August 20, 2011

Professors warn about new sex offender law

The problem is not recidivism, it is the belief there is a HIGH RATE of recidivism. Beliefs and reality are not the same...where former sex offenders are concerned. Statistics do not support the belief!
8-20-2011 Alabama:

Alabama's new sex offender reporting law is designed to increase oversight of people who commit sex crimes, but two researchers warn if the laws are too restrictive, they may backfire and result in more, not fewer, sex offenses.

J.J. Prescott, University of Michigan Law School professor, and Jonah E. Rockoff, Columbia University Business School professor, tracked sexual offender data after states established sex offender registries. The duo did not study Alabama's new law but analyzed similar laws in other states for their report.

Rockoff said states passed stricter laws hoping to reduce the number of repeat sex offenses and make the public feel safer. But in a study encompassing several years, he and Prescott found that such requirements make " ‘sticking to the straight and narrow' much less attractive than just throwing up your hands and returning to crime," Prescott said.

He considers the finding significant since the purpose of most of laws is to cut down on repeat crimes.

"Put differently, living life as a convicted sex offender can be pretty miserable under these laws," Prescott said. ..Source.. by M.J. Ellington, Montgomery Bureau

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with your comment above E.
For years now we have heard this:" These laws and restrictions are too restrictive and will lead FSO's to give up and commit more crimes". This is manipulative propaganda at it's best. The statement is designed to support the LIE that almost All FSO's recidivate. In actuality most FSO's follow these draconian laws and restrictions because they are TRYING thier best to rebuild thier lives. Most have NEVER committed any other crime in thier lives.Most, as reported by the U.S.Dept. of Justice, will not recidivate with a sex crime or any crime fo that matter. So, we put up with the archaic laws and restrictrions while trying to advocate for CHANGE. The focus of most FSO's is to regain some type of normalcy in our lives after we have paid our debt to society. So, while we all agree on the futility of the laws and restrictions, WE believe they cause more harm because they refuse to allow us to move on from the past and rebuild our lives, not because we will ALL "Throw up our hands and commit more crimes". I say when a person has done thier time, GIVE THEM A CHANCE to make things right. Or, is it the objective of our Government to NEVER allow that to happen???

Anonymous said...

Not to worry folks from what i see it wont be long and there wont be any money to operate said system and that will lead to a system failure.