6-10-2010 Rhode Island:
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A bill that would have required Rhode Island to comply with a federal law requiring changes in the way states classify and register sex offenders appears to be on hold.
The bill, (S-2897) introduced by Sen. James E. Doyle, III, D-Pawtucket, would have required the state to come into compliance with the federal 2006 Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, which sets strict rules for monitoring sex offenders as they move from neighborhood to neighborhood and state to state.
The state has been granted an extension to come into compliance with the federal law until July 2011, said Stacey Pires Veroni, chief of the criminal division for the Rhode Island Attorney General's Office.
"Obviously we want it (passed) but they're holding it for further study,'' Pires Veroni said. Thursday. "I think they probably won't take action on it."
The implementation of the federal law -- also known as the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act -- has proven legally problematic and potentially costly for states.
The bill has raised conerns among lawyers who represent juvenile offenders because it would require some juveniles sex offenders as young as 14 to be included in a national data based of registered sex offenders for the rest of their lives.
In a June 9 letter to Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, Rhode Island Public Defender John J. Hardiman wrote that the legislation would "create enormous catastrophic consequences for Rhode Island's juvenile sexual offenders and their families, many of which are not readdily apparent from the text of the proposed law."
A separate House bill (H-4046) to require sex-offenders to comply with the existing state registry law while their cases are being appealed is scheduled for a vote in the House Thursday evening. ..Source.. Lynn Arditi
June 10, 2010
Update: Prosecutor: RI sex-offender registry bill on hold
June 7, 2010
High Court (U.S. Supreme Court) Asks if Sex Offender Case Is Moot
6-7-2010 Washington DC:
CN) - The [U.S.] Supreme Court on Monday asked the Montana Supreme Court for guidance on whether a juvenile can challenge national requirements to register as a sex offender. The state court's answers will help the justices decide if the case is moot.
The respondent in the case is a male juvenile who engaged in sex acts with a child under 12. He was sentenced in 2005 to two years' detention and juvenile supervision until his 21st birthday.
The following year, Congress passed the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, which requires juveniles who commit serious sex crimes to register as sex offenders. The U.S. attorney general said this requirement applied to all sex offenders, including those convicted before the law was enacted.
In 2007 a federal judge revoked the respondent's supervision and sentenced him to another six months of detention for failing to comply with the conditions of his prerelease program.
The government invoked SORNA's juvenile registration requirements, arguing that the juvenile offender should have to register as a sex offender at least through the duration of his supervision, which expired on May 2, 2008.
The government asked the Supreme Court to review the 9th Circuit's decision that the respondent did not have to register as a sex offender during supervision, because those requirements can't be applied retroactively.
Now that the juvenile's supervision has ended, the Supreme Court must decide if the case is moot.
It certified the following question to the Montana Supreme Court:
"Is respondent's duty to remain registered as a sex offender under Montana law contingent upon the validity of the conditions of his now-expired federal juvenile-supervision order that required him to register as a sex offender, or is the duty an independent requirement of Montana law that is unaffected by the validity or invalidity of the federal juvenile-supervision conditions?"
The justices said the Montana high court's answer "will help determine whether this case presents a live case or controversy." ..Source.. by Court House News
June 6, 2010
States close down youth prisons as reforms take hold, helping them save money in budget crisis
6-6-2010 National:
After struggling for years to treat young criminals in razor wire-ringed institutions, states across the country are quietly shuttering dozens of reformatories amid plunging juvenile arrests, softer treatment policies and bleak budgets.
In Ohio, the number of juvenile offenders has plummeted by nearly half over the last two years, pushing the state to close three facilities. California's closures include a youth institution near Los Angeles that operated for nearly 115 years. And one in Texas will finally go quiet after getting its start as a World War II-era training base.
The closures have juvenile advocates cheering.
"I can tell you it's the best thing they can do," said Aaron Kupchik, a University of Delaware criminologist. "Incarceration does nobody any good. You're taking away most of their chance for normal development."
Several factors have pushed states to close facilities. In stark contrast to the growing adult prison population, the number of juveniles in state lockups has dropped dramatically, partly because there are fewer juvenile arrests and more offenders in county-based treatment programs. States grappling with busted budgets can't afford to operate facilities with so many empty beds.
State reformatories are typically reserved for serious criminals, such as sex offenders and other violent offenders. Unlike the punishment-oriented adult system, juvenile justice focuses on rehabilitation.
During the early 1990s, though, tough-on-crime legislators turned to the juvenile system. Nearly every state lowered the minimum age for kids to be tried as adults or increased the kind of crimes that land kids in the adult system.
But juvenile arrest rates dropped, falling 33 percent between 1997 and 2008, according to the latest U.S. Justice Department data.
Criminologists aren't sure why fewer kids are getting in trouble. Some believe more kids are avoiding drug trafficking. Others think programs such as group homes, halfway houses and after-school tutoring closer to kids' homes have reduced recidivism.
"No fancy stats suggest this is a cure-all, but what I think you do see is the accumulation of those small results of people doing this increasingly in cities and towns all across the country," said Elliot Currie, a University of California-Irvine criminologist.
Those reforms have gained momentum as studies found teens sent to adult court often got in worse trouble after they were released and lawsuits emerged over poor conditions at state lockups. Many states have tweaked their juvenile polices so only the most serious offenders land in their systems.
"We're locking up the right kids," said Bart Lubow, program director for the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which helps fund such juvenile offender programs. "It's about making smarter decisions."
As a result, the number of juveniles in state institutions has dropped. According to the Justice Department, the number of juvenile offenders declined 26 percent between 2000 and 2008, from about 109,000 to 80,000.
All the empty beds offer states struggling with budget deficits a way to save money _ downsize juvenile justice systems.
The number of kids in state residential custody in California peaked at 10,000 in 1996 but now stands at 1,500, said state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Bill Sessa. The state has closed six institutions since 2003, most notably the Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility, which had operated just outside Los Angeles since 1890. State officials keep the institution clean for film crews; the paranormal research television series "The Othersiders" investigated reports of bangs and voices there in an episode last year.
The closings have generated as much as $40 million in savings for the state's juvenile justice department through job reductions, Sessa said.
In Texas, the state's residential juvenile population has dropped from 5,000 kids in 2007 to about 1,900 this spring, said Texas Youth Commission spokesman Jim Hurley. His state has closed three facilities since 2007 and plans to close two more. Hurley said it was unclear how much money that saved.
In Ohio, the state's residential youth population has fallen from about 1,730 kids as of mid-2008 to about 950 today. Its three closures over the last year should save about $40 million annually, according to juvenile corrections officials.
Some of the closed reformatories around the country will become adult prisons. Others are up for sale, like the one in Kansas that closed in 2008 saving the state $3.7 million.
In Wisconsin, state corrections officials are considering closing the Ethan Allen School, a former tuberculosis sanitarium near Wales, about 25 miles west of Milwaukee. The school's population has dropped from 460 in 1998 to 195 in May.
Since counties generally pay the state to house juvenile offenders from their area, the overall decrease in Wisconsin's jailed juvenile population has created a $25 million budget shortfall. Ethan Allen officials worry about what will happen if it closes, but they're trying to stay focused on their kids.
It was life as usual on a recent spring day at Ethan Allen. Sunshine sparkled on the concertina wire that topped the fence surrounding the sprawling campus.
In one class, social worker Melinda Aiken discussed emotion management.
"Why does it take courage to make a positive change?" Aiken asked.
"If you're scared," a boy replied, "you ain't never going to get anywhere."
Aiken nodded.
