As ____ ____ sits in the Berrien County Jail in St. Joseph, Mich., his parents worry. And plead. And fight. The young man from Elkhart, 19, pleaded guilty in Berrien County, Mich., Trial Court in March to a misdemeanor count of criminal sexual conduct for having sex — consensual sex — on Dec. 19, 2014, with a Niles, Mich., teen. She said she was 17, and met him in person after a whirlwind courtship in cyberspace that started with a meeting via the social app Hot or Not. Full Article
Read MoreCategory: General News
Duggar scandal: What should parents do if a child touches a sibling?
The scandal surrounding the Duggar family, famous for their reality TV series “19 Kids and Counting,” and who confirmed this week that one of their sons inappropriately touched girls, at least two of them his sisters, when he was a teenager, raises a difficult question: What should parents do if one of their children is inappropriately touching a young sibling? Dr. Karen Kay Imagawa, director of the Audrey Hepburn CARES Center at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which offers services for suspected victims of child abuse and their families, offered some…
Read MoreQuestionable Commitments
There is a young man in Virginia sitting behind tall fences and razor wire, guarded by men with guns, and never allowed to leave. According to the state, he isn’t in prison, and he is not being punished for a crime. Instead, he’s being held because the government says he might commit a crime in the future. Full Article
Read MoreThe Failure of Sex Offender Policy (Opinion)
The public expects and deserves evidence-based practices when it comes to public safety. This is true for any aspect of public policy but perhaps none so much as sex offender policy. With sex offenders, there is a sense of moral outrage at the depravity of their crimes, and rightly so. Virtually any sex crime makes the news headlines because the public has a very high interest in this crime. Too often politicians not only capitalize on the fear that is caused by sex offenders, but they inadvertently create more of…
Read MoreJanice’s Journal: Two Heart Beats Away from President
As Speaker of the House of Representatives, John Dennis Hastert was two heart beats away from serving as President of the United States. That is, if both the President and Vice President had died while in office, Hastert would have stepped into the Oval Office and assumed the leadership of this country. The fact is that Hastert was a member of the U.S House of Representatives for 20 years, representing a Congressional district in Illinois from 1987 to 2007. The fact is that Hastert became the Speaker of the House…
Read MoreGeneral Comments June 2015
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of June 2015. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreIn defense of Josh Duggar’s parents (Opinion)
When I learned that, more than a decade ago, reality-TV star Josh Duggar avoided jail after his parents dealt with molestation charges via church and family contacts, it made me think about the men I interviewed for my book about our draconian sex-offender laws. Full Opinion Piece Related Tyrant’s Foe: Josh Gravens Fights Criminal Justice Policies that Hurt Children Sex offenders registry may put man back in prison for offence committed as child TX: Life On the List
Read MoreFor Juvenile Sex Offenders, State Registries Create Lifetime Of Problems
____ ____ is about to become a family man and he couldn’t be happier. He’s 25 and he lives in a suburb of Dallas with his fiancée, who’s due to have their baby practically any minute. They’ve already picked out a name: Raven. In most ways they are a normal family. Except for one thing. Until last year, Hampton was a registered sex offender. Full Article
Read MoreIs It Time to Revisit Sex Offender Supervision for Life?
In the mid-1990s, Americans were shocked by several high-profile child victim sex offenses. In New Jersey, the abduction, rape and murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka by a paroled sex offender who lived across the street horrified the state and spurred action by elected officials and state agencies. Full Article
Read MoreThe Disappearing Sex Offender (Opinion)
As a legislator, one of the biggest concerns I have is public safety. Keeping the public safe from the many dangers that are prevalent in today’s society is a challenge. One area of work I have spent a great deal of time on is keeping children safe from sex abuse. And unfortunately, I have found that there are too many things that are a false sense of security. One I have a big problem with is the sex offender registry. The research shows that sex offender registries don’t reduce recidivism.…
Read MoreMinnesota TV reporter asks tough questions about sex offender laws
As we’ve noted before at The Watch, local news tends to sensationalize and fearmonger, especially when it comes to issues involving crime, sex, kids, drugs or some combination of the four. So it’s worth pointing out when a local news reporter does great work. Here’s some praise for Dan Hanger, a reporter for Fox 21 in Duluth, Minn., for his recent provocative and challenging series on sex offender laws. Full Article Related Preview: Sex Offender Stigma Sex Offender Stigma: Should One Label Fit All? Sex Offender Stigma 2: Does Treatment…
Read MoreYou may be a sex offender and not ever know it
Because I walk around the house naked way more than my wife would prefer, she recently played a joke on me. As I sometimes like to do, I donned only flip-flops to enter our garage and get something from my tool shelf. I was a full 20 feet inside when I heard the garage door rumble open. Full Article
Read MoreDo Sex Offender Registration Laws Do Any Good?
Last month a federal judge ruled that certain aspects of Michigan’s Sex Offenders Registration Act (SORA) are unconstitutionally vague. Sex offenders, for example, are forbidden to live, work, or “loiter” within 1,000 feet of “school property.” U.S. District Judge Robert Cleland noted that such “school safety zones” are not clearly defined, making it difficult to comply with the law. He said the term loiter is vague as well: Does it apply, say, to people attending their children’s parent-teacher conferences or their grandchildren’s school plays? Cleland said two other rules—requiring registrants…
Read MoreMyths and research on sex offender registries
Studies show that while public sex offender registries sound like a good way to keep a community safe, the numbers tell a different story. And widely held beliefs turn out to be myths — among the more prevalent is that most sex offenders are pedophiles who might snatch a child from a park or bus stop. Here are the myths, and the research that debunks them. Full Article Related from the Detroit Free Press MI: Does Michigan’s sex offender registry keep us safer?
Read MoreThe most prestigious legal body in America is considering changing the Model Penal Code to criminalize holding your girlfriend’s hand on a date
The American Law Institute is the most important and most prestigious organization of legal scholars and prominent attorneys in the United States. The ALI drafts model laws that become statutes and Restatements of the Law that are widely cited as authority in judicial opinions. Full Article
Read MoreUtah A.G. Sean Reyes urges Congress to pass international Megan’s Law
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes urged Congress on Thursday to get tougher on human trafficking worldwide, particularly by passing an international Megan’s Law to protect children from predators. Human trafficking, he said, is one of the most insidious but least understood and recognized crimes. “As a father of six children, I want to change that,” Reyes told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa and Global Human Rights in Washington, D.C. Victims are forced into hard labor, military servitude and suicide bombings, recruited for terrorism or…
Read More50-state survey of relief from sex offender registration
We have prepared a new 50-state chart detailing the provisions for termination of the obligation to register as a sex offender in each state and under federal law. This project was inspired by Wayne Logan’s recent article in the Wisconsin Law Review titled “Database Infamia: Exit from the Sex Offender Registries,” discussed on this site on April 15. The original idea of the project was simply to present Professor Logan’s research in the same format as the other 50-state charts that are part of the NACDL Restoration of Rights Resource,…
Read MoreCarson mayor Albert Robles sued for sexual harassment
The mayor of Carson is being sued for sexual harassment by a former fellow member of the Water Replenishment District of Southern California Board of Directors. Lynn Dymally, daughter of the late Democratic politician Mervyn M. Dymally, alleges Albert Robles, who is still a member of the WRD board and became mayor of Carson last month, harassed her during a district-sponsored trip to Washington, D.C., in November 2013. The Los Angeles Superior Court suit filed Tuesday alleges sexual battery, sexual harassment, gender violence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, and…
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