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Sex Offender Registers

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Public Sex Offender Registers: The Concept of Community Notification

Community notification laws authorise the public disclosure of a convicted sex offender’s information, (such as their name, address, offending history, car registration etc.) to anyone who has access to the Internet. Community notification should not be confused with basic registration of sex offenders, because register records are usually not made public. However a number of commentators have suggested that merely registering sex offenders for use by law enforcement agencies is not enough, it is necessary to have the information available to the public. Cases which have attracted media frenzies, usually sexual assaults and murders involving children, have served to push …show more content…

Furthermore, when information sharing is increased it allows greater access to data on sex offenders. This would help law enforcement to promote justice by having equal access to information. However, at this stage there is not enough research to show to what extent this will impact the justice system’s efficiency.

Members of the public can protect themselves

Proponents for sex offender registers claim that they provide an effective preventative tool because, if people know where offenders reside, those in the community can protect themselves from the risk that sex offender pose. The supposition is that by knowing a sex offender resides in your community, the community can take steps to prevent being victimised. One of the reasons that communities want to know where sex offenders reside is that it may assist the community to “feel better”, however there is no empirical evidence that public safety is actually increased, and if anything, community notification is more likely to instil fear in …show more content…

A study found that one-third of sex offenders surveyed on the register in Florida experience some sort of adverse consequence such as acts of vigilantism and harassment, inability for offenders to find jobs and housing, housing prices lower in communities with sex offenders and loss of friends and family support. The two main rationales behind community notification are enhancing public safety and reducing recidivism. However many studies have proven that community notification does not enhance public safety or reduce recidivism, the consequences for the offender are mainly negative and will not assist in rehabilitation into

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Dominic T. Hicks, DOB 05/01/77 is a known Registered Sex Offender that lives in Unit 6 and was a possible match to the suspect description given by the victim. On 06/24/15, I conducted registered sex offender address verification checks and contacted Hicks at 109 Lake St. S. #6 which is his registered address. At about 0900 hours, Cpl. Crocker and Detective Lansing contacted Wehrman at the hospital.

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The United States Supreme Court in the Packingham v. North Carolina first amendment case has ruled in favor of Lester Gerard Packingham. The state from now on may not bar social media access to registered sex offenders. The case’s build up dates back to 2002 when 21 year old college student Lester G. Packingham had a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl. For involvement with a minor he received a 10-12 month sentence, but having never met problems with the law, the judge required him to go on a 24 month probation and register as a sex offender. Five years had passed and in 2008 North Carolina forbid any person on the sex offender list to use any type of social media.

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Policy Analysis: Megan’s Law Sexual violence, particularly against children, is a significant issue all around the world. In the early 1990’s in the United States, there were multiple well-publicized cases of sexual violence against children. From kidnappings, to rapes, and everything in between, violence was being committed against children and something needed to be done about it. In 1996, Megan’s Law was passed in response to the sexual assault and death of Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old from New Jersey (Corrigan, 2006).

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Megan's Law then added the requirement that the public be notified when a sex offender moves into the area (Levenson, 2007). While this law has support from many communities, it also has been under scrutiny by those questioning its constitutionality. The question is, does this law really protect communities or does it simply punish sex offenders after they are released?

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2118 Words | 9 Pages

No research to date has indicated that applying harsher penalties or mandating national registries has reduced the recidivism rates among sex offenders, reduced sex trafficking against minors, nor child pornography. Despite the ongoing efforts of The Adam Walsh Act alongside other child safety acts as well, children in the United States are still perishing from sexual and physical abuse each day. According to data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), “49 States reported a total of 1,585 fatalities. Based on these data, a nationally estimated 1,670 children died from abuse or neglect in FFY 2015, which is 5.7 percent more than in 2011. This translates to a rate of 2.25 children per 100,000 children in the general population and an average of nearly five children dying every day from abuse or neglect”.(www.childwarefare.gov) Human Rights Watch shares that “the real risks that children face are quite different: government statistics indicate that most sexual abuse of children are committed by family members or trusted authority figures, and by someone who has not previously been convicted of a sex offense.

