A new City Club of Portland report recommends loosening the sex offender registration requirements for juveniles so only those considered at high risk of committing new crimes would have to register with police annually.
Oregon is one of 38 states that include juvenile felony sex offenders in their sex offender registries and one of six that include them on the registry for life or until they apply to be removed. Currently, the vast majority of those applications are granted in Oregon.
About 3,000 of the more than 25,000 offenders on the Oregon state police registry committed their offenses as juveniles, the report found.
The committee members who studied the issue concluded that it was unfair to require juvenile sex offenders to register with the state every year before they’ve completed their treatment.
“We find that Oregon’s registration of young sex offenders adjudicated in juvenile court is deeply flawed,” according to the draft report. “Brain development research demonstrates that impulse control, reasoning and the ability to exercise judgment are developing during adolescence. And treatment during that time can effectively change behavior.”
The committee argued that the sex offender registration requirements create barriers for youths trying to complete their education, find a job or housing. Federal law prohibits sex offenders from living in federally assisted housing, for example.
The committee reported that the registration requirements alienate youths and work counter to the goal of rehabilitating them.
The City Club decided to address the issue of juvenile sex offender registration after state lawmakers last year adopted a new system for the registration and monitoring of adult sex offenders.
Scheduled to go into effect in 2017, the new system will rank adult sex offenders into three categories based on risk assessments and set up a schedule for when offenders classified in each level may seek to be removed from the registry.
State law for juvenile sex offenders, however, does not distinguish between youths who are at high risk to reoffend and those not likely to commit a new crime.
Six of the City Club’s eight-member volunteer committee issued a majority report and recommended four changes to state law that would:
1. Require a juvenile court judge to decide whether to subject a youth to sex offender registration only after the offender’s supervision and treatment ends.
2. Require the state to notify all juvenile sex offenders when they can apply to have their names removed from the registry, and allow a juvenile sex offender to petition for that relief for up to five years after registration is imposed.
3. Make the process for juvenile sex offenders to seek relief from registration more accessible.
4. Have state police create clear guidelines for what information can be released to the public about juvenile sex offenders, and better evaluate the effectiveness of the registry.
Two of the committee members issued a minority opinion. They had sought to urge state lawmakers to eliminate all registration requirements for juvenile sex offenders.
Under Oregon state law now, juveniles are required to register only if they have been convicted of a felony sex crime.
Youths convicted of a sex crime in juvenile court can now apply for relief from registration two years after their supervision ends. Application is made to the district attorney or juvenile court in the county in which they live and a court hearing is scheduled. The application court filing fee is about $200, the report said.
The burden is on the person petitioning for relief to prove at a hearing that the youth is rehabilitated and not a public threat. In most cases, relief is granted, the report found, yet few youths in Oregon seek the relief.
The committee argued that national studies show the chance of juvenile sex offenders reoffending is low, from 2.5 percent to 15 percent. The report cited Oregon Youth Authority figures that show 5 percent of juvenile sex offenders reoffend in the year following their supervision. Yet their research also pointed to a study in Washington state that reviewed 14 high-risk juvenile sex offenders and found 79 percent were rearrested within 4.5 years for a new offense of any kind and 43 percent rearrested on new sex crime allegations.
The committee recommends that juvenile sex offenders be evaluated after they complete their supervision and treatment to determine if they are at high risk of committing a new offense. The evaluation should include whether the youths avoided rearrest during their supervision, completed their treatment and what the offender’s attitude is toward the crime and victim, the report said.
“An end-of-supervision evaluation is far superior to the current system, in which juveniles are subject to registration before much is known about them and their circumstances,” the committee wrote in its report.
The City Club will host a Town Hall on the report and its recommendations Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Green Dragon Bistro and Pub, at 928 SE 9th Ave. At the meeting, club members will vote on whether to adopt the report as official club policy. The results will be announced online on Nov. 17.
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