The Supreme Court believes most sex offenders will keep committing sex crimes. The data suggests otherwise. By David Feige Can the state ban sex offenders from social media? That’s the question at the heart of Packingham v. North Carolina, a case argued before the U.S. Supreme Court last week. In 2002, then–21-year-old Lester Gerard Packingham Jr. was indicted for having
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Category: Boundaries Colorado’s pricey polygraph testing of under fire
Colorado’s pricey polygraph testing of sex offenders under fire as critics target accuracy, expense Psychologist calls state’s $5 million polygraph program “grossly excessive” as state legislature examines cost… Colorado has spent more than $5 million to administer polygraphs on convicted sex offenders over the last seven years despite concerns that the tests are so unreliable they can’t be used as evidence
View Article...Category: Boundaries Constitutional Law and the Role of Scientific Evidence
Boston College Law Review | Feb. 22, 2017 Constitutional Law and the Role of Scientific Evidence: The Transformative Potential of Doe v. Snyder by Melissa Hamilton Excerpts: In the United States, sex offenders are uniquely regarded as moral lepers, in need of constant supervision and forced to the margins of society. The public’s fear of persons who have committed crimes
View Article...Category: Boundaries Edmonton judge rules national sex offender registry is unconstitutional
An Edmonton judge has ruled that the national sex offender registry is unconstitutional as it is “over broad and grossly disproportionate” and violates people of their charter rights. In a recently released decision involving the case of an Edmonton man convicted of two sexual assaults, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Andrea Moen found the Sex Offender Information Registration Act removed
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Several overlapping, follow-up studies of child pornography offenders suggest these individuals present less risk for future hands-on offenses, on average, than undifferentiated samples of contact sex offenders.[iii] The study with the longer follow-up period revealed that 8.5% of the sample committed a contact sexual offense after an average “at risk” period of almost six years. Child pornography offenders also presented
View Article...Category: Boundaries Sexually Offensive Acts: Who Defines Them?
So now I am really confused: the purpose of the Registry is to protect the children; or is the purpose to make a mockery of American values by listing all people who have poor sexual desires onto a registry? If it is for the purpose of “protecting the children from harm” then put only the adults who have harmed a
View Article...Category: Boundaries Where Do They Really Live
The Registry, for sex related criminal records, does not cure anything nor has it saved any child’s life nor has it really done anything for society other than make some residents feel angry, disgusted and rebellious over who is living in their neighborhood. The Registry is not accurate1 less than 75% of the addresses listed could have been correct, as at
View Article...Category: Boundaries CERTIFICATE OF REHABILITATION & PARDON INSTRUCTION PACKET
A Certificate of Rehabilitation is a court certified document declaring that a person is now obeying the laws of the land and demonstrating good moral character. A Certificate of Rehabilitation is designed to restore civil and political rights of citizenship to ex-felons (and some misdemeanants) who have proved their rehabilitation. People v. Lockwood (App. 1 Dist. 1998) 77 Cal.Rptr.2d 769,
View Article...Category: Boundaries Get involved
It has recently come to my attention, that many people are for lack of a better word “[spineless]”. I’m not just referring to politicians that behind closed doors will speak out against the registry, or any other political matter that would seem to be a more constitutional way of life, but wouldn’t dare speak out in public for fear of
View Article...Category: Boundaries The Supreme Court’s Crucial Mistake About Sex Crime Statistics
A commonly-cited statistic about sex offender re[cidivism] rates is wrong. ABSTRACT This brief essay reveals that the sources relied upon by the Supreme Court in Smith v. Doe, a heavily cited constitutional decision on sex offender registries, in fact provide no support at all for the facts about sex offender re-offense rates that the Court treats as central to its
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