[bbc.com – 8/10/18] A woman who branded a trainspotter as a sex offender in a Facebook post is being investigated by police. The man, who has learning disabilities, was seen using binoculars in bushes near York railway station on Tuesday. The woman reported him to police who established he was a keen trainspotter. Police said she later uploaded a picture of the man on to Facebook and “wrongly branded him a sex offender”. They have launched a malicious communication investigation. Yorkshire breaking news: Nine-year-old victim of seaside rock fall named;…
Read MoreCategory: International
Australia: _____loses bid to halt deportation over criminal convictions
[smh.com.au – 8/7/18] A middle-aged man who has lived in Australia for 50 years has lost a court bid to halt his deportation after his visa was cancelled on character grounds. ______, 57, migrated to Australia from the United Kingdom when he was seven, and until recently lived at Batemans Bay on the NSW south coast where he worked as a tradesman. Read more
Read MoreChina: College pitcher with sex-offender past spurned in China, too
[nypost.com – 8/7/18] Former star collegiate pitcher Luke Heimlich’s status as a sex offender has once again derailed his professional baseball aspirations. The former Oregon State ace had agreed to sign with the Lamigo Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League on Monday night. But on Tuesday, the league declined to approve the contract, as the CPBL has a no-tolerance policy for players with criminal records. Read more
Read MoreBermuda: Recommendations To Deal With Sex Offenders
“All convicted sexual offenders should be required to participate in a mandatory treatment program prior to their release,” was one of the recommendations contained in the Parliamentary Joint Select Committee Sex Offender Register report. Full Article
Read MoreSingapore: Unofficial sex-offender registry raises risk of vigilantism
[straitstimes.com – 7/26/18] The unofficial registry of convicted sex offenders is nothing more than harassment and more punishment for former offenders who have already served their time (Unofficial registry of sex offenders draws mixed views; July 15). It needs to be removed so that people who have this stigma attached to their name can have a hope of living a normal, law-abiding life, just like other released offenders. Unless they are recalcitrant and violent offenders, why should they be forced to wear the scarlet letter even after they have served…
Read MoreThird Circuit Upholds Denial of Registrant’s Right to Sponsor Wife for Citizenship
[ACSOL 7/9/18] The Third Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that an individual convicted of a sex offense does not have the right to sponsor his foreign born wife for citizenship in the United States in a decision published on July 5. The court’s decision was based upon its interpretation of language in the Adam Walsh Act (AWA) which allows the Department of Homeland Security to approve such citizenship only if the individual can prove he poses “no risk” to his spouse. According to the court’s decision,…
Read MoreIreland and US agree to share travel information of convicted child sex offenders
MINISTER SIMON COVENEY today secured approval to sign a letter of intent with the US to allow the exchange of international travel information of convicted child sex offenders. The approval by Cabinet today will allow An Garda Síochána to sign the letter of intent with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations to facilitate the sharing of travel information of sex offenders from the US to Ireland and vice versa. While such information has been shared in the past, this memorandum puts the agreement between the two countries on…
Read MoreUK: The Experiment with Lie Detection Should Be Ended
[andybalmer.wordpress.com – 9/24/16] The polygraph machine – or ‘lie detector’ – has long been tied-up with sex and sexuality, from the use of the device to out homosexuals during McCarthyist witch-hunts to the recent use of polygraphs to monitor convicted sex offenders. Reports of the success of this programme warrant scepticism and careful analysis, not least because the machine doesn’t detect lies, but also because the history of polygraphy tells us that it is a slippery slope from using it in one area to its spread into all realms of…
Read MoreOffenderWatch, Largest Sex Offender Registry Network in the U.S., Launches International Division (Press Release)
According to a report from the Ministry of Justice, the number of jailed registered sex offenders in England and Wales rose 82 percent from 2007–2017. As the number of sex offenders continues to rise, maintaining a unified and accurate sex offender registry is an important issue to many residents. The largest sex offender registry network in the United States, OffenderWatch, recently announced a new international division devoted to helping countries across the globe maintain a sex offender registry database that is easily shared between law enforcement agencies and can help…
Read MoreIL: Good news. A Win in Illinois!