"It's going to take a lot of strength," she said. "You guys can do it. Tap into that." ..Source.. TODD RICHMOND
May 10, 2010
Michigan not alone in seeking changes to sex offender registry
The entire Adam Walsh Act is "dracomian" and "vindictive" in its attempt to unseat constitutional protections for registrants.5-10-2010 Michigan:
The state of Michigan is not the only state struggling to comply with the changes required by the federal Adam Walsh Act to the state’s sex offender registry. The Bangor Daily News reports that Maine is having a difficult time with those requirements as well and may ask for a delay in implementation of those changes.
Legislators from that state call many of the changes required “unworkable” and “draconian” and say they have not yet found a way to comply with the law in a way that makes sense. One of the major problems there, as here, is how to treat juvenile offenders and those in so-called Romeo and Juliet relationships. ..Source.. Ed Brayton
May 6, 2010
States Vary on dealing with youth sex offenders
5-6-2010 National:
ATLANTA — When Ricky Blackman was 16, he pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl, and an Iowa judge ordered him to register as a sex offender.
But if Blackman had lived in at least a half-dozen other states, his name would never have appeared on a registry because states are deeply divided on how to deal with the nation's youngest sex offenders.
Juvenile justice advocates want rehabilitation instead of registration, yet public safety experts argue children must be protected from predators, even if they are minors.
The confusing array of rules for juvenile sex offenders persists despite a vast overhaul that was adopted four years ago to bring clarity and consistency to the nation's sex offender regristration laws.
"It's a real bind for the states," said Michele Deitch, an attorney who teaches criminal justice policy at the University of Texas. "Do you want to comply with what could be poor public policy or risk not complying with the federal law? And there's no easy answer."
Twenty-one states currently require juveniles convicted of a serious sex crime to register with law enforcement, according to an Associated Press review of state laws and interviews with state officials.
In 19 other states, only juveniles convicted as adults or who move from a state that requires registration are required to provide their information to authorities. In the remaining states, the laws vary. In Nevada, for instance, a juvenile sex offender can petition a judge to set aside registration requirements.
In 2006, President George W. Bush signed a law requiring states to adopt a series of sex offender measures, including the registration of all juveniles who commit serious sex crimes such as abuse or rape. The law was designed to create a national sex offender registry and toughen penalties for those who fail to register.
Ohio is so far the only state to meet the new federal standards, but states have until July to comply so they can build up their online registries and ensure the information can be incorporated into the national database.
Of the 21 states that require juvenile sex offenders to register, at least four states do not publish all of their details online, such as photographs and home addresses.
Critics said young offenders will be more likely to reoffend because of the humiliation of being labeled a sex offender.
"These kids can get better and here you are punishing them for life without offering any treatment. That to me is unethical," said Dr. Valerie Arnold, the interim chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Tennessee. "Even convicted murderers aren't put on a list like this."
It's unclear how many of the nation's estimated 686,000 sex offenders are juveniles. But a recent study by the University of New Hampshire Crimes against Children Research Center that found more than a third of those who sexually abuse children are juveniles.
"It's a difficult balance," said Ernie Allen of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. "We're in favor of the rehabilitative ideal and targeting treatment for the youngest offenders, but many of America's offenders are kids — and they are committing very serious sex offenses."
The stress of being listed on a public registry can be overwhelming for young sex offenders.
In Blackman's case, his family later moved to Oklahoma, where he was also required to register. After his name was posted, Blackman said he was kicked out of school and neighbors began harassing his family.
One neighbor followed him with a video camera and insisted the family move, and they eventually decided to resettle in a rural area to escape the scrutiny.
"I was really depressed and I was always stressed out," said Blackman, now 21. "It changed me. I lost a lot of my childhood and now I have a lot of catching up to do."
Even though his record was expunged, his name stayed on the list until his mother lobbied state lawmakers to change the law. Blackman has since been removed from the registry.
Yet he says he still suffers with the stigma — reluctant to go to the park, watch his little brother's basketball games or be alone with his cousin's infant — fearing his actions could be misconstrued.
"It's sad. He's 21 now and there's so much damage that's been done to him," said Blackman's mother, Mary Duval. "All he wants is his life back but he doesn't know if it's going to happen."
Those who want juvenile sex offenders on registries acknowledge the requirements are not ideal, but they say the benefits to public safety far outweigh the impact on a juvenile sex offender's psyche.
Supporters often refer to the case of Amie Zyla, who was sexually assaulted when she was 8 years old in Wisconsin by a 14-year-old family friend. She became a leading advocate of juvenile registration requirements when her perpetrator was sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to later fondling two teen boys.
"The simple truth is that juvenile sex offenders turn into adult predators," she said at a 2005 Congressional hearing. "Kids all over the country need the same kind of protection as in Wisconsin."
Yet there is a wide disparity in how states treat juvenile offenders.
In Texas, where judges decide whether to put juveniles on the registry, lawmakers led a push several years ago to make it automatic. But the measure's sponsor, Texas state Rep. Jim McReynolds, said he abandoned the effort after concluding the new requirements would be too costly and may end up harming the juvenile offenders.
"The more I began to look at it, the more I saw it was pretty doggone tough on juveniles," said McReynolds, who chairs the House Corrections Committee. He now favors more treatment.
In Maryland, powerful lawmakers are aiming to require those 14 and older who commit rape and other serious sex crimes to register.
"Juveniles are treated as adults in other areas of the law," said Delegate Bill Frank of Baltimore County, one of the measure's sponsors. "And if a juvenile commits a first-degree rape, that juvenile should be required to register as a sexual offender." ..Source.. GREG BLUESTEIN
April 30, 2010
Family Court judge upheld and chastized in high court ruling
4-30-2010 Rhode Island:
PROVIDENCE — Family Court judges have the right to place juveniles who are convicted of adult crimes in residential treatment facilities instead of the more secure Training School until they reach age 19, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
But Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg, one of the four justices who sided with the teenage offender in the case, excoriated Jeremiah S. Jeremiah Jr., the chief judge of the Family Court, for the way he dealt with the case.
“The manner in which this case was handled is of concern; neither justice nor any party was served by the autocratic rulings of the trial justice,” she said in her stinging, concurring opinion. “The Family Court long has enjoyed a reputation for cutting-edge rehabilitative programs for youthful offenders, and its justices are among the most respected jurists in this state,” Goldberg wrote. “However, that tradition was not reflected in this case. Hopefully, what occurred in this case will not be repeated.”
The court’s unanimous ruling came in the case of Paul Harrison, 18, formerly of Warwick, who in December 2007, sexually assaulted a young woman whom he described as a friend. He was 16 at the time he was charged by Warwick police. [The court identified him in its decision because he was prosecuted for an adult crime.] The attorney general’s office moved to waive Harrison into the Superior Court to have him tried as an adult because of the serious nature of the offense.
But as part of a plea deal, Harrison agreed to admit his guilt and plead no contest to an adult charge of first-degree sexual assault in a “certification” proceeding in the Family Court. This would allow him to serve whatever prison time a Family Court judge imposed in the Training School, up to his 19th birthday, and then be transferred for the remainder of his term to the Adult Correctional Institutions — unless the judge at some time later time suspended the last part of his sentence.
Harrison pleaded no contest on June 16, 2008, then came back before Jeremiah on Jan. 12, 2009 for a periodic review. At that hearing, the state’s prosecutor and the public defender agreed that Harrison was doing well at the Training School, where he’d been held for more than nine months.
He’d received a GED, had made progress in a sex-offender treatment program and “was free of serious disciplinary citations,” the high court said. Harrison’s lawyer told Jeremiah that when the case next came up for review, he might consider moving Harrison to a “step-down program” such as a group-home placement. The public defender mentioned several possibilities, noting that Ocean Tides, a residential treatment program, had earlier accepted Harrison into its program.
