June 20, 2011

Editorial: How useful is registration?

Good Editorial. Proves there is no value or further public safety aspect to sex offender registry, so why are folks spending large amounts of money on keeping it up?

UPDATE: To the commenter about "Level 3" registrants. Given the coming of the Adam Walsh Act and its improper HISTORICAL classification system, which does not tell the public anything about the dangerousness of the registrant in TODAYS light, any reliance on Levels is not worth considering any longer. Nationally folks are showing low level registrants are becoming Level-3 after implementing the AWA system.
6-20-2011 Oregon:

The legislature has passed a bill to close a loophole in Oregon’s law requiring convicted sex offenders to register with the police. These bills pass easily, for obvious reasons, but does anyone wonder whether they do any good?

This particular measure, HB 3204, requires the registration of offenders who live out of state and are registered there but who temporarily work or are going to school in Oregon.

Assuming the governor signs the bill, which he will, they’ll have to sign up in Oregon too. There are about 50 of them, said Rep. Kim Thatcher, who sponsored the bill.

The question is: Does the registration requirement serve a purpose other than making these offenders jump through additional hoops after serving their time?

The Department of State Police maintains a public website listing those registered sex offenders considered to be predators. On Thursday night, the site said five of them were living within a mile of 600 Lyon St. S.W., the address of the Democrat-Herald.

It was information we had not looked up for years, not since the paper did some stories about the registry. So how useful or important is it?

These are just predatory offenders. Lots of others are registered in the area. The police know where they are if they look up the list, and this may be helpful in the investigation of any new offenses.

But there doesn’t seem to have been a significant change in the incidence of sex crimes in Oregon. More and more people are registered as offenders, but the number of sex crimes reported in the state hovers around 6,000 year after year.

The OSP website makes it plain that the names are being furnished in order for people to provide for their own safety. It’s illegal to use the list to subject the offenders to any kind of harassment or discrimination.

Judging by a regular perusal of crime reports, most sex offenses seem to be committed not by strangers but by people known to the victim. That makes it hard to see how the registration requirement is all that useful in preventing more crimes. ..Source.. by Democrat Herald.com

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Registries are useless. They have become SO watered down/diluted that finding any true "predators" is like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. However, having such a registry does ensure the sowing of the seeds of hate, mistrust, suspicion and sometimes, down-right paranoia in the communities. Apparently, the powers that be, seem to think a society paralyzed by fear (ill founded or not)is a good thing, as now we have drug registries, DUI registries, etc. The SOR has gotten so bad and so overloaded that nearly everyone I meet either knows someone who is on it or knows someone who knows someone that is on it and nearly always for something absurd and yet stuck on it for decades or even life. If a person is really THAT dangerous, then they need to be hospitalized. My educated guess is that if they did so, there would be zero need for any registry and it would save taxpayers boatloads in the process. People need to start asking themselves when the last time was that the government ever did anything CORRECTLY for we the people??? Everything they touch turns into a nightmare and this registry is certainly no different. They tell us GMO's are safe, yet study after study proves they are not. Most EU countries have banned GMO products. I am to the point where whatever the govt. says I believe the opposite because they are all so full of it.

Anonymous said...

There are many ways the public can be informed about persons convicted of a sexual offense residing in thier neighborhoods.
I will not suggest them here, but I can assure you there are many models that would meet and exceed the same objectives that the current public registries proport to achieve today.These alternative models would also cost tax payers substantially less than the enormous ammount spent on the public registries.
The only reasons I can think of for politicians keeping and expanding registries in thier current state is 1.They have invested too much to change them now.2.The sex offender industry would collapse.3.Prosecutors would no longer have a punishment tool when offering plea deals.4. The public would precieve the lawmakers as not protecting thier children and vote them out of office. The bottom line is that the objectives of prevention, protection, and notification could absolutely be accomplished WITHOUT a public registry. We can offer our government these alternatives. Getting them to change the current policies would be MONUMENTAL!

