BALTIMORE —The list of sex offenders on Maryland’s sex offender registry is shrinking because of a Maryland Court of Appeals ruling in June. The ruling said corrections officials are legally required to remove the names of offenders who committed their crimes before 1995, when the state registry was created. The court ruled that Maryland can’t make those offenders register after the fact. Full Article
Read MoreCategory: General News
Reminder: You Have a Right to Record the Police
A suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, has been under a dramatic siege since Saturday, when a police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager named Michael Brown. In the wake of the killing, protests have engulfed the community — drawing a heavy-handed police crackdown with St. Louis County police officers armed with assault weapons and outfitted with military equipment. Many of the striking images have come from reporters on the front lines, but also from citizens and their smartphones. Full Article
Read MoreReforming the Registry
Since 1994, when Congress first ordered states to create sex offender registries, the laws in the United States about sex crimes have steadily ratcheted up. We now have what experts say is the most draconian regime in the world. As we’ve tried to show in Slate this week, legislators have repeatedly expanded the definition of a sex offender, extended the periods of time for which offenders must register, and toughened the consequences of registration. And they have done all this even though these laws rest on flawed stereotypes, not solid…
Read MoreSteve Blow Is Right About Sex Offender Laws, and Dallas Should Pay Attention
The debate about media sensationalism and moral panic concerning sex offenders is always a tough one for me, mainly because I think most news media chase the public’s interest in stories more than we create it. Our rule usually is that the biggest story is the one the most people will read. In that sense readers tell us what to write more than we tell them what to read. But, yeah, that is what I would say, isn’t it? When I see somebody else in my craft bringing a sound…
Read MoreThe Ridiculous Laws That Put People on the Sex Offender List
On his 18th birthday, ____ ____ and his 14-year-old girlfriend of one year, Misty, decided to have sex. Because of their ages, that meant ____ committed the crime of statutory rape. When Misty told her father months later, after finding out that _____ had cheated on her, he went to the police. In 1994, ____ struck a deal with prosecutors, pleading no contest to lewd and lascivious behavior. He avoided prison, but as part of the deal, he had to register as a sex offender. Full Article
Read MoreFederal judges slam man in sex-offender extortion cases
Judges in two federal cases last week ruled against an Arizona man accused of operating an Internet extortion racket that targets sex offenders across the country. Full Article
Read MoreOp-Ed: Harsher Sex Offender Restrictions Won’t Make Anyone Safer
Steve Blow and Josh Gravens are two of my new heroes. I met them both when I went to Dallas three weeks ago to speak at the Reform Sex Offender Laws convention. Gravens is a sex offender who also spoke at the convention. I went with him to see what it’s like to register and that became a story in itself. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreOp-Ed: Sex Offender Laws Have Gone Too Far
Our draconian policies about sex offenses reflect our ignorance of them. … The upshot, experts say, is that the United States has the most draconian sex registration laws in the world. As a result, the number of registrants across the nation has swelled—doubling and then doubling again to 750,000—in the two decades since Jacob’s Law passed, according to data collected by the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Full Article
Read MoreTX: Research won’t support Dallas proposal that amounts to housing ban for sex offenders
In saner times, what Josh Gravens did would be called “playing doctor” or “adolescent curiosity.” General embarrassment and a stern talking-to would have followed. And that would have been the end of it. But in this age of hysteria, the childhood misdeed will never end for Josh. And now the city of Dallas considers making it worse by declaring a great majority of the city off limits for him to live. By extension, that would mean his wife and five children, too. Full Opinion Piece From the same author: Kids are…
Read MoreCongress Proposes to Fix Restitution for Child Pornography Victims
Faced with a draconian decision by the United States Supreme Court in late April which all but eliminated meaningful restitution for child pornography victims, U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) spearheaded a comprehensive legislative fix (S. 2301) which addresses the concerns outlined by the Court in United States v. Paroline. The Amy and Vicky Child Pornography Victim Restitution Improvement Act of 2014 was introduced exactly two weeks after the Supreme Court’s decision. Full Article
Read MoreOWNER OF WEBSITES LOSES CASE IN FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT
Charles Rodrick, owner of a family of websites that publishes the names, photos and other personal information regarding registered citizens and sometimes members of their families, today lost a case filed against him in federal district court when the court entered a default judgment. The case alleged that Rodrick and others he controlled violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act by extorting money from individuals in order to have their personal information removed from those websites. “This is a major victory for registered citizens in our nation,” stated…
Read MoreGoogle email scan helps police arrest a sex offender
Google has long used automatic image scanning to fight online child exploitation, but it’s now clear that this monitoring applies to email, too. Houston police have arrested a registered sex offender after Google tipped them off to illegal photos of children in his Gmail account. The notice only led to a warrant at first, but it helped the cops discover locally stored images that they wouldn’t have found otherwise. Full Article
Read MoreWe’re becoming paranoid about kids, parks (Opinion)
A couple of weeks ago, the Debra Harrell story made national headlines. Harrell was arrested in North Augusta, S.C., and charged with a felony for letting her 9-year-old daughter play at a park while Harrell worked a shift at a local McDonald’s. Now, it has happened again, in Port St. Lucie, Fla., where a mother was charged with child neglect after letting her son go to a park by himself. Full Op-Ed Piece
Read MoreGeneral Comments August 2014
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of August 2014. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreUK: Teacher who sniffed children’s feet given suspended prison sentence
A TEACHER who sniffed and tickled pupils’ feet for sexual gratification has been handed a suspended prison sentence. ____ ____ , 51, would play a game of ‘smell and tickle’ with pupils at a Blackburn primary school, which involved him making the pupils take off their shoes and pick a post-it note. He would then do to them whatever was written on the paper they picked. … Judge Simon Newell, sitting at Preston Crown Court, sentenced ____ to 15 months in prison suspended for two years. The defendant was also made subject to a two-year…
Read MoreTX: Rise in Sex Offenders in the Basin, Officials Explain Their Tactics
MIDLAND/ODESSA – A rise in sex offenders in the Basin, all because of the boom. But where are these criminals more likely to prey?The mall, playgrounds and parks are where many families and children come out to enjoy the summertime. Coincidentally, that’s where sex offenders tend to enjoy themselves as well. Because of the rise in sex offenders in the Basin, NewsWest 9 set out to investigate their criminal tactics and what children can do to protect themselves. Full Article
Read MorePeople Confront Exclusion Zones
Steven Yoder has written a wonderful piece which describes how people in various communities are fighting back against the use of exclusion zones, especially as a condition of electronic monitoring. Exclusion zones most frequently are used against people with sex offense convictions. The rules for exclusion zones typically ban certain groups of people from coming within a certain distance of places where children are likely to congregate-like schools, parks, and churches. Full Blog Post Article by Steven Yoder: Do Residency Bans Drive Sex Offenders Underground?
Read MoreOpinion: Public sex offender registries, like one created with Megan’s Law, are often unfair and ineffective: magazine editor
Jacob Sullum, senior editor at Reason magazine, writes that sex offender databases are both over- and under-inclusive, and often fail to distinguish between dangerous predators and those with nonviolent offenses. Further, one survey found that 90% of sexually abused minors were assaulted by relatives or acquaintances, not strangers. Full Opinion Piece
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