“Without further inquiry,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Francis X. Flaherty, “Jeremiah ordered Harrison’s immediate transfer to Ocean Tides as a temporary community placement.” He told Harrison he was giving him “a break” because he was doing so well in the Training School.
The prosecutor objected, noting that the Training School was recommending that the teen be remanded there. But Jeremiah shot back: “I don’t care what the Training School recommends. I’m the boss here. If Ocean Tides will take him, he is to go.”
The state filed a motion asking Jeremiah to reconsider his ruling and later, when Jeremiah rebuffed the prosecutor, Alison DeCosta, she went to the Supreme Court to try to block the transfer. The Supreme Court stayed Jeremiah’s order, noting that he “neither considered any testimony or other evidence nor offered any legal rationale in rendering his decision.”
It ordered Jeremiah to conduct an evidentiary hearing on the matter of Harrison’s placement. The hearing was held and Jeremiah, after hearing testimony from an Ocean Tides director, again ordered Harrison moved to the unlocked facility. The high court temporarily blocked the transfer again, but on March 12, 2009, ordered that Harrison be relocated to Ocean Tides but be deemed ineligible for weekend passes while it took up the state’s appeal.
In rebuking Jeremiah — the Family Court’s chief judge for the last 23 years who is no longer hearing cases and has set a retirement date of June 30 — Goldberg said the record shows that he “appears to have had no understanding of the nature of the charge” that Harrison was accused of “or the legal significance of statutory certification,” a means of adjudicating serious juvenile offenders in a more harsh way than through the normally anonymous juvenile justice system but less harshly than through Superior Court prosecution.
The General Assembly enacted certification laws in 1990 as a means to allow minors charged with heinous crimes to be tried as an adult in Family Court, where the judge has broader options in sentencing. This allows for rehabilitation as well as confinement.
About 10 juveniles are prosecuted this way each year, Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said Thursday. ..Source.. Tracy Breton
January 7, 2010
Feds: Sex Abuse High At L.E. Rader Center In Sand Springs
1-7-2010 National:
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal officials say 13 juvenile detention facilities around the country have high rates of sex abuse and victimization, where nearly 1 out of every 3 inmates reported some type of victimization.
The list includes the L.E. Rader Center just west of Sand Springs.
A Justice Department study has found that nationwide, about 12% of youths held in state and local facilities reported some type of sexual victimization -- but those rates varied widely from place to place. Six sites had reported victimization rates of 30% or higher.
About 10% of reported incidents involved staff, and nearly all of those complaints were against female staffers. The figures are based on surveys.
Read the DOJ study report: Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-2009 ..Source.. AP
October 30, 2009
PA- Pa. Supreme Court Throws Out Thousands of Juvenile Delinquency Cases
10-30-2009 Pennsylvania:
Court Says Cases Tainted by Alleged Kickback Scheme Involving Corrupt Judge
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled late Thursday that almost all juvenile delinquency cases heard by an indicted former judge must be thrown out. The ruling means cases heard by former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella from Jan. 1, 2003 to May 31, 2008 are in question for fairness and impartiality.
Ciavarella faces criminal charges that accuse him of taking millions of dollars in kickbacks from owners of private detention centers in exchange for placing juvenile defendants at their facilities, often for minor crimes.
In one reported case, a college-bound high school student served three weeks in juvenile detention for making fun of the school principal on a Web site.
The court said that it "cannot have any confidence that Ciavarella decided any Luzerne County juvenile case fairly and impartially while he labored under the specter of his self-interested dealings with the facilities," and called Ciavarella's actions a "travesty of juvenile justice."
The decision could impact up to 6,500 Pennsylvania youth, whose juvenile detention records will now be erased and their cases dismissed without the possibility of retrial.
Most of the affected youth have already served their time. In Pennsylvania, juvenile criminal records are not automatically expunged when children turn 18, so Thursday's ruling could give thousands of kids a clean slate, said Marsha Levick, deputy director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia and an attorney for the children. About 100 Pennsylvania children could now be released from juvenile detention or taken off of probation, according to Levick.
"The court's far-reaching order is an exceptional response to the most serious judicial scandal in the history of the United States," Levick told ABC News.
The ruling is the latest stunning development in a story of corruption that first shocked Luzerne County residents in January 2009. Federal prosecutors announced that respected county judges Ciavarella and Michael Conahan had pleaded guilty to tax evasion and honest services fraud. However, their plea deal and relatively light sentence were later rejected by a federal judge who ruled that Ciavarella and Conahan had failed to accept responsibility for their crimes. In fact, Ciavarella had previously told "20/20" that "we would never agree that [the kids' sentencing] was improper."
Now, the two former judges face much more serious federal racketeering, bribery, and extortion charges. All of this is the result of a lengthy investigation by the Internal Revenue Service and the FBI. Ciavarella and Conahan have pleaded not guilty.
"They sold their oath of offices to the highest bidders and engaged in ongoing schemes to defraud the public of honest services that were expected from them," Deron Roberts, chief of the FBI's Scranton office, said at a late January news conference announcing the case.
The judges' arrests shed light on a mystery in Luzerne County: Why were so many kids getting sent directly to juvenile detention after seeing Ciavarella in his Wilkes-Barre juvenile court? And why were those kids sent away in such a rush? ..Click for the remainder of this story.. by FRANK MASTROPOLO, LAUREN PEARLE and GLENN RUPPEL
October 25, 2009
VT- Research Sheds Light on Juvenile Sexual Offenders
10-25-2009 Vermont:
George Leibowitz, assistant professor of social work, is convinced that producing research that reveals the differences between adolescent and adult sexual offenders will change the way juvenile offenders are treated by society, law enforcement and therapists. With this goal in mind, the expert on trauma and dissociation among sexually abusive youth is taking an in-depth look at specific aspects of juvenile offenders rather than the traditional approach of looking retrospectively at the lives of adult sexual abusers.
In a recent article in the Journal of Forensic Nursing titled, "Comparison of Juvenile Sexual Offenders and Nonsexual Offending Delinquents on Pornography Exposure," Leibowitz showed that previous research indicating that pornography use for adult men at risk for aggression results in sexually aggressive behavior, doesn't apply to adolescent sexual abusers. Pornographic exposure was not correlated to the age at which the abusers started abusing; to their reported number of victims; or to sexual offense severity. "This was not expected and is pretty controversial compared to the existing literature," he says.
The study allowed Leibowitz and his colleagues to collect data on 322 adolescent males incarcerated for sexual offenses and 170 adolescent males incarcerated for non-sexual crimes. Contrary to other researchers' assumptions based on data from non-incarcerated individuals, Leibowiz's findings showed that for incarcerated adolescents, pornographic exposure was not related to any aspect of sexual crime.
"Historically, adolescent treatment approaches have been erroneously derived from the research on adult sexual offenders, which can result in negative, iatrogenic (therapist-caused) effects with youth," says Leibowitz, a licensed independent social worker in Vermont. "It is important to explore the ways clinicians, policy makers, and other key players utilize adult constructs with youth, and what the unintended outcomes are. I think we've helped fill a gap in the research by showing that the way sexual abuse happens with adults isn't how it happens with kids."
Advocating for changes to youth offender laws
Leibowtiz's efforts to ensure that youth sex offenders are viewed in a different context than their adult counterparts extends beyond the research lab. As a social worker at an outpatient clinic in Colorado, Leibowitz worked on a committee with the Colorado Sex Offender Management Board to develop state standards and ensure that developmentally appropriate language was used in manuals and other literature. The committee was successful at getting words used to describe adult offenders such as "incurable" removed from the description of adolescent sexual offenders.
