strikes and broadsides, speak-outs, marches, and now in social media, women have protested the ubiquity of sexual harassment and the impunity of its perpetrators. Full Article
Read MoreChildren on Sex Offender Registries at Greater Risk for Suicide Attempts, Study Suggests
A new study led by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that children who were legally required to register as sex offenders were at greater risk for harm, including suicide attempts and sexual assault, compared to a group of children who engaged in harmful or illegal sexual behavior but who were not required to register. Full Article
Read MoreForeign Minor Attempting to Meet a U.S. Sex Offender Intercepted by CBP officers at LAX
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers assigned to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) intercepted a 17-year-old male citizen of New Zealand on Monday who was traveling alone on a one-way ticket to visit a male family member in Michigan who has two felony convictions for sexual conduct with a person under 13. Full Article
Read MoreSMITH: International Megan’s Law working to protect children
New Jersey’s Maureen and Richard Kanka’s courage and perseverance through unspeakable tragedy — the sexual abuse and murder of their daughter Megan in 1994 — has brought significant protection to children across our state, the U.S. and throughout the world. Full Article
Read MoreGeneral Comments December 2017
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of December 2017. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreA new scarlet letter for harassment charges (Editorial)
In an effort to encourage a more equitable system of justice in this country — something to which any number of legislators, unprincipled prosecutors and judges seem opposed — I believe it would be in our best interest to treat all those charged with sexual harassment and sexual misconduct the same way we treat all sex offenders. Full Editorial
Read MoreConcerns with adding juveniles to sex registry lists
A national practice since the late 1990s, sex offender registration and community notification for adult offenders has correlated with significant drops in the rates of sex offenses. Nevertheless, there remains significant debate over its actual social benefits. The same cannot be said, however, for juvenile sex offender registration, which is both economically disastrous and causes incredible hardships for children raised on the registry. This is because registration brings with it a number of disabilities both legal (e.g., exclusion from certain jobs, professional licenses or places of residence, and a requirement to…
Read MoreWhen a Sex Offender Comes to Visit: A National Assessment of Travel Restrictions
The present study examines the registration requirements for sex offenders traveling from their resident state to another state for business or pleasure. The author contacted each state’s primary SORN office to obtain the necessary registration requirements for non-resident sex offenders, as well as where and how non-resident sex offenders can obtain this information prior to visiting that state. The findings indicate that registration requirements and residence restrictions vary significantly by state for non-resident registrants. While not surprising given that numerous studies have highlighted that sex offender policies produce unique and…
Read MoreTherapy for Sexual Misconduct? It’s Mostly Unproven
[New York Times] The recent surge in accusations of sexual harassment and assault has prompted some admitted offenders to seek professional help for the emotional or personality distortions that underlie their behavior. “My journey now will be to learn about myself and conquer my demons,” the producer Harvey Weinstein said in a statement in October. The actor Kevin Spacey announced that he would be “taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment.” Whatever mix of damage control and contrition they represent, pledges like these suggest that there are standard…
Read MoreThe Police Who Prey on Victims [opinion]
[cato.org] Although much of the press has been focused, of late, on the incidents of sexual assault in the entertainment and media industries, it is also among the most pernicious and likely under-reported varieties of on-duty police misconduct. The police are viewed by the majority of the public as among the most trusted institutions in society, behind the military and small business. Many of the people who come into contact with police, though, suffer the stigma of criminal records, tenuous immigration status, mental illness, intoxication or substance addiction, or some…
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