More Harm Than Good?

1. More Harm Than Good? Registration, community notification, and residency restriction laws for child offenders

2. No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the US • No conclusive evidence that registration, community notification, and residency restrictions prevent sexual violence • Increasing evidence it makes it nearly impossible to safely rehabilitate former offenders • Generally, child sex offenders should be exempt from registration and community notification laws.

3. Megan's Law spawned by tragedy and revulsion Anguished dad says life 'in ruins' since Klaas' death Child Imposter Indicted For Sex Crimes

4. Myths About Sexual Violence • Children have most to fear from strangers • In fact, more than 90% of child sexual abuse is committed by someone the child knows and trusts • Convicted sex offenders will inevitably repeat their crime • Authoritative studies show that three out of four adult offenders do not recidivate within 15 years of release from prison • Studies have shown that 96% of convicted or adjudicated child sex offenders DO NOT recidivate in a six-year period

5. 87% of victims of sexual violence each year were abused by someone who had no previous sex crimes conviction

6. Myths About Child Offenders • Child offenders are just like adult sex offenders • Child offenders recidivate at a lower rate • In a study of children arrested for committing sex offenses, 41% were for non-contact offenses • According to the DOJ, in rape cases where the offender is under 18, the victim is likely to have been the same age as the perpetrator or older

7. My son doesn’t really understand what sex is, so its hard to help him understand why he has to register as a sex offender. -- low recidivism rates—4% in some studies --less than 10% of offenders convicted as adults had a sex crime conviction as a child

8. Registration It was only when I got off the registry that I felt like I could start my life. --child offender, registered in California starting when he was twelve. He was twenty-nine when he successfully petitioned to be released from his registry requirements.

9. State Registration Laws for Child Offenders • Children adjudicated in juvenile court • At least thirty-two states require some adjudicated children to register • Children convicted as adults • Every state requires children convicted in adult court of certain kinds of sex crimes to register • Consensual Teenage Sex • Twenty-nine states require registration for consensual sex between teenagers

10. Adam Walsh Act Registration Requirements • For the first time, federal law requires states to register juveniles age 14 and older • Consensual sex exempted when the victim was at least 13 and the offender was no more than four years older • Applies retroactively

11. I know there are violent sexual predators that need to be punished, but this seems like punishment far beyond reasonable for what my son did. --mother of a teenager who is a registered sex offender, speaking with Human Rights Watch

12. Length of Registration • State laws • Juveniles convicted as adults are treated like adult offenders • Seventeen states require lifetime registration for all offenders • Thirty-three states require lifetime registration for those convicted of sexually violent crimes • In twenty-one of these states, possibility of petitioning to be released from registration requirements after a certain number of years living offense-free in the community • Adam Walsh Act • Offense-based (not based on individualized risk assessment) • Juveniles subject to same requirements as adults • Tier I—15 years • Tier II—25 years • Tier III—life • Juveniles have limited opportunity to be released from the registry • Tier I registrants may petition after 10 years • Tier III juveniles may petition after 25 years

13. Do Registries Work? Lawmakers have no idea the kind of burden they put on law enforcement when they increase the number of offenders who must register. --Chief probation officer, speaking with Human Rights Watch. States Lose Track Of Sex OffendersBy Kathleen Murphy, Staff Writer

14. Registration Reforms • HRW recommends that juveniles be exempt from registration laws • If they are subject to registration laws • Limit registration to those juveniles determined by a panel of experts on juvenile sex offenses to be a high-risk to the community • Allow registrants to periodically petition or appeal for review of their initial risk-level status • Goal: Create reasonable registration laws that apply to at-risk offenders, only so long as they pose a risk

15. On-line registries

16. State Laws In 32 states, children tried in adult court are subject to adult on-line community notification requirements In 32 states, some adjudicated youth are placed on the public registry In 32 states, every registrant convicted as an adult is included in the on-line database Adam Walsh Act For the first time, federal law requires states to place on-line children age 14 or older at the time of the offense, adjudicated or convicted Where the offense “was comparable to or more severe than aggravated sexual abuse, or was an attempt or conspiracy to commit such as offense” Community Notification Requirements for Child Offenders

17. My son’s story is like a nightmare, where all the terrible things, it all collides together. He talks to us about ending it all by committing suicide. We don’t think he will, but we don’t know.--mother of an child registrant, speaking with Human Rights Watch

18. Does Community Notification Work? AP: New Jersey study scrutinizes Megan's Law. Byline: Sam Wood TRENTON, N.J. _ New Jersey's pioneering Megan's Law, which costs millions of dollars to alert citizens when sex offenders move nearby, may not make children safer, new research suggests. A federally funded study under way in Trenton is trying to determine whether Megan's Law is worth the cost of its "enormously expensive" monitoring and enforcement requirements, said Phillip Witt, a consultant on the study. A declining trend of sex attacks on children began before the law took effect and has continued, raising the suggestion that New Jersey's Megan's Law _ one of the first laws of its kind in the nation _ may not have influenced the trend, researchers say. "We don't know whether Megan's Law really works," said Witt, who helped create the risk-assessment system used by New Jersey's courts to classify sex offenders. "Just a few studies have looked at whether community notification laws are effective," he said.

19. Practical information? Name SEX OFFENDER Last Known Address as of: 9/27/2007 925 SE RIVER RD APT 906 EL DORADO, KS 67042 County: BUTLER Race/Sex: W / M Date of Birth: 5/19/1992 Registered Since: 12/23/2004 Offense: AGGRAVATED INDECENT LIBERTIES W/CHILD; <14; LEWD FONDLING/TOUCHING .

20. Community Notification Reforms • Eliminate on-line notification for juveniles • If a court or authorized panel determines some form of community notification is necessary, law enforcement should undertake to do so in a careful and limited way that would minimize harm to the child while protecting public safety

21. When a sex offender succeeds in living in the community, we are all safer. --child safety expert, speaking with Human Rights Watch. More funding for Prevention, education, and awareness programs Counseling for victims of sexual violence Programs that facilitate treatment and re-entry services for convicted sex offenders Child safety experts and rape prevention advocates

22. Registries in Other Countries • Sexual violence is a worldwide problem • But the US is the only country other than South Korea with broad-based community notification • Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, and the United Kingdom register convicted sex offenders and allow for limited police notification

23. From The Times June 9, 2007 ‘Megan’s Law’ plan scrapped over fears abusers forced into hiding Richard Ford, Home Correspondent

24. No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the US • We are convinced that public safety will be as protected, if not more so, by modified registration and community notification laws that generally exclude child offenders • Reform will not be easy, but a safe society is one with the intelligence, courage, and compassion to protect the human rights of all of us

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