In response to David Trower’s Nov. 12 column “Sex offenders need stronger punishments,” I feel disappointed that Trower would write something that relies on thoroughly debunked stereotypes, faulty statistics and emotional appeals, yet fails to even acknowledge or address the root causes of the issue of sexual abuse. Trower’s viewpoint is typical of those who adhere to the “uncontrollable monster” myth of the American Sex Offender. It is a persistent myth dating back to the late 1800s and the serial killings of Jack the Ripper and HH Holmes. (In fact,…
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A new look at truth and Justice for ALL
Don’t make the mistake of falling into the bigotry, propaganda and lies put forth by any hatemonger groups that are attempting to make themselves look better or feel better by attacking a disfavored people. These groups always use myths, half-truths and lies and the result is that these bigoted groups siphon off much-needed funds from communities using such catchwords as “if it saves one child” or “community safety” when in fact laws rules and regulations based on these misconceptions are damaging children and doing nothing for community safety this one…
Read MoreGeneral Comments November 2013
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of November 2013. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreConservative Governors Take On the Mugshot Racket
Last week, a New York Times article titled “Mugged by a Mugshot Online” described the dubious business of mugshot extortion. Dozens of companies acquire the post-arrest mugshots — which are public records — of individuals who may or may not have been convicted. They then post the pictures on a website and charge a fee — sometimes in the hundreds of dollars — for removal. Moreover, even the payment of the fee doesn’t necessarily stop a website’s owner from launching a new site, reposting the same mugshot, and demanding yet another fee…
Read MoreHalloween Sex Offender Laws Are Unjustified
Kids aren’t the only ones letting their imaginations’ fears run wild on Halloween: parents, politicians, and police officers across the country are continuing to support laws that ban registered sex offenders from participating in Halloween, despite evidence that these policies are unnecessary and harmful. Full Article
Read MoreVA: It’s Time to Reduce, Reconstruct, Reclassify, Rethink and Reform the Virginia Sex Offender Registry
Overestimating Sex Offender Risk: The Static-99R Has Produced an Epidemic of False Positives in Florida. How Many Other States are Using This Flawed Assessment Tool and are Indefinitely Committing Citizens Who Pose No Risk? Full Article
Read MorePanic Does Not Make for Good Policy
Sexual violence, like other forms of violence, is traumatic and devastating. The question is not whether the state has an interest in preventing such harm, but whether current laws are appropriate and effective. The U.S. legal landscape was reshaped by federal laws passed in the mid-1990s, in response to heinous but statistically unusual crimes involving stranger abduction, rape and murder. The Wetterling Act required convicted sex offenders to register with local authorities, and Megan’s Law required law enforcement to notify neighbors about the presence of a sex offender in their…
Read MoreNo evidence of more sadism, sex crimes during Halloween
Every year, parents nationwide are vocal about the dangers of Halloween. Child abduction, poisonous candy and cryptic messages and pranks from Halloween sadists are just a few of the concerns expressed each year by 24 percent of parents with children under 12 years old, according to a 2011 Harris Interactive poll. However, empirical evidence doesn’t validate such concerns. Full Article
Read MoreFear the Bogeyman: Sex Offender Panic on Halloween
It can be said that sex offenders are the new bogeymen, mythical monsters invented to scare children into social order. People convicted of sex offenses, and subsequently placed on the public registry, are transformed into a concept of evil, which is then personified as a group of faceless, terrifying, and predatory devils. It would appear that this strategy is used to keep sex offenders at a distance, in turn keeping our children and families safe from harm. But in reality, such fantasy does just the opposite: ignoring the realities of…
Read MoreIn Defense of Rational Sex Offender Public Policy and Laws
The past several weeks I have been researching the sex offender laws applicable for sex offenders living in Rhode Island and in South Carolina. While not surprising, the laws are anything but rational and they are certainly not empirically based. This goes across the board, not merely in Rhode Island or South Carolina but at both the state and federal levels. The Adam Walsh Act of 2006 requires sex offenders to be classified in one of three tiers of supervision. Tier 1 sex offenders have lighter restrictions placed upon them…
