Legislation that would update and streamline sex offender registration has been signed into law. This week, Governor Mary Fallin signed legislation improving Oklahoma’s sex offender registry. … “The purpose of the sex offender registry continues to be public safety—to make sure law enforcement knows where registered sex offenders are living, and making that information available to our citizens,” said Griffin, R-Guthrie. “This legislation streamlines the notification process, ensures greater consistency in assigning levels for registration, and adds an additional requirement for informing DHS when a sex offender returns to a…
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MA: Questions raised over statutory rape provision in senate criminal justice bill
A proposal within a comprehensive Massachusetts Senate criminal justice reform bill to create a “close age exception” for the state’s statutory rape law is just one of several provisions to generate heat. The bill, sponsored by Sen. William Brownsberger, D-Belmont, would take away the possibility of prosecution for consensual sex between someone who is 15 and a partner less than four years older, someone under 15 and a partner less than three years older, or someone under 12 and a partner who is less than two years older. It would…
Read MoreAmerican Samoa: Amends Act governing sex offender registration
American Samoa’s Governor Lolo Moliga has signed into law a bill amending the American Samoa Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, or SORNA. The changes allow American Samoa to be in substantial compliance with requirements of the US Sex Offender Registration Act. Full Article
Read MoreWhy kids don’t belong on sex offender registry
California took an important step toward ending the abusive practice of putting kids on sex offender registries when Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 384, which allows juveniles to petition for their removal after five or 10 years. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreMI: Young Man Arrested for Underage Sex Was Re-Arrested for Sharing a Pizza with a 17-Year-Old
[Hit & Run blog at Reason.com] ____________, the young man from Elkhart, Indiana, whose harsh punishment for consensual sex with an underage teenager he wrongly believed was 17 made headlines around the country in 2015, has been arrested for violating his probation. What, exactly, did he do? He stopped by for dinner at his parents’ home. His younger brother was present, and incidentally, so was the brother’s friend. The brother thought this friend was 19 years old, but he turned out to be just 17. _______, unfortunately, is not allowed…
Read MoreCA: Simi Valley City Council may repeal Halloween sex offender ordinance
With two weeks until Halloween, the Simi Valley City Council on Monday night may repeal a controversial law that says registered sex offenders listed on the Megan’s Law website can’t open their doors to trick-or-treating children. Full Article
Read MoreThe DOJ Has Nearly Doubled Its Prosecutions For Child Sex Crimes Photo of Anders Hagstrom Anders Hagstrom
[The Daily Caller] Federal investigators nearly doubled the number of investigated sex crimes involving children between 2004 and 2013, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced Thursday. Child sex crime cases include possession or production of child pornography and child sex trafficking, the BJS reported. Federal investigators took up 1,405 of these cases in 2004, compared to 2,776 cases in 2013. More than 70 percent of the prosecutions each year were for possessing child pornography, followed by those suspected of sex trafficking at 18 percent and those who produced child…
Read MoreAZ: Transient sex offenders not bound by 72-hour notice
[The Seattle Times] PHOENIX (AP) — The state Supreme Court says registered sex offenders without addresses or permanent places of residence aren’t subject to Arizona’s requirement to provide notice of address changes within 72 hours. Instead, the court’s unanimous ruling Friday says those offenders only have to register as transients at least every 90 days. The ruling overturns a lower court’s ruling that upheld a man’s felony conviction for failing to notify law enforcement officials of a new residence or address within 72 hours after he left a halfway house…
Read MoreSex Offender Advocates Object To Local Mapping Of Registered Sex Criminals (Updated)
The Board of Directors for the National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws objects to local public safety maps which pinpoint the addresses of individuals listed on official state sex-offender registries. NARSOL submitted this letter to Patch explaining why such maps should not be published at Halloween. https://patch.com/us/across-america/sex-offender-advocates-object-mapping-registered-sex-criminals Update – Follow up from Patch ‘Then I See The Delight In Your Eyes Turn To Fear’ Heyl: Some Sex Offender Names Soon Could Vanish From Online State Registry
Read MoreAUS: VG EXPOSED THE LARGEST CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE FORUM.IT WAS RUN BY THE POLICE.
