Ohio Sex Offender Law and Policy Symposium

Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law - Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University: Sex Offender Law and Policy Symposium.

OSJCL Editors, Introduction: Sex Offender Law and Policy, 6 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 1 (2008).

Virginia Davis and Kevin Washburn, Sex Offender Registration in Indian Country, 6 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 3 (2008).

Eric S. Janus and Brad Bolin, An End-Game for Sexually Violent Predator Laws: As-Applied Invalidation, 6 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 25 (2008).

Wayne A. Logan, Criminal Justice Federalism and National Sex, 6 Ohio St. J. Crim. L. 51 (2008).

The Pursuit of Safety: Sex Offender Policy in the United States

VERA Institute of Justice (PDF file) : The Pursuit of Safety: Sex Offender Policy in the United States

This report was prepared by the Vera Institute of Justice under grant 2006-WP-BX-K329 awarded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The Bureau of Justice Assistance is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

Executive Summary
Local, state, and federal policymakers have paid ever more attention to sex offenses over the past 20 years. In
the wake of several high profile crimes by strangers against children in particular, they have crafted a
growing body of legislation intended to protect the public from sexual predators. This legislation has
expanded the scope of crimes that qualify as sex offenses, over the past decade more than doubled the
number of people required to register as sex offenders, increased sentences for people found guilty of sex
offenses, and established strategies designed to manage convicted sex offenders after their incarceration.
Examples of these latter strategies include registration, community notification requirements, residency
restrictions, electronic monitoring, and civil commitment.

The proliferation of these responses has generated little consensus about which available strategies are
most effective. Consequently, many policymakers concerned about using public funds to maximize
outcomes (consistent with the principles of fairness and justice) understandably are confused about their options for deterring would-be offenders, reducing recidivism, and incapacitating the most dangerous offenders. With support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (part of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs), the Center on Sentencing and Corrections at the Vera Institute of Justice conducted a nationwide review of current sex offender laws, policies, and trends. This report represents the results of that systemic analysis.

Analysis reveals that the public supports current national legislative focus on responding to sex offenses
and presume that these responses have contributed to the drop in sex offenses that has been recorded in recent years. However, it is unclear whether any of these measures have had a significant impact on sex offense rates. In large part, this is because most policies are aimed at predation by strangers, whereas sex offenses are more often committed by family members and acquaintances. In addition, a concurrent overall decrease in violent crime makes it difficult to identify the influence of the sex offender legislation on reductions in sexual offending. And several policies—particularly residency restrictions and community notification—may have negative impacts on public safety due to the impediments they create to successful reintegration of offenders who have completed their sanctions. Registration itself appears to somewhat reduce recidivism, but not for offenses against strangers.

Finally, it appears that the public opinion that often drives policy in the sex offender realm is based on the
belief that sex offenders are dangerous strangers who are apt to victimize children and re-offend. In reality,
however, most sex offenders don’t re-offend, and the definition of a sex offender is broad and encompasses
different types of offenses, some more severe than others. Moreover, children are more at risk of being sexually victimized by a family member or other person known to them than they are by a stranger living
a block away from their home or school.

Table of Contents

Historical Background
Current Issues in Sex Offender Policy
Sentencing
Sex Offender Registries
Community Notification
Residency Restrictions
Electronic Monitoring
Civil Commitment
Pursuit of Safety: Are We Safer?
Appendices ......... Includes comprehensive state-by-state details of sex offender laws.

Vera Institute of Justice Study (PDF) : Treatment and Reentry Practices for Sex Offenders: An Overview of States

Newspaper Barred From Posting Sex Offender's Photo

belfasttelegraph.co.uk: Newspaper Barred From Posting Sex Offender's Photo.

A judge in the North has barred a newspaper from publishing photographs of a convicted sex offender.
He said publication would have disrupted his private life and he had a right to privacy.

Mr Justice Stephens ruled the Sunday Life newspaper cannot publish photographs of convicted sex offender Kenneth Callaghan, aged 40. During a pre-release scheme, Callaghan brought the action against the newspaper group after he discovered it intended to publish photographs of him.

