Sex offender registries give 'false' security

1-4-2010 Maryland:

SALISBURY -- Residents mourned the death of Sarah Haley Foxwell after investigators found her body two days after she was reported missing.

She was one of 2,185 children across the country who are reported missing each day, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The 11-year-old girl was abducted from her bedroom during the night and reported missing Dec. 23.

Police charged a 30-year-old Salisbury man with Foxwell's disappearance and expect murder charges to follow at a later date.

When investigators reported Thomas James Leggs Jr., a registered sex offender in Maryland and Delaware, had been charged with abducting the girl, many parents turned to the Internet to check the sex offender registry. The news sent parents searching for sex offenders in their neighborhoods.

But professionals who work with sexual assault victims say checking registries for neighboring sex offenders is not the best means of protecting children.

"The sex offender registry gives people a false sense of security," said Donna Leffew, a clinical director for the Life Crisis Center who has 17 years of experience with victims of child sex abuse. "When children are sexually abused, they rarely tell."

And when they do tell, many times child victims will recant their story, she added.
Residents often assume that a person not listed in the sex offender registry is safe, but the Maryland sex offender registry only includes individuals who have been convicted of a sex offense.

In Delaware, only high- and moderate-risk offenders are included in the registry. Individuals classified as high-risk sex offenders have been convicted on charges that include first- or second-degree rape, first-degree unlawful sexual contact and sexual exploitation of a child.

Moderate-risk offenders have been convicted on charges that include third- or fourth-degree rape, second-degree unlawful sexual contact and committing a dangerous crime against a child.

"The best way to protect your children is not to leave them alone with anyone," said Michelle Hughes, executive director of the Life Crisis Center.

The Life Crisis Center is a 24-hour nonprofit organization that provides support for adult and juvenile victims of domestic violence, rape and sexual assault.

"Most sex offenders are not convicted, and we need to do a better job of educating parents and children about the risk of child sex abuse from people they know and people in the family who are not on the registry," said Lisae Jordan, legal counsel for both the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Maryland Children's Alliance.

Requiring sex offenders to register was not enough, and in 2006, state lawmakers passed a bill that added a new law that required sex offenders be monitored for three years after the end of their sentence. Monitoring is geared toward the individual sex offender and can include using GPS devices, polygraph exams and restricting offenders from having contact with certain individuals.

"To the extent that the public rely on the registry and the government to protect them from sex offenders, we need to devote the most resources to the offenders that provide the most danger to our children," Jordan said.

Ricky Hall, a 44-year-old Salisbury resident who grew up in the same neighborhood as the man charged with kidnapping Foxwell, said additional measures need to be taken to notify neighbors when a sex offender is living in their community. Hall said he knew the suspect for most of his life, but didn't know Leggs was a registered sex offender in two states.

"One of my main concerns is that they need to come up with a better system than putting it up on the Internet," Hall said.

Hall, who doesn't have a computer, suggested media publish the names and photos of sex offenders on a regular basis.

"People beware," Hall said. "It can be anybody, anywhere." ..Source.. Sharahn D. Boykin • Staff Writer