This summer, 19-year-old Zachary Anderson was featured on the front page of the New York Times. Unfortunately, Anderson became a national figure after he was placed onto the sex offender registry — for making a simple mistake. Zachary had consensual sex with a 14-year-old girl, but she had led him to believe she was actually 17. When everyone realized this situation, Anderson turned himself in and served a 90-day jail sentence. In September, The Atlantic reported on yet another story of a young person threatened with the registry. A 17-year-old…
Read MoreTag: Opinion
WI: Teen sexting in Wisconsin is popular, criminal (Opinion)
In Wisconsin, if your teenager is “sexting” with other teens, he or she could end up being convicted of possession of child pornography (or numerous other sex crimes), sent to prison and placed on the sex offender registry. Sexting is sending sexually explicit digital photos or videos to another person via cell phone or the Internet. It is the latest “craze” among teens and it’s popular in Wisconsin. According to research from TeenSafe.com, over 70 percent of teens admit to sexting with their boyfriends or girlfriends. Full Article
Read MoreCan We Please Stop Being Stupid and Cruel “For the Sake of the Children”?
A new law in Rhode Island will make sex offenders living beyond 300 feet of a school move to a place at least 1000 feet from a school. They have 30 days to uproot their lives. Guess who thinks this will make children safer? Only the R.I. Brotherhood of Correction Officers, which sponsored the bill. No one else. Not even law enforcers. Full Article Lenore Skenazy writes on her blog “Free Range Kids“, a commonsense approach to parenting in these overprotective times. She was the keynote speaker [video] at the 2014…
Read MoreMN: Time to stop the charade of sex offender treatment (Opinion)
Earlier this year, Federal Court Judge Donovan Frank ruled that the Minnesota’s Sex Offender Program, under which 720 men are currently civilly committed, is unconstitutional. Full Editorial
Read MoreLenore Skenazy: Sex offender or boy next door?
This should tell you something about how meaningless and capricious the “sex offender” label is: Zach Anderson, the Elkhart, Indiana, 19-year-old labeled a sex offender for having consensual sex with a girl who said she was 17 (but turned out to be 14), has had his sentence vacated. That means it’s as if his case had never been tried. It will be heard anew by a different judge. Full Article
Read MoreA new name and a new law claiming to fight child sex abuse, and guess what? THIS one will work!
We could say the names in our sleep—Megan’s Law; the Adam Walsh Act; Polly Klass; Jessica’s Law; Lauren Book; Chelsea’s Law; Laura Ahearn; and so many others. They all mark milestones for laws and policies and mandates and programs that claim to fight child sexual abuse. More than one has launched the major participant to fame, fortune, or a political stepping-stone. They all claim to be pro-victim—but they aren’t. They are pro-registry. They are pro-public notification. They are pro-lifetime punishment for those who have committed any one of over 200…
Read MoreHow a dubious statistic convinced U.S. courts to approve of indefinite detention [Opinion]
In the 2002 case McKune v. Lile, the Supreme Court upheld a Kansas law that imposed harsher sentences on sex offenders who declined to participate in a prison rehab program. The substance of the Kansas law the court upheld isn’t as important as the language the court used to uphold it. In his opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy reasoned that they pose “such a frightening and high risk of recidivism” which he wrote “has been estimated to be as high as 80%.” Five year earlier, in Kansas v. Hendricks, the court…
Read MoreMore fuel for the movement to reform sex offender laws
I’ve written before about the appalling (and unconstitutional) state of our laws regarding prohibitions and restrictions on the activities of convicted sex offenders — restrictions on where they can live, whom they can associate with, the Internet sites they can visit, the jobs they can hold and the places to which they can travel — to which they are subject after they have served whatever sentences were imposed upon them for their crimes. Commenting recently on a decision by the federal district court in Minnesota striking down Minnesota’s egregious post-conviction…
Read MoreThe system for punishing sex offenders is broken (Opinion)
Think “sex offender,” and you probably picture a creepy guy who likes to lure children to his van with candy. But that’s not the whole picture. The sex offender registry, which currently stands at over 850,000 registered sex offenders, is comprised of many people who should not be lumped into the same category as violent sex offenders and pedophiles. People like teenager Zach Anderson. The 19-year-old had sex with a teenage girl he met through a dating app. The girl said she was 17 – above the age of consent –…
