Public Perceptions Of Youth Who Commit Sexual Offense

Few crimes stimulate such visceral reactions and deep-seated fears as sexual offenses. Accordingly, societal responses to sexual offending such as registration and notification laws tend to be quite punitive and highly stigmatizing for the offender. Yet these social control practices are widely considered by the public to be essential for community safety. However, given lessons learned about the linkages between

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The Fallacy of In-Person Registration for Sex Offenders

Weekly Update #131 Dear Members and Advocates: Happy New Year!!! So much has changed between this time last year and today that I’m more surprised by what didn’t change because of COVID than what did. I’m shocked that despite the spread of a global pandemic, the State of Florida did not suspend IN PERSON registration. Things like vehicle changes or

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Banishing ‘Sex Offenders’: How Meaningless Language Makes Bad Law

Read the essay by Guy Hamilton-Smith on how the term “sex offender” is functionally meaningless, and invites policy responses that are out of step with the reality of sexual harm. These policy responses, in turn, hobble our efforts to reckon with sexual harm, foreclose accountability and redemption, and elide more effective approaches. As of 2018, there were nearly one million

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ACSOL: Book Offers Insight, Identifies Trends in Registrant Community

From ACSOL: The Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Law (ACSOL) and the registrant community is the focus of a newly published book by ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci.  The book, Show Up – Stand Up – Speak, offers insights and identifies trends in the registrant community. “The purpose of the book is to educate the public regarding the daily challenges

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NY: Sex offender risk assessments said to have little predictive value

Convicted sex offenders under New York law must have their risk of reoffense assessed by courts under the Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA” or “Megan’s Law”) with courts determining whether offenders are at low, moderate or high risk to re-offend. The rankings not only determine the length and intrusiveness of sex offender registration and community notification, which often last for

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