VA: Senseless New Law Takes Effect

On January 1, 2016 a new “supplement” to the Virginia Sex Offenders Registry was launched, which added over five thousand names to the list.

People convicted of sex offenses on or after July 1, 1980, and before July 1, 1994 are now being added to the registry in a senseless move to beef up their counts by adding unnecessary names to an unnecessary list.

We’re talking about punishing people who committed an offense 35 years ago! At minimum, we’re adding a punishment decades after the fact, which is horribly unfair to both the offender and the public.

It’s unfair to the offender because they are taking someone who hasn’t re-offended in decades (or else they would presumably be on the list for an offense after 1994) and destabilizing them.

It’s unfair to the public because they are diluting the list with individuals who pose no greater threat to the public than someone who has never offended (studies show that even the worst offender poses no greater threat than someone who has never offended, after 17 years living offense free http://responsesystemspanel.whs.mil/Public/docs/meetings/Sub_Committee/20140225_CSS/Materials_Presenters/05_HighRiskOffenders_MayNotBeHighForever_Hanson_Harris_Helmus_Thornton.pdf)

So what sense does it make to not only increase a state’s sex offender list by about 25% overnight, when those 25% account for negligible risk?