Leibowitz continued lobbying to change public policy by joining forces with Gale Burford, professor in social work, to co-author a legislative report used by the Vermont State Legislature during its information gathering phase for Act 77. The report was instrumental in keeping 11 years-olds off the state sex offender registry, stating that they found "no evidence that public registration and public notification requirements for juveniles, and especially young children, are associated with positive treatment outcomes or with greater safeguarding of other children."
Research for social workers
One of Leibowitz's primary goals is to produce research that helps social workers improve the lives of their patients. He includes sections in his papers for how social workers can apply his findings to their practice. "In some ways we're losing the battle," says Leibowitz in reference to the number of adolescents who are maltreated each year and clinicians' efforts to treat them. "But there are some promising research-based prevention and intervention programs out there that are helping."
Leibowitz offers some suggestions to practitioners in an article that appeared in Journal of Trauma and Dissociation on treating dissociative kids in group settings. According to his research, these patients may react negatively to peers who discuss the details of more serious crimes and victimization in a group setting. In his Forensic Nursing article he addresses implications for nurses who are doing forensic risk assessment, and the importance of understanding the variables related to sexual aggression among juveniles, which should help drive assessment and treatment recommendations.
Leibowitz, who gave a presentation on how to apply research to practice at the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abuse conference in Dallas in September, recently finished research related to trauma and dissociation and plans to focus on the effects of trauma on adolescents who have been sexually abused by their caretakers. He's also working on a book with David Burton, a professor of social work at Smith College and scholar on sexual aggression, with the working title of "Why Did They Do It?" They use their own case studies to explain why these individuals committed sexual crimes and what has been done to help them.
"Research should provide practitioners with important information about risk and protective factors that should inform treatment," says Leibowitz. "Ultimately, you just hope the research helps these adolescents. I enjoy hearing from some of the kids I used to work with, but it's also sad to me because you know you can only do so much. That's where I think the research can really help." ..Source.. by Jon C. Reidel1
FL- POLL Teen sex: Collier schools not teaching teenagers when romance can land them in jail
10-25-2009 Florida:
Following arrest of Immokalee football players, some teens say they don't know the law
NAPLES — They learn in school about the benefits of abstinence.
They learn about sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS and birth control.
But one thing that is glaringly clear after the recent arrest of four Immokalee football players on charges that they had group sex with a 15-year-old girl: Teenagers today have little to no knowledge of state laws regarding underage sex.
“I don’t think anyone knows,” said 14-year-old Stephanie Gill, a freshman at Barron Collier High School, who attended Thursday night’s freshman and junior varsity football games against Naples High School with her 16-year-old boyfriend, Zach Richards.
According to the 2007 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 47.8 percent of high school students have had sex.
The Immokalee football players — Kovan McSwain, Joshua Edison, Deonte Clifton and Demandrea Fuller, each 17 — were arrested around 1:30 a.m. on Oct. 16 after a 15-year-old student accused them of gang-raping her the night before outside a portable Immokalee High classroom, across campus from where a junior varsity game was being played.
Investigators say the 15-year-old later recanted the rape allegations, and admitted that she had, in fact, agreed to the sex.
Why then do the football players remain behind bars?
Because, according to Florida law, engaging in sexual activity with anyone under 16 is classified as lewd or lascivious battery, a second-degree felony.
And the law doesn’t just apply to people over 16.
“If you have two 15-year-olds who are having sex, both of them are technically committing the crime,” said Shannon McFee, a Naples attorney who regularly talks with teens about the legal consequences of underage sex. “Either or both could be prosecuted.”
Anyone 24 or older who engages in “sexual activity” with a 16- or 17-year-old can be charged with sexual battery, a second-degree felony, according to state laws.
The law doesn’t stop at regulating intercourse, either.
According to Florida statutes, lewd or lascivious molestation, also a second-degree felony, is the intentional touching “in a lewd or lascivious manner the breasts, genitals, genital area, or buttocks, or the clothing over them, of a person less than 16 years of age.”
In other words, a heavy make-out session could, legally, land a teen in the Collier County juvenile detention center.
“If you’re 16 years old and you touch a 15-year-old’s breast, in that case you’ve committed lewd and lascivious molestation,” said McFee, who added that cases are typically brought forward by a scorned ex-lover or an angry parent.
Those statutes weren’t too popular with teens at the Barron Collier-Naples football games.
“I don’t think the law should dictate that,” Richards said. “It should be the parents’ decision.”
Willy Cunard, 14, a freshman at Naples High School, didn’t think a teen make-out session should be the realm of the Legislature.
“If they love each other and want to express their feelings toward each other, they should be able to do whatever,” he said.
While teachers don’t specifically address the law when it comes to having sex, Collier County schools Superintendent Dennis Thompson said it is possible those things are alluded to in class. But, that might not deter students.
“Maybe what we need to teach them is just because you say you want to do it, doesn’t mean you are at an age where you can consent,” he said.
It’s up to the State Attorney’s Office whether to prosecute the Immokalee football players in juvenile or adult court, McFee said.
If convicted in adult court, the teens could face up to 15 years in a state prison. In a juvenile court, the maximum penalty would be commitment to a juvenile facility until they turn 21, McFee said.
But McFee said he has doubts about the credibility of the 15-year-old accuser, who also accused an 18-year-old man of having sex with her in September.
If the teens are convicted, McFee said it appears they could qualify under the 2007 “Romeo and Juliet Law,” which attempts to correct overly harsh penalties and allows judges to remove sex-offender designation in certain cases.
For the law to apply, the victim must be between 14 and 17, a willing participant, and can be no more than four years younger than the offender, who cannot have another sex crime on their record.
“It’s not something that’s automatic,” McFee said.
The teens at the Barron Collier vs. Naples games had mixed opinions on the Immokalee players. If the allegations are true, some of the teens said the players should go to jail; others said the case should be dropped.
“When you’re that young, you’re not aware of the law,” said Olivia Mead, 15, a Naples High School freshman. “They don’t realize what they’re getting themselves into.”
Kim Rodgers, a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in working with children and adolescents, said teenagers these days are bombarded with sex, whether on television, on the radio, at the movies or even in video games. Pornography is easily accessible online.
Raging with hormones, teenagers can’t rationally process the consequences of their actions like adults can, Rodgers said.
“I think one of the biggest things that parents can do is face their own fears in talking with their kids about these issues, sex, violence and having babies,” she said.
McFee said he believes the laws governing underage sex were passed in reaction to terrible news stories, and have “captured many unintended victims.”
“I think the vast, vast majority of kids don’t realize this,” McFee said. “They think if they’re both juveniles, then everything is OK. The scary part is, most of the parents don’t understand it either.
“It is a scary time and a scary area to be a kid.” ..Source.. by RYAN MILLS
October 23, 2009
VT- Suggestive letters lead to sex charges
10-23-2009 Vermont:
BARRE – A high school sophomore entered a pair of conditional guilty pleas in Vermont District Court on Monday to charges stemming from his decision to leave two sexually suggestive letters in the mailbox of a five-year-old neighbor over the summer.
Standing before Judge Brian Grearson, Edwin Read Jr., 16, essentially admitted he wrote the letters that were addressed to the young girl, discovered by her mother and immediately called to the attention of Barre police back in July.
According to prosecutors, the letters – one written on brightly colored paper and sealed in an envelope decorated with stickers and the other penned on a plain piece of folded white paper – each represent a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
However, a motion filed by Read's lawyer requesting that he be granted "youthful offender status," makes it much less clear what penalties he will actually face. What's more Grearson noted that if the motion, which will be heard in family court, is denied, Read will be within his rights to withdraw the guilty pleas he entered during his arraignment on Monday.
Deputy States Attorney Megan Campbell expressed concern about the possibility Read could be granted youthful offender status given the nature of the letters he wrote to his young neighbor.
