VA- Underbelly: Sex Offender Registration in Virginia

7-3-2009 Virginia:

Those Among Us

We know their names, ages, addresses and faces. They live and work among us. Registered sex offenders are a part of the Loudoun County community, whether we know about it or not.

We know their names, ages, addresses and faces. They live and work among us. They are in regular contact with law enforcement long after their incarceration or probationary period. They cannot take so much as a vacation without going through the process all over again. Registered sex offenders are a part of the Loudoun County community, whether we know about it or not.

We can learn the faces, names and addresses of the 108 registered sex offenders in Loudoun County (four of whom are currently wanted for failure to re-register). Registered sex offenders must submit their names, addresses, license plate numbers, e-mail addresses, fingerprints and pictures with the Virginia State Police, the agency that handles the sex offender registry, keeping their identity in the public eye long after they finish their incarceration or probation.

Even if they go on vacation, registered sex offenders must alert the state police of both Virginia and the state where they will be going of the address where they will be.

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which former President George W. Bush signed into law in 2006, organized sex offenders into three tiers. The tiers determined how often a sex offender needs to re-register with law enforcement officials, which is the state police in Virginia. The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) has a sex crimes unit and will work with the Virginia State Police on locating sex offenders if they are involved in a criminal investigation in Loudoun County, but the state police handle locating sex offenders and maintaining the registry, said Kraig Troxell, public information officer for LCSO.

Any person convicted of a violent sex offense, qualifying as Tier 3, must re-register with the state police every 90 days for the rest of their lives. Those that qualify as Tier 2–“an offense punishable by imprisonment for more than one year and comparable to or more severe than the following federal offenses involving a minor: sex trafficking; coercion and enticement; transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity; abusive sexual contact,” including “any offense involving use of a minor in a sexual performance, solicitation of a minor to practice prostitution, or production or distribution of child pornography” -- must update that information every 180 days for 25 years. Tier 1 offenders, which are offenders of lesser sexual crimes, must re-register once a year for 15 years.

To register or re-register, offenders may go to the state police headquarters or go to their local law enforcement, depending on the precinct. “Some local precincts will direct offenders to the state police and won’t do it, but some will,” said Corinne Geller, public information officer for Virginia State Police. “It’s up to the local agency to decide if they want to register sex offenders or not.”

Once the offender gets to the state police headquarters, they must stand in line with people waiting for a variety of services; there are no designated lines just to register. Depending how many people are there in front of them, they may have to wait, “but it’s not like lines at the post office before Christmas,” Geller said.

What may take additional time, Geller said, is waiting for the right people to show up to help. Some headquarters may only have a secretary there, but a sergeant or trooper is required to take photographs or fingerprints. The offenders can fill out the forms at home, which can speed up the process, but depending on their registration requirements, waiting for a law enforcement official can account for most of the time of the registration process, especially during rush hour, Geller added.

The Virginia Code states that the purpose the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry “[S]hall be to assist the efforts of law-enforcement agencies and others to protect their communities and families from repeat sex offenders and to protect children from becoming victims of criminal offenders by helping to prevent such individuals from being allowed to work directly with children.”

The registry was moved online in 2006 in Virginia, making the information even more accessible to the public. Before it was online, the information was made available by request from the state police.

“The benefit of a registry is it allows members of the community to know who they should keep an eye on in their community with regard to their children,” said Scott Shellenberger, the State’s Attorney for Baltimore County. “Imagine if your child becomes friends with a student in school and you learn too late that the student's father is a sex offender. Knowledge like this gives parents the power to protect their children.”

Offending Again
There are two opposing views about likelihood of offenders to commit further sex crimes once released. The U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics reveal that the recidivism rate – or tendency to lapse into a previous behavior – for sex crimes is four times higher than for other offenses.

However, some attorneys feel differently. “The government and the media portray convicted sex offenders as having a high risk of recidivism,” said Atchuthan Sriskandarajah, an attorney who specializes in sex crimes in Maryland, Virginia and Massachusetts, on his Web site. “However, it has been statistically proven that sex offenders have a much lower rate of recidivism than those who commit most other types of crimes.”

“The government claims that the benefit of the sex offender registry helps prevent sex offenders of committing future crimes. However, a number of sex offender therapists admit that the current sex offender registry programs cause a number of sex offenders who are required to register to flee the state and go into hiding in an endeavor to escape the draconian registration requirements imposed upon them,” Sriskandarajah continued.

