This week, stories of people being threatened and punished with public shame. Including the story of someone who was literally tarred and feathered. It happened a lot more recently than you’d guess. Radio Show
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“World’s Worst Mom” to speak at 6th RSOL National Conference
Lenore Skenazy, (www.freerangekids.com) blogger, public speaker, and reality show host is the keynote speaker at the 6th annual conference of Reform Sex Offender Laws, Inc. being held in Dallas, Texas, July 16-19, 2014. She was given the title of the World’s Worst Mom after, at his insistence, she dropped her nine year old son at Bloomingdale’s in New York with a subway map and twenty dollars and allowed him to get home on his own. He did, and she has been simultaneously held in great admiration and in despised ridicule…
Read MoreThe Evolution of Unconstitutionality in Sex Offender Registration Laws
More is not always better. Consider sex offender registration laws. Initially anchored by rational basis, registration schemes have spiraled out of control because legislators, eager to please a fearful public, have been given unfettered freedom by a deferential judiciary. This Article does not challenge the state’s legislative power to enact sex offender registration laws. Instead, this Article posits that, even if sex offender registration schemes initially were constitutional, serially amended sex offender registration schemes—what this Article dubs super-registration schemes—are not. Their emergence demands reexamination of the traditionally held assumptions that…
Read MoreNot Really, But Sort Of In Defense Of The ‘Pillowcase Rapist’ (Commentary)
Now I know that for some people, sex crimes are worse than actual murder. I know there a contingent of people who believe that rapists and sex offenders should be punished as if they committed murder, including having the death penalty on the table as option. For them sex offenders, especially those who committed crimes against children, should never see the light of day again (Hi John and Ken). I get that. What I’m about to touch on isn’t for you because I know that for you no amount of…
Read MoreToday’s Untouchables: Sex Offenders
Sex offenders are the foremost pariahs of our current day. In opinion polls, even intravenous drug users place higher. A recent series of high profile cases involving child sexual abuse have revealed the maddening frequency of the problem. My hometown newspaper now exists in electronic format, and as I read the local news, it seems that every other week brings a report of a new crime against minors. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Most are the product of incest, unreported, hushed up within families. The offenses that…
Read MoreFeds settle with local firm over inaccurate background checks
(AP) — It’s tough enough landing a job these days, so imagine if that background check provided to your potential employer wrongly identified you as a possible sex offender. That’s what the Federal Trade Commission says happened in a case it’s settling with InfoTrack Information Services of Deerfield. The company provides employment background screening services. The FTC says InfoTrack gave inaccurate information suggesting that job applicants potentially were registered sex offenders. Full Article
Read MoreScan Your Date’s Photo, Learn If He Is A Sex Offender
A few years ago I attended an annual conference of Balkan political leaders. Middle-aged men filled the room. In the back a younger woman who could certainly have adorned the cover of a fashion magazine stood out in stark contrast. I wondered: who could she be? Those sitting beside me had no idea. I wondered if one day technology could identify any stranger at a moment’s notice. On that day, only by happenstance did I later learn her identify. Soon, facial recognition programs may help instantly inform us who’s who.…
Read MoreLET’S TALK ABOUT SEX (OFFENDERS)
First, let’s put some things on the table. There is wide consensus that sexual assault is under reported. There is some disagreement about just how under reported sexual assault among adults is (and some controversy about how it is defined and measured), but there are good estimates that only about a tenth of sexual abuse against children is ever reported. Abuse against children is especially heinous because of the lifelong harm it can inflict on the survivors and the subsequent costs it imposes on society. Now, let’s talk about one hugely counterproductive way to deal…
Read MoreAZ: Court hammers operator of Internet intimidation sites
A Valley man accused of running an Internet extortion racket was dealt a blow last month when a judge found he posted information on websites suggesting a decorated combat veteran with no criminal record was a child molester. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper imposed several sanctions against Charles “Chuck” Rodrick, saying evidence showed he controlled websites where operators demanded money from sex offenders and harassed those who complained. Full Article
Read MoreIn defense of the judge who sentenced the man who raped his three year old daughter to probation (Op-Ed)