The judge said there was no evidence a photo would lead to a real and immediate risk to his life, but the paper's articles had been hostile and lacked balance and a photo would disrupt his home, his private life and his family.

Collateral Damage: Family Members of Registered Sex Offenders

Jill Levenson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Human Services, Lynn University
Richard Tewksbury, Ph.D., Professor - University of Louisville, Department of Justice Administration, Louisville, KY

Unofficial Final Copy from American Journal of Criminal Justice (PDF file)

Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to better understand the impact of sex offender registration and notification laws on the family members of registered sex offenders (RSO). An online survey was utilized to collect data from 584 family members across the U.S. Employment problems experienced by the RSO, and subsequent financial hardships, emerged as the most pressing issue identified by family members. The likelihood of housing disruption was correlated with residential restriction laws; larger buffer distances led to increased frequencies of housing crisis. Family members living with an RSO were more likely to experience threats and harassment by neighbors. Children of RSOs reportedly experienced adverse consequences including stigmatization and differential treatment by teachers and classmates. More than half had experienced ridicule, teasing, depression, anxiety, fear, or anger. Unintended consequences can impact family members’ ability to support RSOs in their efforts to avoid recidivism and successfully reintegrate. Implications for criminal justice policy and practice are discussed.

Keywords: registered sex offender, family members, Megan’s Law, sexual abuse

Full reference:
Levenson, J. S., & Tewksbury, R. (2009). Collateral damage: Family members of registered sex
offenders. American Journal of Criminal Justice.
Available online: HERE (PDF File)

Discussion
This study is one of the first to survey family members of sex offenders to understand the
ways in which they are affected by SORN laws. Employment limitations and subsequent
financial problems emerged as the most pressing issue for family members, followed by housing
concerns. The likelihood of housing disruption was higher for those family members restricted
by larger residential buffer zone laws. Clearly, disruptions in employment and housing can affect
others with whom an offender lives. As well, a substantial minority of family members
experienced threats, harassment, or property damage due to public disclosure about the sex
offender.

Civil sanctions imposed on criminal offenders are sometimes called invisible
punishments and often result in barriers to reintegration (Travis, 2005). The primary objectives
of the criminal justice system are to punish offenders and protect communities, but rehabilitation
and successful reentry are also important goals. It is well known that the stigma of felony
conviction can hinder partaking in prosocial roles such as employment, education, parenting, and
property ownership, all of which are vital to an offender’s investment in conformity to social
norms and therefore to desistance from crime (Uggen, Manza, & Behrens, 2004). Invisible
punishments and their consequences (i.e. underemployment, lack of affordable housing,
obstacles to assuming adult and parental roles) have a documented impact on families of criminal
offenders (Hirsch, Dietrich, Landau, Schneider, Ackelsberg, Bernstein-Baker, & Hohenstein,
2002; Travis & Waul, 2003), but less obvious is the stigma felt by them.

The public disclosure to which sex offenders are exposed is unprecedented, and therefore
SORN is unique in the degree to which invisible sanctions are inadvertently imposed upon and
experienced by loved ones of offenders. As such, SORN creates impacts that are broad, and as
illustrated in this study, deep and lasting. Family members, even those who do not live with
RSOs, experience harassment, threats, violence, economic hardships, difficulties with housing,
and psychological stresses simply because they are related to a sex offender. Whether intended
or not, the criminal justice system, via SORN policies, extends punishments to a wide swath of
society beyond sex offenders.

In particular, the impact on children of sex offenders is worthy of contemplation.
Whether we like it or not, many sex offenders have children of their own, and they encounter
stigmatization as a result of their parent’s RSO status. What remains unclear is the myriad of
ways in which these experiences will impact their psychosocial development, their interpersonal
relationships, and their sense of self. Furthermore, the ways in which their relationship with their
RSO parent is impacted is crucial and can influence their own future criminal and non-criminal
behaviors. Those who are truly without culpability – and many times already victims – are
punished through SORN polices and their consequences.

