Category: General News

Categorizing those that sexually abuse children as predatory pedophiles is not only a common misconception – it’s also dangerous. It gives us a sense that offenders are easier to identify through grooming behaviors or a lack therof, and easier to understand – that they have a sexual perversion that can’t be cured. This makes it all the more difficult to understand how someone respected and well-liked could sexually abuse a child. Full Article

(CNN)Zachery Anderson was a 19-year-old college student with no criminal history when he met a teenage girl on the dating app “Hot or Not” and had sex with her in December. The girl, who admitted she lied about her age, turned out to be only 14, making their encounter a sexual crime. Despite statements from the girl and her mother begging the judge for leniency, Anderson was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years on probation. But that is the least of his problems. The liaison also landed…

MANHATTAN (CN) – With a name resembling a kindergartner’s alphabet primer, the lawsuit ABC v. DEF takes on far more insidious themes – namely the parental rights of a Bronx man who spent eight years in prison for raping his ex’s teenage niece. A federal judge issued an order in the case last week that could earn that man unspecified financial compensation from New York state. Full Article

Old Orchard Beach is considering placing restrictions on where sex offenders can live in the seaside, southern Maine community. While such restrictions could make residents and visitors feel safer, registries and limits on where offenders can live and work haven’t been shown to make much difference in their two-decade history. Instead, a heightened focus on treatment and rehabilitation would likely be more effective at reducing the horrific crime of sex abuse. Full Article

Last year the European Union’s highest court ruled that European citizens have a “right to be forgotten” when it comes to search links to unfavorable Internet posts that are harmful and irrelevant. The court ruled in favor of a Spanish citizen who complained that Google’s links to an old notice about his house being repossessed violated his privacy rights because the issue was now irrelevant. The court ruled that search engines must have a mechanism to allow people to request the removal of links to negative stories, even if the…

How a computerized assessment can help determine the fate of men who’ve been accused of sexually abusing children. Full Article

Some 800,000 registered sex offenders can’t live near parks or schools — or sometimes even in the homes of their own parents. Is it time to re-visit sex-offender registries that cast a wide net and often treat juvenile offenders as if they were adults? Full Article

As I’ve noted a number of times here on the VC (most recently here) I’ve gotten involved over the last few years in a series of constitutional challenges to various State “sex offender registry” statutes, which typically impose a series of reporting requirements (e.g., tell your probation officer of every address change, or email address you use) and disabilities (on owning property near a school, say, or on using the Internet) on persons who have been convicted of certain sex-related crimes. Full Article

For more than 20 years, states have been keeping public lists of convicted sex offenders. These registries are intended to help police and communities monitor the whereabouts of nearly 800,000 pedophiles and others found guilty of sexual crimes. Many people are listed for crimes committed when they were minors and not all are egregious: Sending a lewd text or public urination, for instance, can lead to sex offense charges. We look at sex offense registries, the restrictions for those on the lists and the protections these restrictions can offer communities.…