A Widely Used Criminal Justice Algorithm For Assessing Child Pornography Recidivism Is Flawed

Source: scientificamerican.com 5/20/24 The CPORT algorithm, commonly used to estimate the risk that a child pornography offender will offend again, hasn’t been validated for use in the U.S. In today’s criminal justice system, there are more than 400 algorithms on the market that inform important legal decisions like sentencing and parole. Much like insurance companies use algorithms to set premiums, judges use risk assessment algorithms to estimate the likelihood someone will become a repeat offender when they render prison sentences. Generally speaking, lower-risk offenders can and do receive shorter prison…

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Canada: Registrants have the same low re-offense risk as the general public after about 10 years of being offence-free in the community

Source: utpjournals.press 7/3/2023 The public is justifiably concerned about the risk presented by individuals with a history of sexual crime. Given that recidivism risk varies across individuals and over time, what level is so low as to be indistinguishable from sexual recidivism risk in the general population (a desistance threshold)? T … Other research has found that most individuals released from a sexual offence present a similarly low residual risk (< 2%) after 10 years of being offence-free in the community. Consequently, applying long-term restrictions (e.g., lifetime registration; Criminal Code…

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Canada: Despite no public sex offender registry, recidivism rate has dropped by nearly 70%

Source: myscience.org 12/20/22 Study led by Professor Patrick Lussier shows significant decline in recidivism of sex crimes in Canada over 80 years Encouraging news: between 1940 and 2019, the recidivism rate of sex offenders in this country has dropped by nearly 70%, according to a study published in the journal Criminology and Public Policy. Improved knowledge of sexual offending and training of criminal justice officials could explain these results, argues Patrick Lussier, a professor at the School of Social Work and Criminology and leader of the meta-analysis. Over a two-year…

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OK: Can child sexual abusers be rehabilitated? Experts weigh in on treatment and likelihood of reoffending

Source: stwnewspress.com 10/14/21 By the end of August, the Oklahoma Department of Corrections had more than 2,000 people incarcerated for sexual crimes against children, ranging from fondling to rape. In that timeframe, there were 23 inmates from Payne County in DOC custody convicted of child sexual crimes, with several other inmates still being in the Payne County Jail, who haven’t been transferred to DOC after their conviction. There are 10 inmates at the county jail who have been convicted this year. With so many inmates convicted of sexual violence against…

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W.A.R. Meeting Oct 12: Professor Ellman will share the results of their Frightening and High research

Source: womenagainstregistry.org email 10/7/21 My Fellow Warriors,                                                        October 7, 2021 We want to commend Professor Kristina Thompson, Doctor of Philosophy at Georgia Southern University on her clear precise presentation and the wealth of knowledge gleaned by our WAR Room participants from her presentation on Predicting Failure on the Sexual Offense Registry published in collaboration with Professor Beth Huebner of University of Missouri St.…

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A Culture Without the Possibility of Redemption Is a Toxic Culture

Source: thriveglobal.com 8/31/21 The paradox of social media, and so much of our technology, is that it keeps us locked in an eternal present, while at the same time creating an eternal archive that never fades away. The result isn’t just higher levels of anxiety, depression and loneliness, it also makes it harder for us to grow and evolve — which is, after all, our essential purpose at the heart of every spiritual and philosophical tradition. Evolution did not stop when we evolved from the apes. There is an instinct…

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People Convicted of Violent Crimes Are Rarely Rearrested for New Violent Crimes

Source: sentencingproject.salsalabs.org 6/30/21 As featured by CNN this morning, today The Sentencing Project released a comprehensive analysis on recidivism, documenting the widespread evidence that people convicted of homicide and other crimes of violence rarely commit new crimes of violence after release from long-term imprisonment. International studies, too, find low rates of recidivism among this population, suggesting that we can release people much sooner than we currently do. The report, A New Lease on Life, draws upon international, national, and state-level research, and revealed that racially charged fear-mongering by media and…

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India: Can rehab for people convicted of a sex offense help combat sexual violence?