Not surprisingly, family members found little value in notification and did not believe
that it contributes in meaningful ways to public safety. Noteworthy, however, is the miniscule
number of subjects who believed that their RSO could be at risk to reoffend (This is a misleading synopsis in this report. US Department of Justice statistics show that the actual recidivism rates range between 3 and 5 % - search this blog for "truth over myth" for links )

Implications for criminal justice policy are clear. SORN laws have extended sanctions
and their negative economic, social, and psychological consequences to others associated with
sex offenders. A result may be that these laws ultimately impel loved ones to distance themselves
from the RSO in order to limit, manage, or cope with their own experiences of collateral
consequences. In turn, such disengagement will leave some offenders with fewer sources of
economic and social support and a weaker safety net for inhibiting recidivism. As a result,
current policies may have effects that contradict their intentions: by imposing losses on RSOs’
family members, the conditions that work to inhibit reoffending are weakened or removed,
potentially facilitating recidivism.

Furthermore, the Adam Walsh Act expands registration requirements by lengthening
duration periods, including juveniles as young as 14 years old, and mandating that states conform
to an offense-based categorization scheme which inflates the number of registrants classified as
high-risk. Such a system is well-intentioned but misguided. The result will be an exponentially
growing number of RSOs who are publicly identified for longer periods of time; of course this
will also proliferate the impact of SORN laws on family members. Some sex offenders do indeed
have a higher probability of recidivism, and therefore community safety is more likely to be
enabled when states adopt empirically derived risk assessment methods to validly, reliably, and
discriminately identify high risk offenders (Grove & Meehl, 1996; Hanson & Morton-Bourgon,
2005). By reserving public disclosure for those who pose the greatest threat, resources can be
more efficiently distributed, citizens can be appropriately warned, reintegration obstacles for
offenders can be minimized, and collateral consequences for family members can be diminished.
In contrast to the guidelines set forth by the Adam Walsh Act, evidence-based sex crime policies
which employ empirically validated risk assessment strategies would be more apt to accomplish
goals of public safety and successful reintegration.

This study does, however, represent a pioneering effort to quantitatively understand the
experiences of loved ones of registered sex offenders. Their voices have been, to date, largely
unheard, and they are among the collateral victims of sexually violent crime. SORN policies
have become increasingly restrictive over the years, exposing sex offenders and their families to
public scrutiny and placing severe limits on sex offenders’ employment, housing, and academic
opportunities. Certainly, these policies were designed to protect the public from sexually
dangerous individuals, but the collateral consequences of the laws to others were presumably
unanticipated. Given that there is little research to suggest that community notification laws
result in decreased recidivism (Prescott & Rockoff, 2008), their impediments to offenders’
reintegration and their consequences for innocent others deserve thoughtful consideration.

Become a 'Minute Man'

From www.gasorr.org :

The RSOL Correspondence Committee has a need for bloggers, commentators, and email/letter writers.

We are forming a 'Minute Man' group. This group will be on call to enter into debates, post comments, write letters to authors, legislators, and others in response to articles, proposed legislation, and the Sex Offender issue in general.

If you are part of this group, you will receive an email that provides link/address and a general tenor of the type of response needed. In some cases, you will receive a pre-written letter/email that you may edit and send. To avoid being spammed, the responses will have to come directly from your computer (not simply forwarded from the RSOL CC.)

This will not require full time dedication. It will require that you check your email and respond when you are able. When entering into a blog/comment chain to an article. It will require that you continue to respond for an extended period (which can mean monitoring the chain for some days and posting some few times.)

If you are ready to begin making a difference, contact the RSOL Correspondence Committee at seregco@gmail.com or visit http://www.gasorr.org/home.html and click on the Volunteer link.

Change?

Here is your chance to directly ask the incoming President Obama administration if they intend to put a stop to these unconstitutional Adam Walsh Act / SORNA laws.

