Category: General News

(CNN) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has unveiled an iPhone app called Operation Predator that asks the public for help in gathering information on suspected child sexual predators, including those who are fugitives. The new app, created in conjunction with Homeland Security Investigations’ Cyber Crime Center, lets users submit a tip by phone or by filling out a tip form in the app. All tips can be submitted anonymously. Full Article

From Nicole Pittman, Raised on the registry. Hi Friends, Nicole Pittman, the author of the Human Rights Watch report, “Raised on the Registry: The Irreparable Harm of Placing Children on Sex Offender Registries in the US” brings great news to folks. BBC journalist, Jennifer Forde, and a small team recently relocated to Los Angeles to make a series of documentaries. BBC’s intention is to make a thoughtful, objective film about a subject which is normally approached with great emotion and prejudice. BBC has decided to focus one of the films on the sex…

Most law-abiding citizens would agree that sex-offenders should be locked-up and the key thrown away or once a child molester is released from prison they should be registered and never be allowed to be around children again. The purpose of sex-offender laws is to protect the public, but what about when human rights are violated to the point where laws are doing more harm than good? Full Article See Also: http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/08/sex-offenders-aren-t-all-monsters Full Report: Raised on the Registry – Report PDF ————- Related Post – Brandon’s Story

Clear back on February 4, 2013, I gave some predictions for the coming year. I never finished my thoughts, getting waylaid by co-writing a book on Internet investigations. Sorry about that. One of my last comments was… “what about the remainder of my 2013 predictions, such as sex offender Internet restrictions?” It would obviously be silly to continue on with my Nostradamus imitation this late in the year. But what about my ending comment concerning Internet restrictions? Where are they? As luck would have it we had a lot movement…

Bayard Rustin, who was recently named a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, was honored at the 5th Annual National Reform Sex Offender Laws conference in Los Angeles. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor. President Barack Obama posthumously named Rustin as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom on August 8, 2013. The medal is to be presented to Rustin and to 15 other individuals – including Oprah Winfrey and former President Bill Clinton — who have made meritorious contributions to the security…

Derek W. Logue of Once Fallen gives his presentation on Sex Offender myths at the 2013 RSOL Conference held in Los Angeles, CA. Features a special appearance by “Bill Blathers, Investigative Reporter.” The information in this video and the slideshow can be found at:  http://www.oncefallen.com/SOMyths.html Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmGqNA6qrss

The crimes featured in a recent Sun Sentinel investigation were tragic. The newspaper found that in Florida, for every one sex offender who was committed to a sex predator treatment center, “nearly two others were released and then arrested on a sex charge.” What the article does not highlight is that all of the sex offenders released from Florida prisons – 31,0000 of them — were screened for civil commitment over 14 years. Full Article Jill Levenson, Ph.D., LCSW, is an Associate Professor and Researcher at Lynn University. She is…

The use of actuarial risk assessment instruments to predict violence is becoming more and more central to forensic psychology practice. And clinicians and courts rely on published data to establish that the tools live up to their claims of accurately separating high-risk from low-risk offenders. But as it turns out, the predictive validity of risk assessment instruments such as the Static-99 and the VRAG depends in part on the researcher’s connection to the instrument in question. Published studies authored by tool designers reported predictive validity findings around two times higher…

Brandon and his wife, Marguerite, sat on the couch across from me in their dimly lit one-bedroom apartment in Bryan, Texas. Brandon looked down at his hands, resting in his lap, as he told me his story. He was 11 years old when he was charged with sexually touching a 7-year-old playmate. She was a family friend and one of a group of children Brandon’s two teenage sisters were watching while their parents were out to dinner. A few days later, the police investigation began. Despite his age, Brandon was…

Trying to curb the number of men who pay to have sex with children, Los Angeles County leaders Tuesday urged state lawmakers to toughen penalties for men who seek out underage prostitutes. The resolution approved unanimously by the county Board of Supervisors calls for “johns” to face felony rather than misdemeanor charges, to be required to register as sex offenders and to pay higher fines. Full Article Also: The ‘repugnant, vile truth’ about sex trafficking in L.A. County

…the figures that suggest that violence has been disappearing in the United States contain a blind spot so large that to cite them uncritically, as the major papers do, is to collude in an epic con. Uncounted in the official tallies are the hundreds of thousands of crimes that take place in the country’s prison system, a vast and growing residential network whose forsaken tenants increasingly bear the brunt of America’s propensity for anger and violence.  Full Article

Child pornography should end. As an ex-convict, I ask: Is prison the most effective way to address demand? It was shortly before 3:00 a.m. on May 30, 2012 when I turned off my computer for the last time. I slid my recliner over three feet and tucked myself into my bed, for another sleepless session of self-loathing and self-pity. Later that morning, I would not be at my friends’ home as I had planned to help them celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. Instead, I would find myself sitting on the hard…

WASHINGTON — The federal government is making progress on developing a surveillance system that would pair computers with video cameras to scan crowds and automatically identify people by their faces, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with researchers working on the project. The Department of Homeland Security tested a crowd-scanning project called the Biometric Optical Surveillance System — or BOSS — last fall after two years of government-financed development. Although the system is not ready for use, researchers say they are making significant advances. That alarms privacy advocates, who say that…

Facebook’s Zuckerberg: Web access a ‘human right’ It’s easy to get behind the intentions of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to bring the Web to billions of people. The language he’s using to sell it may be a bit more contentious: the social media giant called Internet access “a human right.” Full Article – vs – Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities 4. Registration and Account Security Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Here are some commitments you make…