Supported by lawmakers, opposed by reformers, youth sex offender registries have a long history
In Wisconsin, two 15-year-olds whose foster parent caught them having consensual sex were charged with felony sexual assault and put on the sex offender registry for at least 15 years.
In Arizona, it’s possible for a minor who streaks nude at a football game to be charged with a sex offense and put on a registry. In Massachusetts, teens caught sending a nude photo of themselves could end up on a registry.
Existing in every state, registries list children as young as elementary school age; a small fraction of their crimes were rape or resulted in other types of severe sexual harm.
Originally, registries were conceived as a way to inform communities about convicted sexual predators living in their neighborhoods. But researchers, conducting several different studies over the years, have largely determined that putting minors on registries does not enhance community safety and reflects a miscarriage of justice that runs afoul of the juvenile justice system’s promise to help rehabilitate youth.
“The research is very consistent on this. There are no research studies that show [the sexual offender registry] is actually effective in the way it is applied,” said University of Wisconsin psychologist and researcher Michael Caldwell, a senior staff psychologist at the Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center and past president of the Wisconsin Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers.
“All of the observational studies show the same thing,” added Caldwell, a forensic evaluator in youth courts and author of dozens of peer-reviewed papers. The registries “tend to categorize lower-risk people, don’t have any effect on recidivism for anyone on the registry. And it certainly causes them problems. And there’s no evidence it has any effect on the general population in terms of sexual violence.”
“For youth,” continued Caldwell, whose papers weren’t included in the Library of Congress assessment, the outcomes “are even worse.”
Discover more from Florida Action Committee
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
According to my research, more than 19 million people in the U.S have a felony conviction on their record. Less than a million are on the sex offender registry. There has been rumors of a “Felony” registry for years but I believe that was tabled for one reason.
Could you imagine 19 million people joining together in a nationwide protest? For some it would be more intense than just a protest. With 19 million people having felonies, probably every family either has a member who has had a felony or has a close connection to someone who does. This would include extended family, someone they know at work, church etc.
We all agree that it is far from fair that others with felonies that are not registerable, can go on with their lives and get jobs, housing, assistance, and be left alone in their own homes without fear and harassment. Not saying they should be on a registry, just saying ALL of us should have a path to freedom, and that path for me was decades ago but go taken away by the registry, which seems to be a lifetime of so called “Non” punishment, punishment.
I question the abilities of these foster parents, too. This nanny state (US not just FL or WI) has told people that they can’t use their own judgment so what should’ve been an awkward family talk at most turned into another legal and SOR nightmare.