Both men stiffen as VG confronts them. – Go ahead and publish what you know about us now, if you think it’s true, but be prepared for the consequences, says Jon. Next to him in a Brisbane hamburger pub sits Paul. VG has just told them what we’ve uncovered: that they run the world’s largest online forum for child sexual exploitation, “Childs Play”. Full Article
Read MoreOR: Sex-offender stings make it ‘safer for everyone’
During a sting operation last week, state troopers contacted 16 registered sex offenders, some of whom failed to make an annual report or disclose whether they had a change of address. Full Article
Read MoreMI: Supreme Court Hearing Sex Offender Registry Case
[UPDATED LINKS 3/30/18] The Michigan Supreme Court is hearing arguments in the case of a man who was placed on the sex offender registry for touching a girl’s breasts, even though his case was dismissed in 1997 after successful probation and community service. Full Article RELATED LINKS: Change.org petition: Allow “Romeo-Juliet” convictions to apply to expunge their records in Michigan [3/30/18]
Read MoreCA: California Is Right to Curb the Sex Offender Registry
[bloomberg.com] Say what you want about Governor Jerry Brown, but never say he’s not brave. He just signed a law that could eventually purge 90 percent of the names off of California’s lifetime registry for sex offenders. I expect that he, and the legislators who passed it, will be subjected to the withering outrage that accompanies any action or statement, however mild or correct, that seems “soft” on sex offenders. I once wrote a column suggesting that pedophiles who are attracted to children but do not act on their impulses…
Read MoreExtended Sentence
[slate.com] When David Silva returned in 2006 from serving 38 months in New Jersey state prison for offenses related to his substance abuse, he faced more than $35,000 in debt. He didn’t owe this money to private creditors; he was in debt to the government for his prosecutions and stints in prison. Silva’s debts for “use” of the criminal justice system included public defender fees, various surcharges that went to things such as police uniforms and drug-use prevention, and probation supervision fees, as well as restitution and fines. Silva’s debts…
Read MoreEthics and Religion Talk: Should congregations welcome sexual offenders?
[The Rapidian] Fred Stella, the Pracharak (Outreach Minister) for the West Michigan Hindu Temple, responds: “West Michigan Hindu Temple has not had to deal with this issue up to date so I have to speculate on this one. Before anything we must understand that the term ‘sex offender’ has multiple meanings. It stretches from a make out session gone a bit too far between teenagers who have just a couple of years of age difference between them all the way to the most heinous crimes beyond the imaginations of most…
Read MoreFL: Sex offenders may soon be able to live closer to schools, day care centers in Jacksonville
Registered sex offenders in the River City may soon be able to live closer to schools, public libraries and other places children frequent if the Jacksonville City Council has anything to say about it. The city council will undergo a second reading of city ordinance 2017-667 on Tuesday. The bill’s primary function is to reduce the required distance a registered sex offender or predator can reside near various locations from 2,500 feet to 1,500 feet, according to the bill’s description. The bill also advises, if passed, that new and upcoming…
Read MoreHow $40 Can Land You in Prison for Seven Years and on the Sex Offender Registry for Life
[truth-out.org] In December, after more than seven years behind bars, 32-year-old LeeAnn walked out of federal prison. But she’s not a free woman — she will spend the rest of her life on the sex offender registry. Her crime? Letting a girl shower in her mother’s apartment, giving her a clean change of clothes and holding the girl’s $40 while she had sex with a man in another room. These are normal actions in the daily life of sex workers trying to keep themselves and each other safe. But the…
Read MoreShould Animal Abusers Be Registered Like Sex Offenders?
[bigthink.com] One of the objectives of the criminal justice system is to protect the innocent and discourage would-be perpetrators from harming them. Whether it does this in reality or not is another matter. But who among us is more innocent or vulnerable than our pets? They rely on us for so much. Most of us consider our pet a member of the family. The question is, how far should the law go to protect them? This debate has blossomed recently, due to the number of US jurisdictions passing laws creating…
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