desmoinesregister.com : Change 'ridiculous' sex-offender law.
Regarding Senate File 340 (Iowa's Adam Walsh Act), which went into effect on July 1: Instead of having the 2,000-foot residency restrictions for all sex offenders, that restriction will be gone for many of them. In its place come the exclusionary zones.
The whole law is ridiculous. Iowa was informed to comply with the National Adam Walsh Act or probably lose some federal stimulus money.
You will never keep children safe as long as politicians care more about getting re-elected than they do about the constitutional rights of all people.
Bureau of Justice statistics show the recidivism rate for sex offenders is between 3 percent and 5 percent. Sex offenders have a re-arrest rate 25 percent lower than for all other crimes.
Only 10 percent of sex abuse is done by a stranger. This law won't do a thing to change this. Fear of having a loved one put on the sex-offender registry has the misguided effect of lowering the reporting of these crimes.
Get rid of the sex registry. If you are an administrator who decides on hiring someone, take the time to call your local authorities.
Give law-enforcement personnel the information they need, but not the public. The public does not know what to do with this information sanely.