Daniel Goichman said...

i wouldnt say registries are useless. i would say that the only people who need to be on them are level 3 sex offenders and nobody else. these people have been convicted of angerous crimes and they need to be watched. level 1 and level 2s haven't. one time sex between two kids doesnt have to put anyone on the registry. the registries have too much influence on the american public now. companies wont hire anyone on them. people wont rent to anyone on them. 216 sex offenders have been murdered since being classified as a "sex offender" thats a lot of dead people. now putting sex offenders private address on the internet and the crime they committed is like signing a death warrant to 826,000 sex offenders. there is no reason for it. these people have paid their debt back to society and society has a right to allow them an opportunity to be successful again. allow them to be anonymous so they can go back to school, find a job, find a place to live, meet people, have an active, healthy lifestyle again and make money. having your information on the registy prevents that and it basically creates more violence instead of less violence as it was originally intended. remove the registry let people have a chance to live good lives again and if they get in trouble again then u just lock up for a long time. sounds like a reasonable plan to me. and cori ends after 5,7, or 10 yrs for one-time offense. thats the end of the story.

Anonymous said...

@Daniel... I am writing a white paper for Congress and it would be helpful to know your resources. 216 dead? 826,000 on the registry? (I thought it was 700,000). Do you have a source for these? Thanks

Claire53 said...

To author of this: I don't understand your use of the word predator, as if some on the registry are and some are not. ALL of the registrants are perceived as predators. Why else would there even be a registry designed "to protect"' and which is supposedly "not punitive." there is only one interpretation for this alleged protection the registry is giving the citizens, and that is to protect them from predators. Seems to me this is not only logical, but I have never seen a differentiation on the registry of one being a predator, and one not.

Anonymous said...

Responding to @Daniel: None of the facts you mention are in this Editorial so I have no idea what you are talking about.

eAdvocate

Anonymous said...

Responding to Claire53: It appears you do not realize that Oregon, unlike most states, has a public registry of registrants they consider "Predators" and they do not consider every former offender a predator (Florida is also like this). To understand this you need to follow that specific state law over time.
eAdvocate

Claire53 said...

Responding to "eAdvocate" - my question on stats was clearly directed to Daniel who cited that 216 registrants had been killed and there were over 826,000 on the SO registries when my latest info says 700,000. I was not responding to the article itself.

Claire53 said...

In response to Anonymous: I see now you were talking to Daniel not me about the question of stats. Regarding your comment to me though.... #1 - the Oregon and Florida registers may have an official position on distinguishing predatory offenders from non. But is this distinction made clear on the public registry so the public knows who is who? #2 - I was really making more of a theoretical/philosophical comment on the very idea of a predator, on the logic of the thing, not a comment on how each state makes possible distinctions. To repeat, there really would be no need for the continued punishment of a registry if lawmakers did not fervently believe all sex offenders are predators. If someone is not a predator, why in heavens name would public notification be necessary?

Daniel Goichman said...

Claire 53 , the actual number is 739,853
link - http://www.missingkids.com/en_US/documents/sex-offender-map.pdf
the 216 number represents sex offenders that have been murdered by vigilantes, killed themselves because they couldn't deal with the requirements or lost hope , and the ones murdered in prison. i hope that helps.

Daniel Goichman said...

Here is how the statistics break down:

57 registered sex offenders minding their own business murdered, 24 of them in prisons and jails;

7 registered sex offenders were involved in domestic or other incidents, and were killed;

*17 people, non sex offenders, were accused of a sex offense and murdered;

9 registered sex offenders were accused of a new sex offense and were murdered;

*12 people, non sex offenders, were falsely accused of sex offenses and were murdered;

3 registered sex offenders were falsely accused of a new sex offense and were murdered;

5 innocent bystanders were murdered;

1 person was murdered when they were attacking a registered sex offender's home;

1 person in prison was falsely labeled as a sex offender and was murdered.
-------
link - http://sexoffenderresearch.blogspot.com/search/label/%28...Advocacy%20-%20RSOs%20Murdered
i cant find the statistics for suicides but i know its high.