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1552 Words | 7 Pages

It is known that some individuals listed do have repeat offenses, but some offenders are reformed and live successful lives. One minor incident could haunt someone for years and impact his or her career, relationships, and community involvement. A person who wants to live a better life and be a better person may have trouble escaping the label of a sex offender (The Law Office of George Gedulin, 2017). Another major criticism is that it affects the family members of those on Megan’s Law. It might degrade the whole family's reputation, because one member is listed.

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Chapter Eight of the book Flawed Criminal Justice Policies, authors take the closer look at the laws and faulty policy regarding the sex offenders. According to the book policy makers started the myriad laws to protect the public from the sex offenders with increased prison sentences, and restricting the residences to the violators. Today we have very similar situation when it comes to treatment of sexual offenders. The process starts with the sex offender being committed to the prison sentence, and lastly to being registered as a sex offender on many public websites, so that the people could distinguish who the sex offender is and where he/she lives. In this chapter we can learn about a lot of different statues that were made to protect people from the sex offenders.

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I was talking to a couple of police officers about NIBRS, they told me they had never even heard of it and Phoenix is a major city. The fact that most sex crimes go under reported speaks a lot about our society and how women are viewed. There are so many myths and stigmas that

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Megan’s Law is a federal law that has changed the course of the criminal justice system in the United States of America. Prior to Megan’s law, convicted sex offenders were able to easily re-offend due to lack of public notification. In the year 2000, it is estimated that there were more than 248,000 sexual victimizations and over an 8-year period in the United States there were 366,460 attempted or completed rapes and sexual assaults (Welchans, 2005). The prevalence of sexual assault, rape, and pedophilia in the United States has sparked a large conversation over the last decade, which has led to the creation of several laws, including Megan’s Law. This analysis of Megan’s Law will focus on the positive aspects that implementing this law has

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Additionally, California has a law that allows citizens access to a CD-ROM with detailed information on sex offenders living in the state. The Pam Lyncher Sexual Offender Tracking and Identification Act, signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, called for a national registry of sex offenders, which allows state officials to submit queries and determine whether a job applicant at a day-care center is a registered sex offender in any of the participating states. Overall, communities have the right to be informed about the presence of sex offenders and take measures to protect themselves, such as avoiding contact with the offender or limiting their access to certain areas. However, it's worth noting that some states have more stringent laws than others when it comes to community notification and that the effectiveness of such laws in reducing the risk of recidivism among sex offenders remains a topic of

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It includes lesser sex crimes like, video voyeurism of a minor, lewdness, or non-violent sexual contact with anyone over 18 or possession or receipt of child pornography. Within Tier 1, there are also some more harmless offenses like urinating in public or streaking. If the offender with a Tier 1 has a clean record he/she may reduce the registration time from 15 to 10 years. It is required by law for sex offenders to appear in person every certain time to have a picture taken and verify registry information. Tier I sex offenders must appear every year, Tier II sex offenders every six month, and Tier III sex offenders every three months.

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719 Words | 3 Pages

Sources: Department Of Corrections, Washington. Sex Offender Management Assesment And Planning

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As a parent, I want to be very aware of the sexual offenders who may be near my children. The sexual registry list is a good tool that

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This study examines the sex offenders while being incarcerated. Imprisoned sex offenders face ridicule because of their offense and they are the most victimized group of prisoners. This study tries to understand how these offenders try to be a part of the general prison population and how their conviction become known among the prison population. 59 interviews of formerly incarcerated men give their stories of how the sex offender passes themselves off as non-sex offenders in the prison environment.

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Victims of stalking often are ordinary people, with mostly just cases of famous victims being reported on the media. Victims are likely (but not necessarily) female, young, educated and single. Violence is more likely if the stalker and the victim had a prior relationship, resulting possibly from a sense of ownership over the victim. Many cases of stalking are not reported (around half of them). Still, the psychological harm done by threats, stalking and intrusion is often judged by the victims as more severe than actual physical assault.

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