Reforming Florida’s Sex Offender Registry Laws
When Senator Ted Cruz stated in a recent Senate hearing, “How about we all come together and say, let’s stop attacking pedophiles,” the internet erupted with outrage and mockery. But those who dismissed it as a “gaffe” are missing the larger truth: Cruz gave voice to a deeply uncomfortable but vitally important reality. In America today, the word pedophile has
Read moreOver the last couple of days we’ve written about social media “predator stings”, where private individuals orchestrate these pretend stings seeking to catch people showing up to allegedly meet up with minors. These groups create fake profiles, pose as underage “decoys”, bait people into sexual conversations, lure them to a specific location, and then publicly confront them on video. The
Read more135 Arrested in ‘Operation Next Door’ Crackdown on Human Trafficking Across Ohio… at least that’s what the news report from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office is titled. In reality, the headline could have read “How 100 law enforcement agencies spent their week turning massage parlors into headline theaters”. The AG’s press release trumpets the word “human trafficking”, but most of
Read moreThe story of Bill Conradt is one of the darkest chapters in the history of the show To Catch a Predator. Conradt was an assistant district attorney in Texas who became the target of a sting operation in 2006. Instead of falling for the bait, he never showed up at the decoy house. That should have been the end of
Read moreFor years, legislators have enacted Sex Offender Residency Restrictions (SORRs), prohibiting people on the registry from living within 1,000, 2,000, or even 2,500 feet of places where children congregate, such as schools, parks, playgrounds and daycares. These laws sound simple in theory, but in practice they leave only tiny slivers of land available for housing. The result is predictable: registrants
Read moreIn the Bible Belt, there’s basically a church on every corner—especially here in Nashville. It feels like there should be so many options to choose from if you want to join a faith community. But the church doors are often closed to people on the sex offender registry, including myself. Sex offender registries are designed so that society treats you
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