"We strongly oppose it your honor," she said of the motion.
Grearson noted Campbell's objection, but said the motion, filed on Read's behalf by his court-appointed lawyer, Maggie Vincent, must be transferred to family court for a hearing. No date has yet been set for that hearing.
During Monday's session, Vincent objected to Campbell's addition of a second count of felony "sexual exploitation – luring child" reading the brief letter on which it was based aloud in open court: "Hey little one. I was wondering what your age is and the size of your underwear. I am 16 and live out on the street. I think that you are really cute and that you are pretty and I was hoping I might be able to meet with you some time after 10 a.m. at the Salvation Army. Love ya.'"
That, Vincent argued, was not sufficient to warrant the second felony charge that was filed against her client.
"You have to infer and imply a lot of information in that and (then) contort it," she said of the letter.
However, Grearson said the suggestive nature of the letter coupled with the request to meet were enough to persuade him there was at least probable cause for the second charge.
The other letter, which arrived in the decorated envelope, was far more suggestive, according to court records that depict Read as someone who continues to wrestle with urges involving young girls.
During a July 18 interview conducted just two days after the letters were discovered, Read allegedly told police he was already attending a group session for sex offenders based on his parents' concerns about writings they found in his room involving young girls. During that interview, he first admitted to writing the letters.
Read, who has been forced to move at least three times since that initial interview, is currently being held at Woodside Detention Facility.
Police quickly focused on Read after the victim's mother mentioned a neighbor whose parents had forbidden him from using the internet for fear he would look up child pornography.
Police first spoke with Edwin Read Sr. He said the handwriting in the letters looked like it could be his son's. They subsequently interviewed Read, who allegedly admitted to writing the letters and being attracted to the young girl. However, he denied acting on those impulses or meeting with the girl. ..Source.. by David Delcore TIMES ARGUS STAFF
August 24, 2009
NH- Some sex offenders may leave list
8-24-2009 New Hampshire:
Least dangerous would be exempt
A 20-year-old college student went online in a New Hampshire romance chat room one afternoon and struck up a conversation with a 14-year-old girl. She said she was a virgin who lived at home with her mother. In explicit terms, detailed in court records, the man asked her to meet him so they could have sex.
She agreed, and the man drove to the meeting place. He waited a few minutes, then got back in his car and left, according to court documents. The police pulled up behind him and arrested him. The "girl" he met online was actually an undercover cop.
The man was charged with two felonies. But on a negotiated plea, he pleaded guilty to attempted second degree assault, a felony, and attempted sexual assault, a misdemeanor. He received a suspended sentence and was required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.
The man's mother is state Rep. Jennifer Brown, a Strafford Democrat. Brown has sponsored a bill that would exempt the least dangerous class of sex offenders, which includes her son, from registering on the public sex offender registry.
Brown said people like her son should not be stigmatized publicly.
"He didn't meet anyone," Brown said. "He got there, turned around and left so fast. . . . He went to the meeting, then said, 'I'm just leaving,' and that's what our state calls a criminal."
Brown said her son has graduated college with a degree in finance but cannot get a job. Brown said she has talked to other people on the registry who have had consensual sex with a person who lied about their age. She knows of young men who were caught in stings or lied to, she said, who "cannot speak for themselves and have no advocates."
"What happens when you're young derails your career," Brown told a House subcommittee last week. "You have none. Being on the list is an onerous responsibility."
Brown's proposed change would exempt Tier 1 sex offenders, which includes only those convicted of misdemeanors, from the public list. Those who were exempted would still need to register on a private list with the police department. A Tier 1 sex offender can currently petition to come off the public list five years after he or she completes his or her sentence.
The bill, which had a public hearing in January and was retained by a subcommittee to work on this summer, has the support of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union.
"To put all individuals who have committed an offense in a very broad category in the same pot is absurd," said Claire Ebel, executive director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union. Ebel said she knows young men who had consensual sex with a minor who was close in age to them, and their names appear on the public list, under an old law that has since been changed.
In general, Ebel is critical of the idea of a public sex offender list.
"When you place people on the list that can put their lives and properties in danger, you're making rehabilitation a joke and reintroduction into society impossible," Ebel said. "The other part of that is that the public list itself gives a false sense of security. If you live in a neighborhood and don't find anyone on list, a parent might say my kids are safe. They're not."
More effective, Ebel said is educating children about not speaking to strangers and about telling an adult if someone touches them inappropriately. Ebel supports Brown's bill because it removes one class of people from the public list, though she said she would ideally prefer that the state set up an assessment board so that sex offenders were grouped in tiers according to their likelihood of re-offending. Currently, the tiers are based solely on the crimes for which the offenders were convicted.
The bill is facing stiff opposition from the state's law enforcement community.
Associate Attorney General Anne Rice said if the state adopts Brown's bill, it could jeopardize federal funding. According to the federal Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, all perpetrators of sex crimes against children must be on the public list, Rice said. New Hampshire passed a law that went into effect Jan. 1 that brought the state into compliance with the federal regulations. Up to 10 percent of a federal justice grant could be jeopardized if the state changes its laws. State Rep. Steve Shurtleff, a Concord Democrat who chairs the House Criminal Justice Committee, said that up to $1 million in federal money could be put at risk.
More significant, many in the law enforcement community said Tier 1 sex offenders are more dangerous than proponents of the bills make them out to be.
Tier 1 sex offenses are all committed against victims under 18 years old. Among the offenses considered Tier 1:
• Sexual contact with a person age 13 to 18 under aggravating circumstances, which could include using physical force, touching a victim who is physically unable to resist, or coercion by a person in authority.
• Sexual contact with a person aged 13 to 15, with an age difference of five years or more.
• Sexual penetration with a person who is incarcerated, on probation or parole by a person in a position of authority.
• Violation of privacy, including sending out photographs or recordings of private body parts.
• A second or subsequent incident of indecent exposure.
• Sexual penetration or contact in the presence of a child.
Tom Reid, deputy county attorney for Rockingham County, who prosecuted Brown's son, is among those who are deeply critical of the bill. Reid is angered by the suggestions that those who would be protected by the bill are young men who have had consensual sex with a younger girlfriend. Under current law, a girl is considered unable to consent until she is 16. But if she has sex with a man within four years of her age, that man does not have to register as a sex offender.
Tier 1 includes more serious offenses, Reid said.
"A defendant who could be any age overcomes a victim through application of physical force or violence, holds a person down and grabs their sexual parts . . . that's a Tier 1 sex offender who the bill would exempt." Reid said. "You could have a 60-year-old man who fondles a 13-year-old child for sexual gratification. This bill would exempt that person."
Reid said Tier 1 sex offenders can include those who are "grooming" a child, buying the child gifts and fondling them, activities meant to lead to sexual relations. "We recognize that person poses a danger and a threat to children in our community," Reid said.
At the subcommittee work session, Sgt. Cheryl Nedeau of the state police, which oversees the sex offender registry, said the registry laws were just changed on Jan. 1.
"By changing them again quickly, it's confusing for law enforcement, the public, prosecutors, who's on the public list and who's not," Nedeau said.
Amanda Grady, Public Policy Director for the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, worked with law enforcement and advocates on implementing the changes required by the Adam Walsh Act. Her organization also opposes Brown's legislation.
Grady said before the Adam Walsh Act was implemented, some sex offenders were moving to New Hampshire because of its less stringent registration requirements. And changes have already been made to protect the rights of Tier 1 offenders - giving them a process to petition to get off the public list after five years, and changing the statutory rape law to apply to only those with a four-year, not a three-year, age difference. She said that the fact that Tier 1 offenders were only convicted of misdemeanors does not mean their crimes were not serious.
