Category: General News

Thursday was National Missing Children’s Day, a day meant to highlight the problem of child abduction. And while there have been advancements in laws and technology to keep children safe and help families, an organization known for protecting kids thinks says we spend too much money in at least one area. “There is huge hysteria around released sex offenders when they are not usually the problem,” said Alison Feigh, the program director at the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center Feigh said children are harmed most often by people they know, trust and have access to –…

From Commonwealth v. Kushmanick, which was decided last year by a Pennsylvania appellate court, but which I just came across last week (all quotes are from the opinion): 1. The facts: Kushmanick started dating S.C. when he was 18 or 19, and she was 16 (according to defendant, just a week shy of her 17th birthday). The age of consent for sexual activity generally in Pennsylvania is 16. (There is the possibility that someone may be prosecuted for “corrupting the morals of a minor” when the minor is 16 or 17,…

As repeatedly reported in Prison Legal News, for over a decade registered sex offenders have been targeted by vigilantes and assaulted, robbed and murdered due to their past crimes. And as noted in this issue’s cover story, that is part of the dark side of sex offender registries, which allow public access to offenders’ residential addresses and other personal information. Such information not only endangers registered sex offenders but also those who live with them and, in at least one case in Dallas, Texas, an innocent victim. That Dallas man, who was beaten…

Going through customs can be unnerving and problematic for everyone. You’ve got to deal with long lines, uncertainty over what’s considered a contraband item, and the possibility of being denied entry to the country you’re visiting. But it can be even worse for ex-cons. Just ask the so-called Hot Felon, ____ ____. He was reportedly denied entry into the UK last month, even though he’d secured a work permit, was scheduled for a series of magazine shoots, and had permission from his parole officer to travel. Full Article

On April 20, The News-Letter ran a piece titled “Sexual assault at college: Confronting the rapists in our lives.” Although it is perfectly understandable where the author, a female senior undergraduate student studying International Studies, is coming from, there is a lack of some key points that provide the necessary context to fully comprehend the issue that King, the writer, brought forth. Full Article

Experts gathered to discuss child sexual abuse prevention at the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s fifth annual Child Sexual Abuse Symposium. The Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse hosted the symposium on Thursday, April 27. Full Article

The September 1988 rape and murder of 29-year-old Diane Ballasiotes in Seattle, Washington, followed by the 1989 rape and sexual mutilation of a 7-year-old Tacoma boy, were the seedlings of today’s nationwide sex offender registry laws – a 50-state network that tracks over 805,000 registrants and whose usefulness as a crime-prevention tool has been questioned and criticized. Full Article

Minors who send sexually explicit photos to one another could face far less serious consequences than they do now, under a bill that received final support from Tennessee lawmakers Wednesday. Full Article

Student-on-student sexual assaults rise significantly during middle-school years, an Associated Press analysis of federal crime data found. But even as early as kindergarten and first grade, children can be at risk: About 5 percent of all sexual attacks reported on school property in a recent two-year period happened to 5 and 6 year olds, according to the AP analysis. Full Article Related Hidden horror of school sex assaults revealed by AP Senate Committee Approves SB 26 With Amendments