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.
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.
This is because the law is overly vast when it describes what the sex offender can and cannot due over the internet. This is unfair because in today’s world almost every website use reviews and opinion based comments. Many of these websites don’t require a user to have any sort of account or username. This means that any person, including minors, are able to use this website regardless of whether or not it is allowed, and the very possibility of a minor being on a website restricts it from the use of a sex offender. An example of this is Cooks.com, this website allows users to leave comments without requiring any type of account, email, or identification.
The Utah Sex Offender Registry has many purposes and has been around for quite some time. Unfortunately, every state is different and often times the entertainment industry portrays the registry in a false light. The Utah Department of Corrections wants to deflate some of the major myths surrounding the sex offender registry. The most common myth the sex offender registry office receives daily is, “An offender was on the registry yesterday, why are they not on there now?”
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.
The notification system is based on the sex offenders risk to reoffend and the danger they may pose to the community. Many states adopted a three-tier notification system for the sex offender registry; tier one is for offenders evaluated to be low risk for reoffending, tier two is for those offenders assessed at a medium risk and tier three are for those offender that meet criteria for the highest risk of reoffending (National Institute of Justice, 2009a). Megan’s Law is a federal law with subsequent state laws, states have discretion in developing criteria for reporting Megan’s Law however; private and personal information related to the registered sex offender must be available to the public (National Institute of Justice, 2009b). Under Megan’s Law, the tracking database is monitored by states and involves community notification when a sex offender moves into a
Louise Gerdes’ book presents a collection of speeches, personal reflections, and essays that discuss sexual violence. “Tracking convicted pedophiles is necessary to help law enforcement protect children from these predators with a tracking device which will alert authorities if a convicted sex offender is near a school or any other prohibited area” (Gerdes 157). Gerdes explains how much safer it would be if necessary precautions were taken, which would be a big step in the right direction regarding the prevention of sexual assault and rape. One might say a tracking device is a little excessive to be mandated to wear at all times; but these criminals should have thought about that before they committed the unspeakable acts that they've been prosecuted for. Always being able to know the exact whereabouts of sex offenders would be extremely helpful to authorities because while that sex offender is getting closer and closer to that elementary school, police will already be in pursuit and stop the potential sex offender in his/her tracks.
This bill would add more people to the criminal background check database, which would stop poeple on the list from buying a gun. It would also make it so every gun purchase would require a background check. This would close the gun show loophole, where you can buy a gun at a gun show without a background check, but need a background check to buy a gun at a store. Proponents want this to pass to keep criminals from getting guns more easily. It is too easy for a criminal to buy a gun at a gun show, at some criminals are not on the list of those with criminal backgrounds that should keep them from buying a gun at store.
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
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
Sources: Department Of Corrections, Washington. Sex Offender Management Assesment And Planning
Should Sex Offenders Name be Public? It is debatable if sex offenders names should be public, some people believe is a invasion of there private life, “There is a real danger of vigilantism and publicizing their names (and the info required goes far beyond just their names) is an invasion of privacy of the wives, children and families of these offenders, which is an invasion of privacy no other class of criminal faces”(debate.org) . Others believe this is not even debatable, that Sex offenders name should be public, period, “Once somebody commits a sexual crime, they have given up their right to anonymity.
In Texas, the sex offender registry process involves the offender registering with the local law enforcement agency where he/she resides. The agency collects the offender’s name, address, convicted offense, and obtains a color photograph of the offender. Offenders are to report with law enforcement periodically to provide any updates or changes in status such as moving prior to 7 days prior to relocating. Adult offenders have to register for life or ten years if released from prison, etc. Offenders 17 and older who have committed sexually violent offenses would be placed on lifetime registration.
Just like Maine, Connecticut should change their registry so offenders can only be listed for however
