Low risk sex offender shares fear of online registry

RENO, Nev. (NEWS 4) — A nearly decade long battle started in Nevada after President George W. Bush signed the Adam Walsh Act in 2006.The federal law is also known as the Sex Offender Registration & Notification Act. It stemmed from the 1981 abduction and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh. In 2007, Nevada lawmakers passed Assembly Bill 579 to make the state compliant with the federal law. “It’s...

Gov. Sandoval Leads Launch of a Comprehensive Review of Nevada’s Juvenile Justice System

Governor Brian Sandoval, First Lady Kathleen Sandoval, State Supreme Court Justice Nancy Saitta, and other legislative and community leaders gathered on July 12 at the Nevada State Supreme Court to launch an effort to strengthen public safety and improve outcomes for youth who are involved with the juvenile justice system. At the event, the governor announced that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency...

Myths About Sex Offenders

There are many commonly held misconceptions about sexual crimes and the people who commit them, according to the Center for Sexual Offender Management, which is a project of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs.

Myth 1 — Most sexual assaults are committed by strangers.

Most sexual assaults are committed by someone known to the victim or the victim’s family, regardless of whether the victim is a child or an adult.

For adult victims, statistics indicate that the majority of women who have been raped know their assailant. A 1998 National Violence Against Women Survey revealed that among those women who reported being raped, 76 percent were victimized by a current or former husband, live-in partner, or date. A 1997 Bureau of Justice Statistics study found that nearly nine out of 10 rape or sexual assault victimizations involved a single offender with whom the victim had a prior relationship as a family member, intimate, or acquaintance.

Among children, approximately 60 percent of boys and 80 percent of girls who are sexually victimized are abused by someone known to the child or the child’s family, according to a 1998 study. Relatives, friends, baby sitters, persons in positions of authority over the child, or persons who supervise children are more likely than strangers to commit a sexual assault.

Myth 2 — The majority of sexual offenders are caught, convicted, and in prison.

Only a fraction of those who commit sexual assault are apprehended and convicted of their crimes. Most convicted sex offenders eventually are released to the community under probation or parole supervision.

Many women who are sexually assaulted by intimates, friends, or acquaintances do not report these crimes to police. Instead, victims are most likely to report being sexually assaulted when the assailant is a stranger, the victim is physically injured during the assault, or a weapon is involved in the commission of the crime.

The National Crime Victimization Surveys conducted in 1994, 1995 and 1998 indicate that only 32 percent of sexual assaults against persons 12 or older were reported to law enforcement. There are no current studies on the rate of reporting for child sexual assault, but it generally is assumed that these assaults are equally under-reported.

The low rate of reporting leads to the conclusion that more than 90 percent of all sex offenders are living in communities nationwide without ever having been charged for their crime.

Some 60 percent of convicted sex offenders are supervised in the community, whether directly following sentencing or after a term of incarceration in jail or prison.

Continue readingMyths About Sex Offenders

A Defender Office for Supreme Court Advocacy?

By Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson, Bloomberg BNA An “independent federal public defender office charged with representing poor defendants before the United States Supreme Court” is necessary to fill gaps in legal services to the poor and “better balance the scales of justice between the government and the defendants,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said earlier this month. Booker introduced the Clarence Gideon Full Access to Justice Act, S. 3144, July...

Research Should Influence Sex Offender Laws

Lawmakers have long treated sex offenses as different from other crimes, but the recent legislation known as Sex Offender Registration and Notification has drastically changed the way sex offenders are managed in the community upon release from prison. Specifically, these laws require the sex offenders to immediately report to the local police department upon prison release in order to register as a sex offender. This means providing information like name, address, phone number, employment, marital history, criminal history and license plate number, along with a DNA sample and a list of contacts. These registration laws also place restrictions on where sex offenders can live; for example, they are not permitted to live within a certain distance of parks, schools, day care centers, etc. Continue readingResearch Should Influence Sex Offender Laws

Ballotpedia – The Encyclopedia of American Politics

Ballotpedia is the online encyclopedia of American politics and elections. Our goal is to inform people about politics by providing accurate and objective information about politics at all levels of government. We are firmly committed to neutrality; here's why. Ballotpedia's articles are 100 percent written by our professional staff and a small group of guest editors. All content written by our guest editors is reviewed and fact-checked by...

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