Sex Offender Registries Don’t Keep Kids Safe, But Politicians Keep Expanding Them Anyway
Lawmakers are using “stranger danger” myths to keep almost a million Americans out of work and on the verge of homelessness.
Following are some excerpts from a GREAT article in the Huffington Post
Winters is a member of an expanding and invisible American underclass. In 1994, when Congress passed the first sex offender registration law, the list was reserved for law enforcement officials and only applied to the most serious offenders. Since then, American lawmakers at every level have relentlessly increased its scope and severity.
The registry now includes more than 900,000 people, a population slightly greater than Vermont’s. At least 12 states require sex offender registration for public urination; five apply it to people charged with offenses related to sex work; 29 require it for consensual sex between teenagers. According to Human Rights Watch, people have been forced to spend decades on the registry for crimes they committed as young as 10 years old.
The conditions imposed on registered sex offenders have become significantly more draconian over time. More than 30 states now require registrants to live at least 1,000 feet away from schools, churches and other places children congregate — a requirement that renders up to 99% of homes and apartment buildings off-limits. Some states require registered offenders to submit to regular polygraph tests and random police inspections. Florida adds “sexual predator” to the front of registrants’ driver’s licenses. Louisiana doesn’t allow sex offenders to evacuate from their own homes before natural disasters.
What explains these relentlessly tightening restrictions, Levenson said, is the domino effect that happens every time a city or state strengthens their registration laws. Politicians in neighboring jurisdictions, fearing an influx of offenders, feel they have no choice but to tighten their own. In April, Tennessee passed a new law restricting sex offenders from being alone with their own children, a direct response to a similar provision in Alabama.
Despite child sexual abuse declining by 60% between 1992 and 2010, states continue to legislate as if lenient sex offender laws are a national emergency.
While the criteria for sex offender registries vary widely between states, they are all based on the same two false assumptions: that sex offenders are uniquely likely to reoffend, and that notifying their employers, landlords and neighbors of their status will make that outcome less likely.
The first assumption is based on the “stranger danger” myth — that serial predators commit most offenses against children. In reality, strangers carry out only 7% of these crimes. Statistically speaking, the greatest risks to children are their parents, other children and authority figures they know and trust.
Researchers consistently find that sex offenders are in fact less likely to reoffend than other criminals. A study of nearly 1,800 sex offenders across four states found that only 10% reoffended in the decade after their release from prison — far lower than the 83% recidivism rate for parolees convicted of other crimes.
Not only are registered sex offenders relatively unlikely to reoffend, but the registries themselves appear to have no effect whatsoever on recidivism rates. Numerous studies have found that enacting sex offender registries doesn’t reduce the rate of sex crimes and that states don’t see a drop in the number of abuse victims after enacting harsher requirements.
One of the most common restrictions on registered sex offenders is the “buffer zone” preventing them from living or working near schools, parks or playgrounds. While these restrictions may seem like an obvious safety measure, they too appear to have no effect on abuse or recidivism rates. An analysis of 224 crimes committed by known offenders in Minnesota found that residential restrictions would not have prevented even one. Another study in New Jersey found that just 4.4% of offenders met their victims in the types of public, children-oriented spaces the registry restricts.
The rest of the country’s registrants face similar challenges. A 2014 survey of sex offenders five years after their release from prison found that 36% had never found employment. Another, in 2013, found that Florida registrants in counties with larger buffer zones around schools were more likely to be homeless. Numerous studies have found that being out of work and living on the streets significantly increase the risk of recidivism.
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Had i been able to find work i could have saved my marriage. This is exactly thebtype of factual information that gets ignored during any openly public discussions.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/18/los-angeles-police-officer-charged-multiple-rapes-after-dna-hit/1764804001/ It not the people on the Registry committing crimes but those who are not. If I were a woman I be afraid to be stop by law enforcement officer. I do not want to see any one place on the Registry. But this cop was in a position of trust He should get life in prison.I read some other comments and agree if the Judge wanted to give me life time punishment then yes but to side step the Judical process is wrong.
It is sad that the Judges are being strip from making decisions and lawmakers knowing taking that power from judges
I sent the following to all 5 local TV Stations, PBS, NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox (in Ft Myers):
“Hello:
Here is an eye-opening report from Huffpost (formerly The Huffington Post).
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sex-offender-laws-dont-make-children-safer-politicians-keep-passing-them-anyway_n_5d2c8571e4b02a5a5d5e96d1
As journalists, you have an obligation to report the TRUTH.
Thank you,
my name”
Please, everyone, send this (or something similar) to every TV station in your town or city.
We MUST get the conversation going, and it doesn’t get too much better than this for credibility.
Send the link also to your legislators.
Let’s get the ball ROLLING!!!!!!!
I sent the link to CBS, FOX, NBC, ABC, WJXT, and WJCT in Jacksonville. I also sent it to Florida state legislators Rob Bradley, Travis Cummings (both from Clay County), and to Jeff Brandes (the state senator who introduced the amendment trying to make it impossible for registrants to stay at Florida hotels and motels). I want to send a link to Lauren Book, but with the legal system we have, am concerned about possible negatives coming out of it for my husband and me.
Good for you!
Come on, everybody….where are you???
Let’s send this to the TV stations and newspapers (and also the legislation) in
Orlando
Tallahassee
Miami
Tampa
Fort Lauderdale
St Petersburg
Sarasota
Key West
Ocala
Lakeland
Gainesville … … …
Come on people……Send those emails out!!!!
Make some noise (nice and polite…but FIRM FIRM FIRM…
squeaky wheels, folks….Look at ACSOL’s successes…why?…why are they so successful?
They ALL SPEAK SPEAK SPEAK
Get involved…get excited!!!!
Getting “excited” is not going to work unless there is power behind it. Real power can come in different forms all of which can be used.
One form is the boycott. An economy that depends on consumers for 60% of GDP will be affected by a consumer boycott. The strength of a boycott depends on how many people honor it and that depends on how excited we are about publicizing it.
I guaranty to you that the sex fascists are scared to death of us boycotting, both because of the fact I stated above and because it represents us organizing.
It only takes 5% of consumers to honor a boycott for it to win, according to Cesar Chesar who won the grape pickers boycott in the 1960’s.
The reason you want to send emails out is to 1) publicize a boycott or any other unified action we might take; 2) recruit our supporters to participate in it.
Sex fascists will only respect us if they know our actions can negatively affect them.