"Often, we have people charged with felonies pleading to misdemeanors," Grady said.
The subcommittee will continue to meet on the issue, and must produce a report by Dec. 2. ..Source.. by SHIRA SCHOENBERG, Monitor staff
July 28, 2009
TX- CHILDREN ON SEX OFFENDER REGISTRY
7-28-2009 Texas:
A recent Dallas Morning News analysis found about 4,000 people on the Texas sex offender registry for crimes committed as juveniles.
About a thousand were younger than 14 at the time of their crimes. Children as young as 10 have been on the registry.
"I'm absolutely a little bit shocked that kids that young can be on the list," Michele Deitch, a University of Texas law professor who teaches juvenile justice policy, said in a recent interview.
She and other experts say public registration of juveniles contradicts the purpose of juvenile justice: to give kids a second chance.
A child must be at least 10 to be handled by the state juvenile justice system, so a judge may order an offender that young to register.
Some experts say most juvenile offenders do not reoffend. Their chances for rehabilitation may be hampered by public registration. Publicizing their names and addresses often leads to social isolation because other parents don't want their kids associating with sex offenders, they say.
For one family's story and a deeper look at the issues reported by Diane Jennings, go to dallasnews.com/crimeblog. ..Source.. by WFFA.com
July 5, 2009
IL- A lurid past and a looming law limits teen sex offender's future
7-5-2009 Illinois:
Teen sex offender who turned his life around finds his crime hard to shake -- and a federal law could make it even harder
Tim is 19, freshly graduated from high school, and like many people his age he's nervous about leaving home. He's not quite sure where he will go, what he will do -- or if the secret he has guarded for much of his life will be exposed.
Five years ago, Tim sexually abused an 8-year-old girl in Chicago, and his name was logged onto a state registry for juvenile sex offenders. Only the police have known about his record until now. But in adulthood, the circle is widening.
Tim, who asked that his last name not be disclosed, said he was rejected by military recruiters and a college admissions office after he informed them of his history. And he is concerned that a year from now, a federal law might cause his full name, photo and address to be displayed on the Internet, just like adult sex offenders.
Officials at the Alternative Behavior Treatment Centers, a campus for troubled youths near Wauconda, say Tim has responded well to years of intense therapy, earning the chance to move beyond his past.
But the past of a juvenile sex offender is hard to shake. Justifiably or not, it can define an entire life, even when some experts say that young people, properly treated, rarely repeat those crimes.
"I want to be viewed as a good person," Tim said. "I don't want to carry that label."
Robin McGinnis, a social worker and the founder of Tim's treatment center, said most kids there have traumatic backgrounds, and Tim's was particularly grim: He described his childhood as a slog between 10 West Side foster homes, where physical, emotional and sexual abuse were common.
He said he was adopted at age 10 by a man whose interest in him was limited to cashing state-issued support checks, and by 14 he was hanging out with a gang and selling drugs to help pay for his school clothes.
That got him locked up twice -- first for being involved in a gang fight, then for heroin possession, he said. But he was back on the street, visiting one of his former foster families, when he committed the most serious crime of his life.
According to a court document reviewed by the Tribune, Tim had sexual contact with an 8-year-old girl. She soon told someone, as did he, and he was sent back to juvenile detention.
He said he knew he had made a terrible mistake -- he had absorbed a basic sense of morality from the good foster homes -- and against his lawyer's advice, he decided to come clean with the judge.
"I couldn't bottle up that guilt all my life, that I'd beat this case when I'd actually done something," he said.
He was found to have committed felony criminal sexual abuse and was sent to the Illinois Youth Center Kewanee, a Department of Corrections facility that specializes in treating young sex offenders. A year ago, he was transferred to the campus of Alternative Behavior Treatment Centers.
It is a collection of small, spartan buildings set a half-mile back from the main road. The 40 or so residents, who range from age 15 to 21, come mostly by court order for a treatment regimen that can last for years, and not all of them succeed. McGinnis said she has asked judges to return some teens to prison, feeling they were too dangerous to remain.
Tim, by contrast, sped through the program. He moved quickly from a restrictive dormitory to a modest apartment, took classes in the center's high school and earned the chance to work an off-campus retail job (his boss does not know about his record, he said).
"He showed focus, responsibility, a yearning for change," said his therapist, Heather Lawrence. "He has a very strong set of goals and work ethic, so he's able to come in and do what he needed to do to meet those goals."
McGinnis said while many of the youths need to be prodded to feel remorse for their actions, that has not been an issue for Tim. Young men like him, she said, need to be encouraged to see themselves as good.
Nurturing the self-esteem of sex offenders might sound like political correctness gone mad, but University of Oklahoma psychologist Barbara Bonner, who treats such youths, said it can be a critical step to keeping them out of further trouble.
"It's not that [a youth] should minimize what he did or forget that he made a serious mistake -- he did," she said. "But leaving with a negative self-image would hardly be conducive to staying away from illegal behavior."
She added that ample evidence suggests treatment works for young sex offenders. Various studies have found that 5 to 14 percent of those who receive counseling commit another sexual crime, she said.
Authorities, though, don't take those rehabilitations on faith. Illinois, like most states, requires young sex offenders to inform local police when they move into a community. But while the police can share that information with schools or others they believe should know, it is otherwise off-limits to the public.
That could change in July 2010 , when a new federal law will impact the rules. It compels states to reveal the identities of many young sex offenders on a Web site for at least 25 years.
"If you're going to err, you should err on the side of parents, church leaders, youth group leaders -- those who are responsible for the welfare of the vulnerable in our community," said the architect of the provision, former Wisconsin Congressman Mark Green. "They have a right to access that information."
It is not clear whether Tim's record will be revealed. He plans to ask a judge to take him off the juvenile registry before the federal law is enforced. Even if that fails, Cara Smith, deputy chief of staff for Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, said officials have yet to decide which crimes will require public exposure.
But Tim has already discovered how his past is limiting his future. He said his aspiration for a military career ended when he disclosed his history to recruiters for the Navy and Marine Corps (neither allows sex offenders into its ranks, according to spokesmen).
When he told Bradley University, it insisted on a background check -- a requirement for all felons, a spokeswoman said -- and did not accept him, he said.
He now plans to study social work or marketing at the College of Lake County, which does not inquire about felony convictions. Alternative Behavior Treatment Centers is allowing Tim to keep his apartment there for a few more months, until he saves up enough money for his own place.
When he does leave, he said, he's confident he'll do well because he's a better person than he was at 14. He tries to remind himself of that with a "self-esteem journal," in which he records the attributes others see in him: strong morals, a tender heart, even the willingness to cry.
"This is a great guy," he wrote. "Remember to be good and kind to him!" ..Source.. by John Keilman | Tribune reporter
June 30, 2009
TX- Gov. Rick Perry vetoes bill lifting sex offenders 21, younger from registry
6-30-2009 Texas:
AUSTIN -- Aaron Jernigan had just started college at age 18 and was planning a career as a music teacher when he met a girl at a party and his whole world changed.
Now 25, Jernigan finished a four-year prison sentence instead of a four-year degree.
He is trying to get on with his life, but a year out of prison he still cannot find work and has had to move twice because he will forever carry with him the black mark of a registered sex offender.
"I was pretty much just a regular old kid in high school," he said. "And they kinda threw away the key on me."
Last week, Gov. Rick Perry vetoed a bill that would have given people such as Jernigan the chance to try to have their names removed from the Texas sex offender registry. Perry said the measure approved by legislators failed to protect young victims.
For Jernigan and other sex offenders like him, who got involved with young people close to their own age, the veto was a disappointment and a setback.
"We were already ready to get everything settled and get our lives back," Jernigan said.
