Is the Tide Turning Against Public Sex Offender Registries?
On June 8, the American Law Institute, arguably the most prestigious non-governmental law reform organization in the country, concluded its national meeting.
One of its agenda items was to have its thousands of elected members—top federal appeals judges among them, who enjoy lifetime appointments after being confirmed by the United States Senate—vote on a draft of the revised chapter of the Model Penal Code for sex crimes. The Model Penal Code, first codified in 1962, helps guide legislation as well as interpretative decisions by courts.
ALI’s membership voted to approve the most recent draft, which included seismic proposed changes to state sex offender registries.
Perhaps most importantly, the approved draft states that these registries should be limited to law enforcement access for law enforcement purposes, as is the case in virtually every other country besides the US.
Currently, the identifies of people registered as having committed sex crimes can be searched on public online databases, along with a slew of other data including their home addresses. The rationale for this has been that it enables parents to make informed decisions about who their children can interact with. But it also means that exile, extortion and vigilante violence are often perpetrated against people with such convictions, and even their family members.
Today, Supreme Court jurisprudence still holds that public registries of this kind are not “punishment,” though lower courts are growing more skeptical.
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Reflecting a bit more on this topic one should be aware when one dwells on these types of ordeals is the .. “Why are we talking about this”. In my own ordeal after taking a guilty plea and getting probation I went back to the officer that did the sting on me and ask him why you wanted me to plea guilty. The sting operator really didn’t have an answer. and just said Why are we talking about this.
Talk about putty in the hands in this mixture of devilish scheming. Even having one sign a paper after sex classes are completed doesn’tr make much sense. So there’s where the catch is.
Is hindsight is better than foresight or should we go with insight to understand much of this registry jargon that has really rubbed people the wrong way and has created even family problems among other issues. From probation or jail time, prison time, lifetime feloney probation or other it is not right. Any person with an ounce of Christian understanding should press this issue more.
If the registry isn’t punishment than do the goalposts move constantly without no warning. If the registry is for public safety why is it okay to harm children of registrants who have not committed a crime? Why is it ok to arrest and convict a child who engaged in once normal human behavior; yet lawmakers decide to make it a crime? Lawmakers passed laws based on rare cases and public emotions wanting something to happen. All of them lived by the sword and they can all die by the sword.
This article that Florida action committee has introduced has meaning and yes it would seem the tide is turning or about to turn. Yes we can all talk about these aregont rules to demean others but who is practicing the golden rule. From what everyone says on here it seems government isn’t practicing that with this registry issue. Sure we can all look at the preamble to the constitution and yes we all should keep on fighting. I just hope our efforts are not in vain or are many of these callous and irreverent and/or disresprectful in one’s forethought or forsight.
I do not call these checks ‘Background Checks’ ; I call them ‘Dirtground Checks’ because they are not looking for the positive side of a person’s life (background)…that part that could contribute positively to society, but they look for any ‘dirt’ that they can find. Of course we all have ‘dirt’ somewhere in our lives, the difference being some have been outed while others have successfully hidden their failures. Paying a debt on a failure should mean restoration and a resumption of life…but to some forgiveness and restoration is not part of the equation…of course unless it includes the tyrants who themselves get outed, and that is happening more and more nowadays.
Bob, they are reverse welfare checks. They don’t CARE about us. They only care about those living AROUND us. They’ve created the perfect fantasy world where we’re the villains and they’re the heroes.
So, is the tide changing? If that question needs to be asked, then obviously it’s not. The public will always, ALWAYS remain fearful and ignorant, so if’s a fool’s game attempting to win over their “hearts” & minds.
This is probably slightly off topic but what the US and all 50 states need are laws passed which require every new or updated law to include goals which are definable and measurable. If the law does not meet those goals, it is determined to be inefficient and is automatically repealed. They do NOT get a chance to try and fix it.
For example, when it comes to criminal law I assume the goal is the reduction of the criminal activity. So if a State raises the maximum sentence for a crime and over the next 2-3 years measures its rate of occurrence and a decrease is not shown in the data, the legislation was not effective and the law should be repealed.
Same is true for civil laws, such as the registry and residential restrictions, etc. If the purpose of passing these laws is a decrease in occurrence of “sex” crimes and the overused and abused “public safety”, then 3-5 years down the road it should be easy to look at the data and see if they had a measurable effect. In the case of the registry and restrictions on where you can go and live, studies continually show they make no difference.
Maybe Chris Hansen from to catch a predator can tell us . He loves entraping people. Now he is under arrest
https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/to-catch-a-predator-host-chris-hansen-arrested-after-not-turning-over-sex-trafficking-video-evidence/ar-AALK0Ad?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
@ CherokeeJack
Chris Hansen found his Predator and it was starring at him in the mirror this whole time.