Read MoreWhen the sex offender registry goes too far
You may have heard about questionable instances of people being put on a sex offender registry: teenagers having sex with other teenagers, overly curious children touching each other’s private parts, someone urinating in public. These are hardly the pedophiles and violent criminals who abduct and rape the innocent, but oftentimes they are subject to the same stringent restrictions on where to live and shop and the same stigma that makes finding a job very difficult. The case of Zachary Anderson helps to illustrate the failure of this one-size-fits-all punishment. ……
Read MoreJessica and Megan – You Know I’m Right [Commentary]
Last week California Sen. Sharon Runner wrote about the fate of SB54, which addresses those convicted of sex-offense crimes and their subsequent residency restrictions once they are released from incarceration. Runner stated her mission clearly: “The California Supreme Court decision (that ruled on a portion of Jessica’s Law as unconstitutional) creates uncertainty. County governments need a clear process to protect voter approved residency restrictions when possible and expedite relief when necessary; SB 54 provided much needed clarity.” She tried to give jurisdiction to local county courts that would allow for…
Read MoreDear 37 Million Ashley Madison customers: Welcome to Our World
I am a registered sex offender. Now, before you get convulsions, reach for your pistol, knife, baseball bat, scream obscenities, flip me off, or whatever, hear me out, because for once, it’s not about me, it’s about YOU. Full Article on sosen.org
Read MoreDems Kill Safety Bill (Commentary by Sen. Sharon Runner)
Earlier this year, I introduced legislation to make the sex offender residency restrictions in voter-approved Jessica’s Law more workable, while still keeping the integrity of the law intact. Senate Bill 54 was designed to clarify any confusion caused by In Re Taylor, the recent decision of the California Supreme Court regarding the California Department of Corrections’ enforcement of sex offenders in San Diego County. Full Commentary Related Janice’s Journal: Senate Bill 54 – Is the Battle Over? Maybe, Maybe Not
Read MoreHere’s an IUD–but wait! You can’t have sex yet! [Opinion]
By now virtually everyone in the “sex offender laws reform” camp knows the story of Zack Anderson, the 19 year old Indiana youth who faces imprisonment and sex offender registration for a sexual liaison with a 14 year old who pretended to be 17. His parents have pushed and pushed for publicity on this—good for them!—and they have it. The story made the New York Times, quoting RSOL’s executive director Brenda Jones saying that the public registry was “a conviction on steroids.” Lenore Skenazy wrote a wonderful piece for reason.com…
Read MoreStatutory Rape Laws [Letter to the Editor]
“Teenager’s Jailing Brings a Call to Fix Sex Offender Registries” (front page, July 5), about statutory rape, raises important issues. In a recent review of a decade of statutory rape cases, I found that both the apparatus to police sexual violence against minors, as well as its application against consenting minors, creates legally untenable results that frequently impose legal and extralegal burdens on minors. … In many states, sex with a minor is a felony. Ironically, in most of the cases I’ve researched, the teenagers have admitted that their sexual…
Read MoreVA: Devoy – Has Virginia’s sex offender registry kept us safe?
Recently, Gov. Terry McAuliffe set up an independent commission to look at the 20 years since parole was abolished and determine whether it should be revived. “It’s time to review whether that makes sense,” he said during a radio appearance. “Is it keeping our citizens safe? Is it a reasonable, good, cost-effective way? Are we rehabilitating folks?” he asked. “Are sentences too long for nonviolent offenses? Are we keeping people in prison too long?” All great questions! Full Editorial
Read MoreAustralia: Think twice before demanding harsher sentences for child sex offenders
How should we sentence sexual fiends, monsters and perverts? By sentencing them to prison for as long as possible – preferably never letting them free – would seem to be the popular view, if some media reports are to be believed. This group of offenders is particularly demonised due to fears they are a highly dangerous, recidivist and predatory class of criminals. Full Op-Ed Piece
Read MoreThe Public Sex Offender Registry–A Perpetual Shame
Amanda Hess has written a brilliant piece about the re-emergence of public shaming using the tragic example of a father’s punishment of his daughter. For disobeying a house rule, he filmed his cutting off her hair, chastising her all the while, and posted it online. She was only 13, unable to deal with the humiliation, and she killed herself. Full Blog Post
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