From one of the many, many articles and op/eds written about this case: “A Delaware man convicted of raping his three-year-old daughter only faced probation after a state Superior Court judge ruled he ‘will not fare well’ in prison.” Those words, “will not fare well” in prison may go down as among the most, if not the most, infamous words ever attributed to a judge. What was the judge thinking, critics ask, and the cynical and even not-so-cynical find ready answers: he was rich, one of the DuPont family heirs;…
Read MoreLet’s Rethink Our Love of Prisons
Delaware Judge Jan Jurden just helped to destroy the market in human souls, and for that, I am grateful. She refused to send a self-confessed child rapist to prison, letting him instead walk out the courthouse door, to begin a lengthy period of probation and treatment as a sex offender. Robert H. Richards IV, an heir to the DuPont chemical fortune, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his 3-year-old daughter. According to press reports, he penetrated the child with his finger, a twisted and disgusting act. The allegations came to light…
Read MoreNew School Bus Comes with “Predator Finder”
A brief glance won’t tell you the new buses are equipped with voice-over-IP communication systems, or that they transmit data on speed, location and acceleration in real-time. The “Thumbs-Up!” thumbprint scanner, which keeps track of which kids are on the bus and whether they’re supposed to be there, is also hard to see unless you’re really pressing your face to the glass, as are the multiple interior security cameras. Slightly easier to notice is the rear-facing camera, dubbed — no joke — the “Pedophile Finder.” “I wish we could have…
Read MoreDA plans rare strategy to try to keep sex offender in Atascadero State Hospital
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office plans to present victims from decades-old crimes to a jury in an effort to keep a convicted sex offender with an intriguing past off the streets. But a defense attorney says ___ ___ has served his time and does not pose a threat to the public. Full Article
Read MoreOne size fits all isn’t always wise (Op-Ed)
Few public policies galvanize bipartisan political support like measures that target convicted sexual offenders. Lengthy prison sentences, registration and civil commitment for the most dangerous offenders are among the tools used to mete punishment, protect the public and serve justice. But as The Pilot’s Louis Hansen reported Sunday, Virginia’s practice of committing violent sex offenders to a lifetime on a public registry, and requiring them to jump through bureaucratic hoops long after they’ve served their prison sentences, can sometimes prove problematic. Hansen’s report on Willie Combo, an aging offender who recently…
Read MoreEditorial: This ‘answer’ for sex offenders is not right
They commit heinous sex crimes on children and women. They take online offers from children, hoping for sex. Their computers are libraries of pornography. Some decide to expose or relieve themselves in public. They are convicted of their crimes and sentenced. When they leave prison, they are forever known as sex offenders. Their crimes are despicable. There is no disputing that. But how long should they live with the label and the past, if somehow they become legal and productive contributors in their communities? Our front page today displays a…
Read MoreSex offender therapy: A battle on multiple fronts
Working with individuals with sex offense convictions is a specialized area of counseling. There are also “specialties within the specialty” when factoring in the different venues for treatment, including programs in prison, in private practice (often with those on postprison supervision or probation) and in mental institutions. The individuals within this population are generally quite different, and the dynamics are made even more complex when considering whether the offenders are adult males, adult females (yes, there are female sex offenders) or juveniles. The research on each population varies considerably. There…
Read MoreOpEd: Teens and the Sex Offender Registry – No Good Outcomes for Anyone
Last week, I hailed a taxi in Washington, D C, and asked the driver to take me to the Keck Building for a meeting with a committee of the National Research Council. The cabby recognized the address and asked if I was a scientist. I explained that I am a retired judge and that applying science and research to juvenile court could make us all safer, save taxpayer dollars and improve the futures of kids in the justice system. He said, “That makes sense but just how can that happen?”…
Read Moredeserving a chance for a pardon
A 25-year-old registered sex offender has been granted a hearing before the Nebraska Board of Pardons. This is excellent news for this young man because if he is pardoned, he will regain his civil rights and he will no longer be on the sex offender registry. According to the Omaha World-Herald article, it is unusual for a sex offender to be granted a hearing because [t]he Pardons Board rarely considers the applications of sex offenders. But board members said they are willing to listen to this one because ____ has lived an exemplary…
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