Teen sex offenders remain on sex offender registry for years

5-6-2013 North Carolina:

Sex offenders who committed a crime when they were under 18 are likely to end up on the state registries that share their face, where they live and what they did.

But a report, from Human Rights Watch, challenges the policy it says is based on a "misconception."

"They're not giving the kids a chance to grow up and become something," said Dominique Richard.

Dozens of offenders in the area are listed on the registry and committed their crime when still a teenager.

They've been on the registry for years. The report states that means they're restricted from certain jobs and can't live in certain places.

"They need to try to give them a chance because when they get older it's going to be hard for them to get a job. And they're going to be out here doing something worse like selling drugs or robbing people," Richard said.

But a mother of a victim says the registry protects kids.

"If it happened to one of their children, they would understand where I'm coming from," she said.

Alex Littlejohn was convicted of sexual battery last year. And the mother said she's haunted by what he did to her daughter.

She's glad he's on the registry and wants him stay there.

"And for someone to not want an individual's name to be on the registry -- I just don't understand why," she said.

She thinks the registry is a community tool.

"The public still has the right to know that someone in their community sexually violated a child regardless of their age," she said. ..Source.. by Catherine Bilkey