His life started a downhill trajectory in 2002, when he was attending South Plains College in West Texas, not far from Lubbock.
A girl he met at a party told him she was 16. He said she had a car and driver's license. The two hit it off, one thing led to another, and then the girl's grandmother walked in, Jernigan said.
He learned in court that the girl was actually 14. Had she really been 16, he could have used a legal defense that is available in cases involving consensual sex between young people whose age difference is three years or less.
Jernigan pleaded guilty instead of taking his chances with a jury and risking a long prison term. Still, he knew he would do time and end up on the registry of sex offenders.
"It kind of really messed my world up," Jernigan said.
He had never before been in trouble with the law, he said.
After his encounter with the young girl, his hopes of becoming a teacher were over.
Convicted of sexual assault, he will be required for life to put his name, address, photo and employer on the state sex offender registry.
While in prison, Jernigan met the woman who is now his wife. He has been free for a year, and he said their small family is doing well in North Texas, but he is frustrated that he cannot find work to support his wife and stepdaughter.
It's even been tough for him to return to school, Jernigan said. When he applied for automotive training, he said, the school rejected him because he was a sex offender.
"The only jobs open to offenders such as myself are trucking jobs and night-shift jobs, where you'll never see your family," he said.
This year, Jernigan found out about a bill by state Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, that could have helped him get his name off that offender list.
The measure would have allowed people such as Jernigan, who were 21 or younger and had consensual sex with someone who was at least 14 and not more than four years younger than them, to petition a judge to remove their name from the sex offender registry.
Current law does not provide adult offenders any way to petition a judge to be removed from the list.
Smith said his bill was meant to allow law enforcement to concentrate its energy and resources on dangerous sexual predators on the offender registry by weeding out those who made youthful indiscretions.
"To the extent that list is diluted with nondangerous people, it undermines the purpose," he said.
About 55,000 people statewide are on the sex offender registry. A total of 869 are in El Paso County, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
In a response to Perry's veto, Smith wrote that the measure was one of the most "morally compelling" bills he had ever filed.
The bill cleared the House with an overwhelming majority, and was approved unanimously in the Senate.
"I believe teens involved in these relationships have committed a sin, but I don't believe -- in most cases -- that that sin should put them on a list that will literally ruin the rest of their lives," Smith wrote.
Robert Riley, first assistant public defender in El Paso County, said he sees cases such as Jernigan's a lot, and there should be some differentiation for offenders that are put on the registry.
"There really are horrible, heinous people, and there are other people who are young and in love or people who get drunk" and make a mistake, he said.
Unless a person is acquitted or the case is dismissed, he said, those involved in sex offenses are almost certain to end up on the registry. That makes the cases hard to settle, and it clogs the judicial system, Riley said.
"The law is intended to ensure they're not school bus drivers or teachers, but some of these people can't even get jobs as dishwashers because they have that big black mark," Riley said.
State Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, was one of 28 lawmakers who voted against the bill. The former assistant district attorney said he agreed with Smith that the current registry was problematic. But, he said, the bill would not have fixed it and might have allowed some predators to slip through the cracks.
Instead of allowing for the exemption of an entire category of sex offenders, Moody said, the law should be changed to make the registration requirement based on the risk of a person committing another sex offense.
"You need to find some middle ground, where those who aren't a future danger can be moved out of the system and those who are a future danger can be watched with a closer eye," he said.
El Paso County District Attorney Jaime Esparza said Perry made the right decision in vetoing the bill.
Many cases involving two young people in a consensual relationship, he said, are resolved without a sex-offense conviction that requires registration.
If the case is not resolved, Esparza said, then usually it involved some type of criminal behavior that would merit the punishment of registration.
"The reality is they were convicted of a sex offense, and the offenses that do require sex offender registration are offenses that I think the community would want to know about," Esparza said.
Smith said he would work again to pass legislation to allow young adults involved in so-called Romeo-and-Juliet cases to eventually have the taint of the sex offender registry removed from their lives, but only if Gov. Perry changes his mind or Texans elect a new governor in 2010.
Jernigan said he hoped lawmakers would do something to help.
"We're all human. We all make mistakes sometimes," he said. "I really hope they pass this bill, so people like me ... we can all just get our lives back and get on with it." ..Source.. by Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau
April 9, 2009
CO- Registered sex offender, 13, arrested in school incident
4-9-2009 Colorado:
BOULDER, Colo. — A 13-year-old male student and registered juvenile sex offender was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of attempted unlawful sexual contact with a girl in one of his classes at Manhattan Middle School, police said Thursday afternoon.
Sarah Huntley, a spokeswoman with Boulder police, said the boy attempted to place his foot underneath the girl's skirt in class last week. After she pushed him away, he asked her if he could touch "particular parts of her body."
The alleged victim then told a teacher, Huntley said, and police and Boulder Valley School District officials were alerted.
The April 2 incident was investigated for nearly a week and the boy turned himself into officials at the juvenile detention center in Boulder on Wednesday.
Police aren't releasing the names of either student because they are juveniles.
Huntley said she is restricted from releasing information about any prior sex crime convictions the boy has because such revelations could be considered identifying information.
She could only say that the boy was a registered juvenile sex offender when the incident allegedly occurred. ..News Source.. by John Aguilar
February 16, 2009
Judges Should Control Sex Offender Registration, ABA House Says
2-16-2009 National:
Congress should amend existing statutes to allow judges to determine whether juveniles convicted of sex crimes should be required to register as sex offenders, the ABA’s policy-making House of Delegates said today.
Federal law currently require all youths 14 years old or older who are convicted of sex-related offenses to register as sex offenders for at least 25 years. The House resolution urged that judges be able to make those determinations on a case-by-case basis.
Resolution 101A (PDF) passed on an overwhelming voice vote. ..News Source.. by Edward A. Adams
February 13, 2009
When real sex crimes decrease, and politicians still need votes, then create new sex crimes, right?
At what point does the public make lawmakers responsible for their ill conceived, and poorly worded, laws? If adding a youngster who had sex with his girfriend and ends up as a sex offender on the registry irks you, then read on to learn about the new sex offender to come under the umbrella.
2-13-2009 National:
Stupid kid tricks now increasingly called sex crimes
Sex crimes are among the most abhorrent. They can shatter security, damage trust and invade a victim's core being.
Rapists and pedophiles deserve tough sentences and treatment.
If that doesn't reform them, they should be kept away from society.
It's unfortunate, then, that, in their quest to crack down on sex offenses, prosecutors and legislators are going off on pointless tangents that risk trivializing them.
Ask the young man who was a 17-year-old Sioux City, Iowa, high school student last year when he shot a racy 10-second video of himself and a girlfriend on his cell phone.
At age 18, he texted it to a friend.
Evidently he had his pants down, making visible his private parts.
It was a careless, immature thing to do -- though maybe not so surprising in a culture that seems to prolong adolescence and encourages everyone to broadcast their most private thoughts and actions.
But it's doubtful the kid thought he'd be prosecuted for a sex crime.
Charged, as an adult, with telephone dissemination of obscene material to a minor (the friend was 17), he was looking at two years in jail and 10 years on the sex-offender registry, if convicted.
That would have barred him, as he set off for college, from living in any public Iowa college dorm.
That's absurd. In effect, laws intended to prevent adults from preying sexually on children are now being used to prosecute the kids themselves.
The practice of "sexting" --- youth texting revealing pictures of themselves --- is increasingly being prosecuted as child pornography or other felonies, the Associated Press reported, with cases in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Mischievous teen behavior is criminalized, youth are forever stigmatized, and the meaning of sex crimes is diminished.
