News & Updates

As a rule, convicted sex offenders don’t get much empathy, and usually for good reason. Often, cities don’t think twice about creating laws that restrict sex offenders’ lives to the point that they become unlivable. Dallas, for all of its faults, doesn’t do that. Though Dallas’ sex offender registration system is imperfect, the city of Dallas doesn’t impose residency restrictions

So there are a lot of news stories this week about a yard sale in Apopka, FL where sex offenders worked. The yard sale was to benefit the Lighthouse Mission, a charitable organization that houses primarily sex offenders. The “big deal” is that some children’s articles were sold at the yard sale and now the news reporters (not so much

It’s late March when Lauren Book and I head into the bowels of the Florida Civil Commitment Center (FCCC), armed with loose-leaf paper, pencils and the knowledge that we are about to sit face to face with three of the most dangerous sexually violent predators in the state. “This is the most manipulative crowd on the planet,” says Kristin Kanner,

ANN ARBOR—Reported sex offenses were lower in neighborhoods where more registered sex offenders live—a finding that runs counter to public perception about residential safety. A new study by the University of Michigan and Princeton University explored sex offender laws and the location of reported sex crimes by tracking address information of registered sex offenders in Baltimore County, Maryland. The study’s

Click here to listen to a news story broadcast on NPR about the civil rights challenge for registrants.

First let me insert the disclaimer that sexual abuse is a serious crime. Victims of sexual assault are deserving of justice and offenders are deserving of a punishment that is commensurate with the crime they committed. This post is not intended to mitigate or excuse the offenses described, but merely to illustrate that a one-size-fits-all registry and long-term registration does