A 2007 Tennessee Bureau of Investigations study found that in three years, 44.1 percent of released sex offenders had no further interaction with the criminal justice system, compared to 22.2 percent of released offenders of other crimes during that time. When there were other interactions, 28.1 percent of released sex offenders were recommitted into the Tennessee Department of Corrections, as opposed to the 51.6 percent of other offenders who were recommitted to the Tennessee DOC when they had further contact with the criminal justice system.

Treatment
Treatment is a huge factor in the rates of recidivism, said Tim App, the director of operations for the Counseling and Psychotherapy Center (CPC), a group of clinicians and criminal justice professionals who manage sex offender treatment programs in 35 locations across the country.

“With weekly treatment, the rate of recidivism drops to the single digits,” App said. The rates of recidivism rise with more time out of treatment. When supervision ends, they tend to drop out of treatment, and that is the most dangerous, he said.

Many members of the criminal justice system agree that treatment is more influential than registration when it comes to committing sex crimes again.

“Registration is simply a public announcement of a legal verdict that was obtained at some point after the individual has been punished by a court,” said Andrea Moseley, a criminal defense attorney with Zwerling, Leibig & Moseley in Alexandria. The announcement is not intended to help the offender in any way, she said.

“Whether registration helps the community is simply a fact that is in the eye of the beholder of the information,” Moseley continued. “As a member of this community, I would feel safer if more resources were devoted to treatment which, in my opinion, increases the chances that a past offender will not re-offend.”

“Think of it like treating alcoholics,” App said. The CPC works with sex offenders toward recovery, not a cure, he said. It helps the offenders understand their thoughts and feelings that lead them toward that cycle of behavior, while also teaching them new skills to help intervene should those feelings reappear so they can help themselves.

“There is only one certificate of completion: a death certificate,” App said.

App’s program works in four stages – taking responsibility for their actions, understanding their behavior and faulty cognitions, learning new techniques and skills, and practicing their new skills every day.

Reintegration

Moseley suggests that ex-offenders be released into the community with a realistic opportunity to become employed and self-sufficient. She said that the conviction will be recorded in the criminal justice system, with or without the sex offender registration requirement. However, many places will refuse to hire people with criminal backgrounds, making it less likely for them to reintegrate into society. Other problems occur when the state police go to the offenders’ place of employment to verify the location registered, sometimes informing the employers for the first time of the employees’ previous offenses. This has resulted in some employers firing the offenders, Sriskandarajah said.

The courts are equipped to dispense punishment and have the appropriate power to render sentences to provide the community with protection, Moseley said. “Sex offense registration is an attempt to continue to civilly do that which a court already has the power to do on its own during the course of our criminal adversarial system of justice,” she said.

Other Qualifying Acts

The U.S. Department of Justice reports that there are more than 500,000 registered sex offenders nationwide. Sex offenders are becoming even more prevalent as offender status is implemented for different acts. In Ohio, a fifteen-year-old girl faced registering as a sex offender after being caught text messaging nude photos of herself, or “sexting” on her cell phone. She was charged in juvenile court with possessing criminal tools and the illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material

The issue of young couples who are close in age, but straddling the age of consent, presents another issue when it comes to sex offenses. The age of consent varies from state to state, but is 18 years of age in Virginia.

“The percentage of young people [“sexting”] is outstanding,” said App. People are trying to identify it as a sex offense and make examples of people who are caught, App said, but he does not support that.

In 2007, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana and Texas instituted a “Romeo and Juliet” law, which address an 18-year-old being in a relationship with a 14- to 16-year-old minor. These laws earned their name because Romeo would have been 16 when his relationship started with 13-year-old Juliet, which would have qualified him as a sex offender by today’s standards.

One of the more publicized cases that led to the creation of the Romeo and Juliet law occurred when 17-year-old Genarlow Wilson engaged in consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old female in Georgia. He was sentenced in 2005 to ten years for aggravated child molestation, plus lifetime registration as a sex offender. After serving two of those years in jail, the Georgia Supreme Court released him and changed the law to make consensual sex between teenagers a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of one year.

Virginia does not have Romeo and Juliet laws by that name, but Virginia statute reads, “If any person carnally knows, without the use of force, a child thirteen years of age or older but under fifteen years of age who consents to sexual intercourse and the accused is a minor and such consenting child is three years or more the accused's junior, the accused shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony. If such consenting child is less than three years the accused's junior, the accused shall be guilty of a Class 4 misdemeanor.” ..Source.. by Dorry Samuels