Ineffective, Costly, and Harmful: DEBUNKING THE SEX OFFENSE REGISTRY
The Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center (SOLPRC) at Mitchell Hamline School of Law published a report (March 2025) that contains significant evidence and resources that debunk the Registry, defining it as ineffective, costly and harmful to registrants and their families.
The report states: “The modern sex offense registry was borne out of the belief that a public registry listing people who had been convicted of a sex offense would make communities safer. That premise was wrong. We now have thirty years of data concluding that public registries do not work as intended—in fact, there is evidence that public registries actually increase registrant recidivism. Furthermore, there is no definitive evidence that these laws deter non-registrants from sexually offending. At the same time, sex offense registration and notification (SORN) laws contribute to the stigmatization of registrants, which make securing employment and housing more challenging, and disrupt or preclude the maintenance of strong social ties. Registrants’ families also experience significant hardships. SORN laws should be abandoned, and resources should instead be invested in evidence-based interventions to address sexual violence that are currently starved for resources.”
The report concludes: “Experts on sexual violence policy recognize that SORN laws do not reduce sexual offense recidivism. The gratuitous burdens that SORN laws impose on registrants and their families harm both them and the communities in which they live. Those communities would benefit from shifting the resources currently devoted to administering SORN laws to funding interventions to reduce the incidence of sexual violence that are effective, including primary prevention85, support services for victims/survivors, and reentry and treatment programs to facilitate the reintegration to civil society of people who have sexually offended.”
This is a MUST READ document that FAC intends to use in wide-spread distribution to lawmakers, media and public sectors. Do your part and share this report with your friends, neighbors, and community organizations.
This is a copy paste post.
ACSOL Letter to DOGE Requests Elimination of All Funding for SORNA
February 24, 2025 R H
Source: ACSOL
The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) has prepared and sent a letter to the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Elon Musk, to eliminate all funding for the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). According to that letter, annual funding for SORNA exceeds $10 billion.
The letter states clearly that SORNA funding has punished and continues to punish U.S. citizens required to register. The letter identifies three agencies — Department of Justice, Department of State and the General Services Administration — as recipients of SORNA funding.
For example, SORNA requires individuals convicted of a sex offense involving a minor, including offenses that did not include violence or even physical touching, to have a “unique identifier” added to their passport. This identifier is now printed on page one of the passports of affected registrants and can result in the denial of entry into countries. In the history of the world only two countries — Nazi Germany and the USSR — have added similar markings to the passports of their citizens. For both countries, the passports of only their Jewish citizens had this marking.
The letter also addresses recently issued regulations which require registrants to take actions that are not possible in the state where they live. For example, the regulations require many registrants to register four times a year despite the fact that state law requires registration only once a year.
ACSOL will post any and all replies to this letter on this website.
How much money, does anyone have an estimate, would be saved by DOGE gutting SORNA?
Billion?