The Iowa kid was lucky. He got to take a plea bargain, sparing him the draconian consequences of being branded a sex offender. But not before his family had spent $50,000 defending him.
One person who's outraged is David Coster, a Grinnell, Iowa, surgeon.
He's been contacting lawmakers to persuade them to change the law.
Exploring burgeoning sexuality, says Coster, is an inherent part of teen development: "To now criminalize it is one of the most frightening things I've ever heard."
Weren't those making these decisions ever kids themselves? Did they ever show a Playboy to a friend?
Of course lurid pictures shouldn't be sent to unsuspecting young people who don't welcome them.
But surely that can be handled with more appropriate discipline.
The overreaction isn't limited to sexting and teens.
Iowa's sex-offender residency law also doesn't differentiate between pedophiles and pranksters in forbidding registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools or child-care centers.
Even advocates for sexual-assault victims have opposed it for its unintended consequences.
One Iowa man on the registry was 19 when he exposed himself at a party in the presence of a 13-year-old, among others.
A decade later, though he had completed his sentence and probation, married and had kids, the law forced him to live an hour from his job.
It's time for lawmakers, prosecutors and courts to take a deep breath and seriously consider where they're headed here.
Criminalizing youthful indiscretions and forcing ex-convicts into homelessness isn't going to make society safer.
Let's return to common sense, weigh each case separately and save the harshest provisions for the most hopeless, egregious offenders. ..News Source.. by REKHA BASU
February 9, 2009
NH- N.H. House bill seeks to ease sex offender registry rules
It appears one lawmakers questions the other suggesting only personal reasons for the bill. The more I think about his comment the more egregious I think it is, here is why.. If lawmakers are willing to listen to victims of crimes to frame laws, why should they not listen to those affected by the laws they enact especially when the laws -as in this case- are unjustly destroying the lives (after the fact) of those the laws are applicable to?
2-9-2009 New Hampshire:
PORTSMOUTH — House Bill 110, sponsored by state Rep. Jennifer Brown, D-Dover, would allow a sex offender on the lowest tier of classification to petition the court to annul their record after three years. A second bill, HB111, asks that tier one offenders not be required to register as sex offenders.
"I sponsored the bill to get tier one off the list because it's made up of only misdemeanors," Brown said. "In 14 states misdemeanors are not on a public list."
Brown said tiers one and two are not on the list in Massachusetts. "When people go on the Internet they are looking for someone who kidnaps and rapes kids," she said, "not a person who had sex with their underage girlfriend."
When the bills were heard Jan. 27, Rockingham County's Deputy Attorney Tom Reid suggested Brown's son was the reason she filed her bills. Brown admits her son is a tier one registered sex offender.
"He was 20, in college and he didn't have sex with anyone," Brown said. "It's so stupid that he's even considered an offender."
Brown said her son talked to someone in an Internet chat room who said she was 15 or 16. "He cut off the conversation. Six months later he saw her and talked to her," she said. "They were meeting at McDonald's. He was confused that she was saying she was 14 now when she should be 16. He decided to sort it out when he met her. He parked in a space to see if she drove in, because then she'd be 16."
It was a set-up, Brown said. No girl, only police waiting for him. "They consider him driving to McDonald's the intent to commit a crime," she said. "It was a sting and totally unfair."
Police initially charged her son with two felonies even though he left without even trying to meet the girl, Brown said.
"If it was a real girl he would have been able to go in, ask for her ID, buy her a burger and leave and not broken the law," she said. "Now, he's required to register and can't get a job. He faces the same problems a high-level sex offender would."
State Rep. Laura Pantelakos, D-Portsmouth, co-sponsored HB111. She said the bill is about "two people who had consensual sex and she was too young."
"It involves nothing felonious," Pantelakos said. "We would never include a rapist or someone who hurt a child in such a bill. This is about not letting a mistake ruin the rest of your life. This is about a person who has turned their life around, might be married and have a family. They can't go to any of their kids' games or events. This is about people unlikely to re-offend."
Strafford County Attorney Thomas Velardi said the Legislature should stop changing and weakening the laws every year. "It's getting harder and harder to prosecute those who do not register because often they don't even understand the changes or aren't aware of them," he said. "If you want to protect people, have a law that can stand up. Stop poking holes in it and making it harder for law enforcement to do their jobs."
Claire Ebel, a lawyer for the New Hampshire chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said group is in favor of both bills. "They are both good bills," she said. "In regard to annulment, a person is found guilty of a sexual assault between two consenting individuals, but the victim is under the age of consent."
In legal terms, Ebel said, consent is not possible under age of 13, which was formerly called statutory rape.
"There can't be any force or date rape drugs involved," Ebel said. "You're not serving the public by putting him on a list where the crime is that sexual act was consensual but the individual was not old enough. It was an unwise act, but doesn't rise to the level of this."
Sex offender lists offer a false sense of security, according to Ebel.
"You see there's no one in your neighborhood, but most assaults are committed by a person known to the child, a family member or a friend," she said.
Ebel said the presumption of tier one offenders is that the act was not violent and the person is unlikely to offend again.
"Why take away his life and livelihood," Ebel asked. "He can't attend a school activity or take his child to a park."
Ebel said such steps for a tier one offender are Draconian if that person turned his or her life around, has a job, a family and lives in a stable environment. "If you're sentenced to jail and you get out, it's considered that you've paid your debt to society, but for this crime your debt is never paid. You're always on a list." ..News Source.. by Karen Dandurant
February 4, 2009
TN- Sex registry stigma too much for young
2-4-2009 Tennessee:
Today's Topic: Teen offenders may go on list
Tennessee's top law-enforcement officials want juveniles convicted of sex crimes to be named on the state's public sex-offender registries, a notion that is likely to have broad popular support.
But the repercussions of such a plan, which must be approved by the legislature and the governor, may far outweigh the benefits.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will ask lawmakers to introduce the bill as part of a move toward state compliance with the Adam Walsh Act, named for the famous case of a young boy slain in 1981.
A portion of Tennessee's federal law enforcement funding will depend on whether the state decides to add offenders under age 18 to the sex offender database.
It is unfortunate that money should enter into a painful decision such as this, because there certainly are valid points on both sides of the argument. Dangling the prospect of federal dollars during a recession only obscures a discussion that should be held on actual merits of the plan.
It is easy to see why many want the offenders made public. Young offenders might be able to blend in with a crowd of kids, where an adult offender could not.
But being able to shun the offender does not make the offender's will to commit abuse go away. To do that, the offenders need court-ordered counseling and treatment programs — especially when the sex offenders are not yet of an age when brains and emotions are developed enough to make mature decisions. Virtually all young sex offenders were themselves abused, and their criminal behavior is a result of that experience.
For treatment to work, those youths need some expectation that they will not be forever branded and outcast.
Convicted individuals, whether guilty of sexual or other offenses, will go on committing crimes if they have no one to turn to. They will be sent to prison and, when the system cannot hold them any longer, they will get out and repeat the cycle.
Throwing kids, even those who have done terrible things, into the center of a fearful public with a letter on their forehead is little better than locking them into a cell with adult criminals. And hoping they will simply go away and trouble no one ever again is unrealistic and dangerous.
The TBI hopes not only to get the bill passed, but to gain a one-year extension on the April deadline for federal funding. Their energies might be better spent working with the juvenile justice system to see that underage sex offenders get counseling as quickly as possible, and that their progress is well-monitored by trained professionals.
The state's sex-crime laws are intended to protect innocent people from harm; stigmatizing troubled young people when there is a chance to turn them around only exposes other innocent people to further crimes later.
It is hoped that "protect'' is the key concept here, and not "punish." If retribution is the overriding motivation, the cycle of abuse is likely to continue. ..News Source.. by Tennessean