[theweek.in] Sexual violence and the fear of sexual abuse has a profound and devastating effect on not only individuals, but entire communities. According to the 2019 annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 32,033 rape cases were registered across India; that is an average of 88 cases every day. Since the Nirbhaya gang rape in 2012, public outrage has led to more punitive measures to combat sexual violence, and keeping people convicted of a sex offense in prison for longer seems like an appealing resolve. However, in reality,…

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ACSOL Board Member Ira Ellman Publishes Scholarly Work Claiming Registry Regime Is Motivated by Animus, Should Be Stricken

[ACSOL] ACSOL Board Member Ira Ellman has published a scholarly work that claims the registry regime is motivated by animus and should be stricken.  This conclusion is based upon an analysis of four relevant U.S. Supreme Court decisions in which the Court determined what constitutes animus and struck down existing laws on that basis. According to Ellman’s work, “(n)o similar regime has ever been imposed on any other group of law-abiding former felons who have fully served the sentence for the crime they committed years earlier”.  The work also concludes…

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Study: When parole, probation officers choose empathy, returns to jail decline

[lakeconews.com – 4/1/21] Heavy caseloads, job stress and biases can strain relations between parole and probation officers and their clients, upping offenders’ likelihood of landing back behind bars. On a more hopeful note, a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that nonjudgmental empathy training helps court-ordered supervision officers feel more emotionally connected to their clients and, arguably, better able to deter them from criminal backsliding. The findings, published March 29 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show, on average, a 13% decrease in…

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CT: Dr. R. Karl Hanson: Sexual offense recidivism risk: Not what you think

[onestandardofjustice.org – 1/15/21] Dr. Hanson speaks about recidivism data and desistance. One Standard of Justice, Inc. is a volunteer-based civil rights organization committed to ensuring that persons accused or convicted of sex offenses in Connecticut are treated constitutionally and fairly by the state before, during, and after their sentences. We believe that these persons ought to be accorded dignity and respect as human beings. They are entitled, like all other criminal offenders, to be subjected only to penalties proportionate to the severity of their crimes, to be given second chances…

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Why Re-Arrest Doesn’t Mean You’re a Failure

[thecrimereport.org – 1/7/20] The justice system traditionally uses a simple metric to determine whether an individual continues to be a threat to public safety after leaving prison: has the person been arrested for another crime? Recidivism rates are also used as criteria for judging the success of intervention programs and policy reforms. But a University of Wisconsin Law School professor argues that in both cases, the system too often gets it wrong. Prof. Cecilia M. Klingele. Photo courtesy University of Wisconsin In a recent essay for the Journal of Criminal…

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A limited study done by the Department of Justice still proves that registrants have the lowest re-offense rate

[sosen.org – 6/7/19]   The Department of Justice Bureau of statistics has put out another report “Recidivism of sex offenders released from state prison a nine-year follow-up 2005-14.” This is another attempt to muddy the waters by the Department of Justice in relation to the re-offense rate of people on the registry. First of all, this is not a valid study for evaluating the amount of recidivism by the 900,000+ people that are registered citizens. This is in fact a limited study of a small group of people that were…

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Recidivism (Re-Offense) Rates for Registered Sex Offenders

[restoringintegritytovirginiaregistry.blogspot.com – no publishing date] National U.S. Recidivism (Re-Offense) Rates for Criminal Offenses, 3 years After Release 1. Vehicle Thefts, 78.8%* 2. Selling stolen property, 77.4%* 3. Burglary, 74%* 4. Larceny, 74.6%* 5. Possessing stolen weapons, 70.2%* 6. Robbery, 70.2%* 7. Domestic Battery, 41%** 8. Drugs, 27%* 9. Rape 2.5%* / Sexual Assault or Rape 5.3%** 10. Murder 1.2%* Read more statistics    

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CA Sex Offender Management Board to Release Recidivism Report

[ACSOL] The CA Sex Offender Management Board (CASOMB) will soon release the results of a 10-year study on recidivism rates for those convicted of a sex offense, according to a CASOMB member. The study is expected to include topics such as the number of people convicted of indecent exposure who later committed a sex contact offense. According to the board member, a preliminary copy of the report reveals that number is zero out of a group of more than 300 people. During today’s CASOMB meeting, several additional reports were issued…

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Recidivism: The Great Lie of “Frightening and High”

[oncefallen.com] Derek W. Logue of OnceFallen.com January 15, 2018 “In so many instances these individuals should never ever be allowed out for a second chance, they’re ticking time bombs, its not a questions if they a re-offend, it’s a question of when they re-offend.” – Lauren Book, Current FL State Senator and victim industry advocate [1] “There is a 90 percent likelihood of recidivism for sexual crimes against children. Ninety percent. That is the standard. That is their record. That is the likelihood. Ninety percent.” – Disgraced former Florida senator…

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