Sex offenders are the foremost pariahs of our current day. In opinion polls, even intravenous drug users place higher. A recent series of high profile cases involving child sexual abuse have revealed the maddening frequency of the problem. My hometown newspaper now exists in electronic format, and as I read the local news, it seems that every other week brings a report of a new crime against minors. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Most are the product of incest, unreported, hushed up within families. The offenses that…
Read MoreTag: Opinion
Do sex offender registries, like new ‘OffenderWatch,’ make us safer? (Op-Ed)
Today the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office announced it was launching “OffenderWatch,” a brand-new way to be scared of your neighbors. … I have a few questions: Why? And what, exactly, are you to do with this information? Do you commit these names and faces to memory? What are you supposed to do when you meet one of these guys on the street? Do you instruct your kids to stay away from these homes? Are we supposed to keep an eye on them in some way? Should we organize patrols…
Read MoreLET’S TALK ABOUT SEX (OFFENDERS)
First, let’s put some things on the table. There is wide consensus that sexual assault is under reported. There is some disagreement about just how under reported sexual assault among adults is (and some controversy about how it is defined and measured), but there are good estimates that only about a tenth of sexual abuse against children is ever reported. Abuse against children is especially heinous because of the lifelong harm it can inflict on the survivors and the subsequent costs it imposes on society. Now, let’s talk about one hugely counterproductive way to deal…
Read MoreIn defense of the judge who sentenced the man who raped his three year old daughter to probation (Op-Ed)
From one of the many, many articles and op/eds written about this case: “A Delaware man convicted of raping his three-year-old daughter only faced probation after a state Superior Court judge ruled he ‘will not fare well’ in prison.” Those words, “will not fare well” in prison may go down as among the most, if not the most, infamous words ever attributed to a judge. What was the judge thinking, critics ask, and the cynical and even not-so-cynical find ready answers: he was rich, one of the DuPont family heirs;…
Read MoreLet’s Rethink Our Love of Prisons
Delaware Judge Jan Jurden just helped to destroy the market in human souls, and for that, I am grateful. She refused to send a self-confessed child rapist to prison, letting him instead walk out the courthouse door, to begin a lengthy period of probation and treatment as a sex offender. Robert H. Richards IV, an heir to the DuPont chemical fortune, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his 3-year-old daughter. According to press reports, he penetrated the child with his finger, a twisted and disgusting act. The allegations came to light…
Read MoreOne size fits all isn’t always wise (Op-Ed)
Few public policies galvanize bipartisan political support like measures that target convicted sexual offenders. Lengthy prison sentences, registration and civil commitment for the most dangerous offenders are among the tools used to mete punishment, protect the public and serve justice. But as The Pilot’s Louis Hansen reported Sunday, Virginia’s practice of committing violent sex offenders to a lifetime on a public registry, and requiring them to jump through bureaucratic hoops long after they’ve served their prison sentences, can sometimes prove problematic. Hansen’s report on Willie Combo, an aging offender who recently…
Read MoreEditorial: This ‘answer’ for sex offenders is not right
They commit heinous sex crimes on children and women. They take online offers from children, hoping for sex. Their computers are libraries of pornography. Some decide to expose or relieve themselves in public. They are convicted of their crimes and sentenced. When they leave prison, they are forever known as sex offenders. Their crimes are despicable. There is no disputing that. But how long should they live with the label and the past, if somehow they become legal and productive contributors in their communities? Our front page today displays a…
Read MoreKY: Viewing child porn not victimless crime; Ky. punishment fair (Op-Ed)
I am a clinical psychologist, lately retired after 12 years of service to the state as an approved provider of sex-offender evaluations to the courts. I wish to address misconceptions in the Guy Hamilton-Smith commentary, in which he complained that he was being unduly punished by being required to register as a sex offender and the subsequent letter of support from Marjorie Valentine of CAUTIONclick National Campaign for Reform. First, possession of or viewing child pornography is not punished as a violent crime in Kentucky, as the letter’s headline suggests.…
Read MoreCasual cruelty to children
Children suffer when a parent goes to prison but who would expect that the suffering can be worse when that parent is released from prison? After the parent has been away from home for years, the anticipated reunion is often prohibited, even when the child was not a victim of the parent’s crime. A man who was convicted of possession of child pornography, released to a halfway house to serve out the remaining few months of his sentence, is not allowed to see his children. He is not allowed to…
Read MoreMN: Our View – Reform state sex offender program
Barring a stunning change of heart and hefty dose of political courage, Minnesota’s legislators and governor appear content to dodge the unpopular-but-necessary task of reforming the Minnesota Sex Offender Program this session. Voters need to remember that on Election Day. Equally important, they need to remember it anytime they hear state candidates criticize opponents who advocate reforms as being “soft on crime.” The truth is a decade of failure by 201 legislators and two governors to change this inhumane, incredibly expensive and likely unconstitutional program is the real crime. Full Op-Ed…
Read MoreParents, Stop Panicking About Sexual Predators Online
In a recent New York Times profile, Danah Boyd was described by one of her colleagues at NYU as our first anthropologist “who comes from the tribe she’s studying,” meaning that the 36-year-old researcher is a digital native who grew up immersed in the same online culture as the teenagers she now studies. “Danah Boyd often dresses like her youthful subjects,” reads the caption on a photo of her wearing a fuzzy animal beanie and striped knee-highs, suggesting that Boyd is an emissary from a new and unexplored terrain. But…
Read MoreDo we really need new sex offender laws every time a child is killed?
