Monica Ramos
“Protecting children from sexual abuse is, of course, a paramount concern. But there is not a single piece of evidence that these laws actually do that.”
Read the editorial in the New York Times.
Archive for the ‘Sex Panic’ Category
The Pointless Banishment of Sex Offenders
Tuesday, September 8th, 2015
Great Review of We Believe the Children
Saturday, September 5th, 2015
“Sure there was no evidence. The dead animals weren’t found. The missing and murdered children don’t seem to have been missing or murdered. The pornographic films (or the studios where they were made) weren’t discovered. The gouged out eyeballs and lopped off body parts don’t seem actually to have been gouged or lopped. But the press dutifully (and enthusiastically) reported as true. And juries often believed.
“Because like Julie Bates, nobody could believe that little kids would lie. At least not about something really awful being done to them. And after all, the more you had to threaten them for not telling or reward them for telling, the more obviously true the allegations.”
Read the full review by Jeff Gamso, Ohio criminal defense lawyer/
Sex Offenders Locked Up on a Hunch
Sunday, August 16th, 2015
Hanna Barczyk
“The essence of the American criminal justice system is reactive, not predictive: You are punished for the crime you committed. You can’t be punished simply because you might commit one someday. You certainly can’t be held indefinitely to prevent that possibility.”
Read the full editorial in the New York Times.
Have Sex-Offender Registries Gone Too Far?
Thursday, July 9th, 2015“Some 800,000 registered sex offenders can’t live near parks or schools — or sometimes even in the homes of their own parents. Is it time to re-visit sex-offender registries that cast a wide net and often treat juvenile offenders as if they were adults?”
Listen to this episode of NPR’s To the Point, which features NCRJ Board Member Roger Lancaster.
“My understanding of the literature … is that there are no substantial studies which suggest that the sex offender registries are effective at achieving their stated aim, which is to reduce recidivism rates. Some studies actually suggest that the registries increase recidivism rates, basically because they convert every registrant into an unemployable, unhouseable, permanent social outcast living on the fringes of society. This gives them no conceivable stake in their own rehabilitation. That’s a very serious and significant negative effect of the registries.” –Roger Lancaster
Please Send a Card to Bruce Perkins
Sunday, July 5th, 2015Bruce Perkins has been moved due to rather serious health problems. Cards and letters will be much appreciated. His new address is:
Kenneth Bruce Perkins
#647327 Terrell Unit
1300 FM 655
Rosharon, Tx 77583
Minnesota sex offender program is ruled unconstitutional
Saturday, June 20th, 2015
“A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) violates the U.S. Constitution by confining offenders indefinitely without giving them access to the courts and other protections of the criminal justice system.”
Read the full article by Chris Serres in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Are we too hard on sex offenders? Lenore Skenazy on Emily Horowitz
Friday, June 5th, 2015
“She’ll be reading from her book this Sunday night, June 7, at the Bluestockings bookstore, 172 Allen St., on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, at 7 p.m. Admission is free.
“If you’re wondering what it looks like when an academic talks the talk, walks the walk, and changes the lives of future cops and former convicts, don’t miss it.
“I know I won’t.”
Read the full article by Lenore Skenazy in the Downtown Express.
Questionable Committments
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015
“No one wants to allow a child to be hurt, and laws that create mechanisms to “keep bad men away” are seductive because they make us feel safer – but that safety is an illusion that comes at a great price. As a society we are not capable of predicting who will or will not reoffend, and we must not punish someone for imaginary future crimes. When we begin to define individuals as criminals for who they are or what they think, instead of holding them accountable for specific acts, we rob them of their constitutional right to due process and dangerously erode the barriers that are meant to keep the awesome power of the state, to take away our lives and our liberty, at bay.”
Read the article by Galen Baughman in Cato Unbound.
Emily Horowitz: In defense of Josh Duggar’s parents
Sunday, May 31st, 2015
“When I learned that, more than a decade ago, reality-TV star Josh Duggar avoided jail after his parents dealt with molestation charges via church and family contacts, it made me think about the men I interviewed for my book about our draconian sex-offender laws.”
Read the article in the Daily News.
The ongoing legacy of the great satanic sex abuse panic
Thursday, May 28th, 2015“Ultimately, the panic and power of suggestion was pervasive enough to dupe our entire criminal justice system, as dozens of innocent people were sent to prison for crimes for which there was no evidence other than the coerced testimony of kids, and for which those same defendants would later be exonerated.”
Read the article by Radley Balko in the Washington Post.