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 6/15/18] In April, we wrote about an FAC member currently exiled from his home country because of International Megan’s Law. One of our members, who has a decades-old conviction, for which he got probation, left the country 17 years ago and hasn’t come back. He went on to live a good life in this other country, established a business, got married and had three children. In October, his mother fell gravely ill and he returned to see her. When he flew into the country (another state) he did…
Read MoreCanada: Marni Soupcoff: Sex-offender registries may be doing more harm than good
[nationalpost.com – 6/11/18] To call the state of New Hampshire’s computer sex crime law excessive is an understatement. Just a couple of weeks ago, the New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld the felony conviction of a young man who, at age 18, went online and propositioned a 15-year-old girl (whom he knew) for sex. Because of the conviction, the computer sex crime law dictates that he’ll be on the state’s public sex-offender registry for life. If he’d actually had consensual sex with the underage girl, instead of propositioning her online, he’d…
Read MoreIndia: Sexual offenders’ registry still a work in progress
[economictimes.indiatimes.com – 6/11/18] Recently, a 26-yearold woman was sexually assaulted by a cab driver in Bengaluru while she was heading to the airport to catch an early-morning flight. The cab driver, according to reports, was a first-time offender. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) 2016 report, Bengaluru registered 820 cases pertaining to assaults on women with an intent to outrage their modesty. While there is no indicator to understand if that number has risen in the past two years, one thing that stands out as a pressing need…
Read MoreAUS: Do public sex offender registries work? ‘Surprise’ findings in Australian study
Public sex offender registries designed to shutdown pedophiles and rapists will not stop recidivism, while a searchable database could see house prices in some neighbourhoods drop by up to 8 percent, claims a new report. Full Article
Read MoreIndia: Kerala readies bill on sex offenders’ database
[timesofindia.indiatimes.com – 6/1/18] THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state home department is ready with a draft bill that would allow the preparation of a sex offenders’ database that can be accessed by the public and the various enforcement agencies. The draft bill titled ‘The Kerala Sex Offender Registration Bill, 2018’, accessed by TOI, aims to prepare an electronic database which will collate and retain all the necessary information about sex offenders. The access for the public, however, will be conditional with necessary penal clauses against misuse of the registry. There are also provisions…
Read MoreAustralia: What impact do public sex offender registries have on community safety?
[aic.gov.au 5/22/18] Abstract: Sexual offending has a significant impact on victims and can cause considerable angst within the community. The effective management of sex offenders in the community is of paramount importance. This paper reviews the latest empirical evidence from Australia and overseas regarding the effectiveness of public and non-public sex offender registries. Results show that while public sex offender registries may have a small general deterrent effect on first time offenders, they do not reduce recidivism. Further, despite having strong public support, they appear to have little effect on…
Read MoreAustralia: Tougher punishment needed for child sex crimes
[theage.com.au 5/16/18] Should child sex offenders be named and shamed, and their locations placed on a public register after they are released from prison? Raping or otherwise sexually assaulting a child is a crime so vile it challenges the capacity of lawmakers and the judicial system to design adequate and effective punishments and deterrents. The task is all the more difficult because such atrocities understandably elicit profound emotional responses, including despair, rage and a searing desire for retribution. … Evidence shows public registers of offenders can add to the suffering…
Read MoreBrazil: Arrests hundreds in massive crackdown on child porn
In just one day, Brazilian authorities went after 578 people on warrants for crimes of child pornography and sexual exploitation of minors. The massive raid is the largest ever in Brazil — and possibly in the world. Full Article
Read MoreUK: Parents should ask their baby’s permission before changing dirty nappy, sexuality expert says
[independent.co.uk 5/11/18] A sexuality expert says parents should ask their child’s permission before changing their nappies – so they can set up a “culture of consent.” Deanne Carson made the suggestion on ABC News during a segment about teaching consent to young children, and many viewers have since expressed their confusion over the idea. According to Carson, who describes herself as a “sexuality educator, speaker, and author” on Twitter, a culture of consent needs to start at birth. To do so, she suggested parents ask their infants questions such as:…
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