First, we need to get out of the way the accusations, based on the title of this post, that I don’t care about the victims. I care about the victims much, much more than those who persist in supporting a system that all but ignores the victims and apparently doesn’t care about any victims except those victimized by registered sex offenders. Florida has just passed a plethora of laws, and is looking to pass more, under the guise of protecting children from those registered sex offenders. Full Opinion Piece
Read MoreWhen Government Fears the People, There is Liberty
When the craftsman sets out to learn his trade, for example, woodworking, he spends a great deal of time learning about his craft. He must learn not only the tools to use, but also the proper types of wood to work with. He must be totally versed in all aspects of woodworking if he want to be considered a master of his trade. This is true of any field of endeavor, except for one, our Public officials. For some reason many of our politicians feel that they will gain more…
Read MoreThe Sex Offender Shuffle
Washington Post Opinion Section: I know the term Kafkesque is overused, but I mean come on.The Chicago Police Department forces sex offenders to violate their parole. I know that sounds crazy. I thought it was crazy when I first heard about it, but I’ve spent a lot of time in the last two weeks with sex offenders waiting — for hours and hours — outside police headquarters and watching a Kafkaesque process play out. Full Op-Ed Piece
Read MoreOp Ed: Tennessee Rep. Wants to Print “Sex Offender” in Red on Every Sex Offender’s Driver’s License
Matthew Hill, a Tennessee state representative who ran for office with an image of a fetus on his campaign fliers, has entertained the notion that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and previously proposed legislation to force Tennesseans to exclusively speak English while at work, has got another bright idea. Hill is sponsoring a bill that would print the words sex offender—in three places, and in red lettering—on the driver’s licenses of everyone listed on the sex-offender registry in the state. Hill says that he was moved to support the legislation after…
Read MoreGA: The case of the malicious sheriff
Newbie Georgia Republican legislator Sam Moore has struck a blow–albeit an unpopular one–for constitutional rights, fact-based legislation, and common sense. His bill would remove restrictions on registered citizens, once their sentences are satisfied, that restrict their movements and prohibit their presence in places such as schools and parks. Shocking as it is in Georgia, there are many jurisdictions throughout the U.S. that do not place these restrictions on registrants. Following what research shows, that these restrictions offer no public safety benefit and that community re-entry is the best path to…
Read MoreCapitol Punishment: The Troubling Consequences of Federal Child Pornography Laws
Until Dec. 11, 2013, Jesse Ryan Loskarn was a popular chief of staff for a Tennessee senator. But on that winter day, police broke down the door of his rowhouse in southeast Washington, D.C., and searched for the illegal digital items that had led them there: explicit videos of boys posing nude and engaging in sexual acts. On Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014, Ryan was found dead in his basement. On Monday, Jan. 27, 2014, there was a twist. Ryan’s mother posted his suicide note online, revealing the great complexity to…
Read MoreThe Public Flaw in Megan’s Law
What illegal behavior is part of your past? Speeding? Underage drinking? Leaving a store with an item you didn’t pay for? If you got caught, were you punished by a state-run website listing your offense and notifying others where you lived? Probably not. But what if those were your punishments? Would they have stopped your objectionable behavior in the future? Probably not. Because public humiliation generally doesn’t work as a method of behavior modification. And that’s why Megan’s Law, which requires authorities to notify communities of the whereabouts of sex offenders, is a bad…
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