Read MoreTransmitting Child Porn Case Overturned
Every era in human history has its version of a witch hunt. In the late 1600’s, colonial Massachusetts put many people to death via hanging, or burning at the stake, because these folks “confessed” to being witches. In my view, part of what qualifies any government activity as a “witch hunt” involves examining the large gap between the punishment and the crime. Burning at the stake for being a witch is but one example. Twenty years in prison for possessing child pornography, that’s today’s example. Yes, our government would probably…
Read More10-Year-Old Boy Required to Register as a Sex Offender
Two years ago, the U.S. Department of justice prosecuted a 10-year-old boy for aggravated sexual assault on five boys, ages 5-7. The assaults happened on an Army base in Arizona, which is why the DOJ was involved. After winning a delinquency judgment (the equivalent of guilty in juvenile court), the boy was sentenced to five years probation and required to participate in mandatory psychological treatment. He must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Full Article
Read MoreCA RSOL Meeting in Fresno – November 9
On November 9, 2013, Attorney Janice Bellucci with California Reform Sex Offender Laws (www.californiarsol.org) will be in Fresno to talk about her role in helping offenders who must register, to understand they have a civil rights attorney to help them. Janice has filed lawsuits against California Cities, that restrict sex offenders from going into public buildings or other public areas. She has successfully sued and won to have these ordinances repealed. Another guest is Clare Ann Ruth Heffelbower from Fresno Pacific University. She is the Director of the COSA program…
Read MoreManufacturing Fear: Halloween Laws for Sex Offenders
In North Carolina, a sheriff tells parents to check the online sex offender registry before allowing children to trick-or-treat. In Montana, a town offers a “trunk-or-treat” event where kids can get Halloween candy from trunks of cars in a parking lot to avoid potential danger. In New York, “Operation Halloween: Zero Tolerance” prohibits sex offenders from wearing masks or costumes or answering their doors on Halloween, and, as a parole source says, “There is certainly nothing more frightening than the thought of one of these men opening their door to…
Read MoreWe Register Cars, Don’t We?
When you get a new appliance, do you take time to fill out the little card and register your toaster, coffee maker or iron? Of course you do, if you want the company to keep track of it and fix it in the event of a breakdown. We’re pretty good in America about registering things. We register our preferences for baby shower or wedding gifts to avoid duplications. Voting registries make sure only those eligible can cast a ballot. We register our motorcycles, boats and cars so we — and…
Read MoreHow Many More Children Will Die?
PRESS RELEASE: Women Against Registry (W.A.R.), a group of mothers, sisters, wives and other loved ones of those on the sex offender registry, are asking how many, how many more of our young have to feel so distraught and view their future as so hopeless that they take their lives? Will it take your son or daughter getting ensnared before you demand change before legislators and the Justice Department are made to understand this is too much? On October 2, 2013 Christian Adamek, a 15-year-old from Huntsville, AL, committed suicide after…
Read MoreProsecution Is Not the Way to Save a 10-Year-Old Child
When children under 12 engage in exploitative sexual behavior, it is often a result of abuse or exposure to sex acts that they themselves have experienced. These children need mental health treatment and family interventions, not probation and blacklists. Why then is the U.S. government prosecuting a young boy in federal court for behavior he engaged in when he was just 10 years old? The child, one of the youngest defendants ever pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice, is accused of engaging in sex acts with other young boys on a U.S.…
Read MorePayment Providers And Google Will Kill The Mug-Shot Extortion Industry Faster Than Lawmakers Can
‘A picture lasts forever’ is likely not the thought going through a person’s head when he or she is being booked at the clink (well, unless that person is Lindsay Lohan). Yet mugshots have over the last few years taken on an Internet permanence thanks to a host of sites that use liberal public records laws to get their hands on mugshots and make them part of people’s Google footprints. The industry first started getting scrutiny two years ago when Wired highlighted a Florida mugshot site that made its money…
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