No Easy Answers

Sex Offender Laws in the US

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• I.  Summary

• Public Safety and Mistaken Premises

• Over-breadth of the Registration Requirement

• Unrestricted Access to Registry Information

• Residency Restrictions

• Juvenile Offenders

Are the Laws Counterproductive?

• US Sex Offender Policies: Alone in the World

• Rethinking Sex Offender Laws

• II. Methodology

• III. Recommendations

• Adam Walsh Act

• State Sex Offender Registries

• Community Notification

• Residency Restrictions

• Treatment, Research, and Education

• IV. Sexual Violence in the United States

• Sexual Violence

Danger from Strangers?

High Rates of Recidivism?

• Case Study: North Carolina

• Treatment

• V. Sex Offender Registration Laws

• The Role of Federal Law

• State Registration Laws

How Bad Can Registration Be? Chris F.’s Story

Do Registries Help Law Enforcement?

• Rethinking Registration

• VI. Public Access to Information on Sex Offenders

• Legislative History

• Community Notification by Law Enforcement

• Internet Registries: Expanding Community Notification to the World

• State Internet Registries

Does Community Notification Work?

Is Community Notification Counterproductive?

• Rethinking Community Notification: Vermont as a Model

• A Model Registration and Community Notification Program: Minnesota

• VII. Sex Offender Laws and Child Offenders

• Children as Sex Offenders

• Jim T.’s story

• Consensual Teenage Sex

• Case Study: Dan M.’s story

• Adjudicated Youth on Public Registries: Sealed Records “Unsealed” by Sex Offender Laws 

• Rethinking Sex Offender Laws for Juvenile Offenders

• VIII. Consequences of Registration and Community Notification Laws for Registrants and Their Loved Ones 

• Case study: Walter D.

• Privacy

• Employment

• Vigilante Violence

• Living Peacefully at Home

• Suicide and Despair

• IX. Residency Restriction Laws

• Iowa

• Oklahoma

• Georgia

• California

• Local Ordinances

Do Residency Restrictions Protect Public Safety?

• Impact on Family Unity

• Rethinking Residency Restrictions

• Other Countries and Sex Offender Laws

• X. Human Rights and Sex Offender Laws

• Special Rights of Child Offenders

• A Human Rights Analysis of US Sex Offender Laws

• Sex Offenders Laws in US Courts

• XI. Conclusion

• Appendix

• Acknowledgements

 

September 2007 Volume 19, No. 4(G)