Go to http://change.gov/page/m2/3855d469/6857373e/2bce4709/5e6bcaf8/3023668136/VEsE/

Register. Search for and vote on "Adam Walsh Act" , "SORNA" and "sex offender" related questions.

Ask your own question related to these laws.

Liberty - A Line in the Sand

This is a short (3m:34s) video link sent to ConstitutionalFights by a reader. On the first day of this new year, it seems appropriate to post as a resolution for the hundreds of thousands of US citizens who are seeing their liberty and constitutional rights fade.

9th Circuit Court: Sex Offender Sentence Illegal

Sentencing Law and Policy: Ninth Circuit finds 28-year "failure to register" sentence unconstitutional.

The case of Gonzales v. Duncan, No. 06-56523 (9th Cir. Dec. 30, 2008) (available here).

Cecilio Gonzalez was convicted by a jury of failing to update his annual sex offender registration within five working days of his birthday, in violation of California Penal Code § 290(a)(1)(D). Because of his prior criminal convictions, he received a sentence of 28 years to life imprisonment under California's “Three Strikes” law. On habeas review, we must decide whether his sentence violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and, if so, whether the contrary conclusion of the California Court of Appeal constituted an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law.

The California courts have characterized the state’s registration requirement as a regulatory offense, a “most technical violation” that “by itself, pose[s] no danger to society.” People v. Cluff, 105 Cal. Rptr. 2d 80, 81, 86 (Cal. Ct. App. 2001). In a case materially indistinguishable from this one, the California Court of Appeal concluded that a Three Strikes sentence of 25 years to life imprisonment for violating the registration requirement was “grossly disproportionate to the offense” and violated the Eighth Amendment. People v. Carmony, 26 Cal. Rptr. 3d 365, 368-69 (Cal. Ct. App. 2005). Although our standard of review is more deferential, we too conclude that Gonzalez’s sentence is grossly disproportionate to his offense. We further conclude that the California Court of Appeal’s decision affirming Gonzalez’s sentence constitutes an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law under 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(1). We therefore reverse the district court’s denial of Gonzalez’s petition and remand with instructions to grant the petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

The fact that a federal circuit court has found a non-capital prison sentence unconstitutionally excessive is big new in itself.

Judge: Sex Offender's No-contact Order Goes Too Far

Kpvi.com Idaho: Judge: Sex Offender's No-contact Order Goes Too Far.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The Idaho Court of Appeals has overturned a state court order banning a convicted sex offender from being within 100 feet of any minor, including his two young children.

The appellate court ruled last week the no-contact order imposed on Brian C. Cobler went too far, violating his parental rights. The no-contact order included letters, phones and e-mails.

Cobler was arrested in 2006 and convicted of having a three-month sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl. He was sentenced to serve a minimum of 2 years in prison.

In his decision earlier this month, Idaho Court of Appeals Chief Judge Sergio Gutierrez says denying Cobler his rights as a parent "oversteps the authority of the state."

GA: Sex Offenders Must Hand Over Online Passwords

GeorgiaNews- gpbnews.blogspot.com: GA: Sex Offenders Must Hand Over Online Passwords.

A law is set to take effect in Georgia Thursday that requires sex offenders to hand over Internet passwords, screen names and e-mail addresses.

Georgia joins a small band of states complying with guidelines in a 2006 federal law requiring authorities to track Internet addresses of sex offenders. But the state is among the first to take the extra step of forcing its 16,000 offenders to turn in their passwords as well.

A federal judge ruled in September that a similar law in Utah violated the privacy rights of an offender who challenged it. That ruling applied to only one offender who had a military conviction
on sex offenses but was never in Utah's court or prison system.

No one in Georgia has challenged the law yet. But critics say it threatens the privacy of sex offenders and places an additional burden on law enforcement officials.

Read this bill here (as passed version): http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/sum/sb474.htm

This means, of course, that the state can now read the private emails of citizens who are supposed to be living legally in freedom after they serve their punishment for a previous crime. It also means that the state can access all of these citizens' online financial and business activity! This is yet another inane and clearly unconstitutional law which must be defeated !