Federal laws protecting the internet did not give the owner of several sex-offender websites license to post false and harassing information, a jury in U.S. District Court in Phoenix decided Friday. Full Article
Read MoreCategory: General News
Phoenix website owner’s attorney denies harassment claims in federal court trial
An attorney for a businessman accused of using multiple websites for internet harassment is arguing in court that his client did nothing wrong and that his online activity was protected by federal law. Full Article
Read MoreShould a juvenile sex offender be locked up indefinitely?
Even when they serve their time, sex crime offenders in some states are being held years beyond their release date. The civil commitment laws that let jailers deem convicts too dangerous to walk free are facing increased scrutiny, especially in Minnesota, where even juvenile sex offenders grow old behind bars. William Brangham reports. Full Article
Read MoreThe U.S. needs to reexamine how it uses sex-offender registries
Many people end up on sex offender registries who aren’t a danger, like minors who have consensual sex, public urinators or streakers, the author argues. Full Article
Read MoreFBI didn’t need a search warrant before hacking child porn suspect, judge rules
The FBI didn’t need to obtain a warrant before investigators hacked the computer of a man suspected of viewing child pornography, a federal judge ruled Thursday. Full Article Related Federal Court: The Fourth Amendment Does Not Protect Your Home Computer Decision
Read MoreRTAG’s International Travel Matrix
Registrant Travel Action Group (RTAG – www.registranttag.org), an RSOL affiliate organized to protect the international travel rights for lawful travel of registrants, is putting together a travel matrix, to serve as a snapshot guide to warn which countries you may have difficulty traveling to. Full Article
Read MoreNY: Sex Offenders Sue City, State
____ ____ needed to satisfy his crack habit. So he grabbed a sawed-off shotgun and robbed two women in the elevators of Brooklyn apartment buildings. During one of the 1985 holdups, he reached into a woman’s bra looking for cash, he said. Last June, Mr. Griffin was paroled after serving nearly 30 years in prison for robbery, grand larceny and sexual abuse. He wanted to move back home, to New York City. “I have brothers and sisters that have apartments, and nieces and nephews in Brownsville,” said Mr. Griffin, now 52…
Read MoreNorm Pattis: Bonds of civil society dissolving in name of righteousness
I’m not hopping on the bandwagon circling the Santa Clara County, California, courthouse. Don’t add my name to the million-plus names of those calling for the scalp of Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky. Far from a goat, Judge Persky is a hero. Full Op-Ed Piece
Read MoreThe Ridiculous Laws That Put People on the Sex Offender List
Three maps show states that register people as sex offenders for consensual teenage sex, peeing in public, and prostitution. Full Article
Read MoreAssembly Committee to Consider Internet Identifier Bill (SB 448)
The Assembly Public Safety Committee will consider on June 21 an amended version of Senate Bill 448, which requires some registered citizens to disclose their internet identifiers. The hearing will be held in State Capitol Room 126 and begin at 9 a.m. As amended, the bill requires the disclosure of internet identifiers by registered citizens convicted after January 1, 2016, if they used the internet to collect private information about their victim. Disclosures would be required during annual registration as well as within 30 working days of additions or changes…
Read MoreWe Must Remove Children from Sex Offender Registries
We at the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, and many other experts in the field, recommend that the SMART Office emphasize evidence-based treatment rather than registration and waiveras a way to manage youth who have sexually offended. Full Article
Read MoreAdvocate group responds to sex offender letter
In response to “Sex offenders need harsher sentences,” of June 1: This letter is filled with emotion and righteous indignation but sadly lacking in facts or, in some instances, the truth. You cannot equate the offense of child molestation with that of failure to register. Child molestation is inexcusable and causes harm. Failure to register is a newly invented crime that very, very seldom puts anyone at risk. Full Article In Response to Sex offenders need harsher sentences
Read MorePrisoners in the Free World – America’s Astronomical Incarceration Rate
The other day, I came across an article about ____ ____, a former Missouri state senator who was recently released from a 1-year stint in federal prison. Years earlier during a failed congressional run, Smith’s campaign violated election law by sending out anonymous postcards attacking his political opponent. When the violation surfaced years later, Smith was caught on tape conspiring to cover it up. Not to make light of election law, but a year in prison for conspiracy to cover up postcards? Even if the punishment were fair to Smith and his family, is prison really the best…
Read MoreAdult Sex Offender Management
Research Brief by the U.S. Department of Justice – Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (July 2015). Full Brief
Read MoreGeneral Comments June 2016
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of June 2016. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreWhat’s the Real Rate of Sex-Crime Recidivism?
In the early 1980s, rehabilitation counselor Robert Longo could hardly have known that his work with convicted sex offenders would make him a minor celebrity. At the time, he was running a program at the Oregon State Hospital to treat and rehabilitate prisoners who had committed sex crimes. It was a new field, and Longo says they were using what at the time were considered innovative approaches: aversive conditioning, administration of Depo-Provera to reduce testosterone levels, and penile plethysmography to measure arousal. Full Article
Read MoreA “Chilling New Portrait” of Child Predators? Or a Craven Old Way to Scare Us Sh*tless
Trying not to scream about this article in the Toronto Star, “Child Abduction and Murder Paint a Chilling New Portrait.” As reader Frankie wrote: Just the WORST kind of scaremongering!! They use these huge scary numbers but the bottom line is that in all of Canada, coast to coast, there have been an average of THREE kidnappings a year over the past 50 years. THREE. Seems they had to go back 50 years to get enough data to even do a statistical analysis. More pedestrians were killed just in Toronto…
Read MoreNew War on Drugs, Which Means It’s About Race
More than 750,000 Americans are currently registered as sex offenders. That is a fact. But that is just about the only hard fact when it comes to sex offenders, a group that social scientists struggle to secure funding to study and that communities react to with predictable opprobrium. It’s an untenable situation and it’s getting worse. Trevor Hoppe, a sociology professor at the University at Albany, has documented the growth of the sex offender class between 2005 and 2013 for Law and Social Inquiry and found compounding failures on the…
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