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 MoreCategory: General News
Minnesota 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…
Read MoreBob Dyer: Sex offender statistics surprising
How are sex offenders different from you and me? They just are, says a college professor who not only has multiple degrees in psychology and sociology, but also worked for 30 years in Ohio’s prison system. Full Article Related Bob Dyer: Are sex offenders ruined for life? Bob Dyer: Sex-crime punishments incredibly inconsistent
Read MoreThese 10 Questions Can Mean Life Behind Bars
A short checklist called the Static-99 weighs facts about a sex offender’s past in order to predict the likelihood of future crimes. Many legal and scientific experts worry that the way the test is often used — to make high-stakes decisions about an individual’s liberty — is critically flawed. Full Article
Read MoreFacing the system: Former UB student struggles as Level 2 sex offender
____ ____ just had heart surgery and was lying on a mattress set up in his living room when officers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security brought his son Daniel through the front door. His damaged heart raced. What had happened to his shy, socially awkward son? Had he done something or had something been done to him? Full Article
Read MoreBob Dyer: Sex-crime punishments incredibly inconsistent
We seem to have no trouble differentiating between a minor fistfight and an assault with a crowbar that turns someone into a vegetable. But for some reason, we tend to lump all sex crimes into one big category. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreGeneral Comments May 2015
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of May 2015. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MorePrediction of dangerousness, length of treatment, and psychological damage
As many of you might realize from my writing that I have a real problem with the pseudoscience of psychiatry and psychology. Especially when it comes to constitutional values and allowing the government to control the thinking of the populace through the questionable methods of mind control, which is in fact, what behavior modification programs are. It’s one thing if someone goes into these programs of their own free will, because they want to make changes. It’s another thing for the government to force them into them. This is especially…
Read MoreWhy You Can’t Trust the Nation’s Frequently Inaccurate, Terribly Organized Sex Offender Registries
Just in time for the all-important May sweeps period, a local television anchor somewhere is bound to open a newscast with a question specifically designed to simultaneously titillate and scare the crap out of you. “Does a pedophile live on your block?” the menacing voice will intone. “Are your children safe?” The answer, invariably, is “probably” and “probably not.” If you tune in, you’ll confront a terrifying graphic that the station’s self-glorifying “investigative reporter” has cooked up showing a map crowded with dots. Each one, you’ll be told, represents a…
Read MoreBob Dyer: Are sex offenders ruined for life?
Well, here’s something new. How about an 85-year-old woman from a small Wayne County town rushing to the defense of a convicted sex offender she doesn’t even know? And how about that same sex offender agreeing to sit down for an interview with the Beacon Journal just days after a thorough public shaming? Full OpEd Piece
Read MoreSecondhand Pariah: A Plea for Empathy from the Girlfriend of a Sex Offender
One morning in January of 2014 my life changed forever. Out of nowhere, seven highly militarized FBI agents wielding guns and a search warrant raided the home that I shared with my partner. Barely awake, I couldn’t believe what was happening. Then we discovered his charges: possession and distribution of child pornography. He is not a monster; he is not even attracted to children. While he was on a torrent site looking for music to download, he came across pornographic images that he thought he’d check out, against his better…
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