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Christopher Barrios did not have to die, but he did,
why? If we look at the events of the 2006
Again, I ask the
people of
“What you’re doing is pushing people more underground,
pushing them away from treatment and pushing them away from monitoring, you’re
really not improving the safety, but you are giving people a false sense of
safety.” -- John Gruber, Executive Director of the Association for the Treatment
of Sexual Abusers
“It may be time to do away with sex offender registration
laws altogether.
At the very least, the federal government should commission research to
study the laws’ effectiveness. In the
meantime, several changes should be made.
States should differentiate between serious and non-serious offenders
and only require registration of the most serious offenders. Next, public access to online sites should be
dismantled, and registries should be kept at the local police stations. This would provide at least a minimal
screening process to those seeking inquiries… Lastly,
we should experiment with restorative justice models such as what has happened
in
“Though laudable in their intent, there is little
evidence that recently enacted housing policies achieve their stated goals of
reducing recidivistic sexual violence.
In fact, there is little research at all evaluating the effectiveness of
these policies. Furthermore, these policies are not
evidence-based in their development or implementation, as they tend to capture
the widely heterogeneous group of sex offenders rather than utilize risk
assessment technology to identify those who pose a high danger to public
safety.” -- Jill S. Levenson, Ph.D., Assistant
Professor of Human Services,
“I would rather have someone
who has committed a sex offense be going to work every day, come home tired,
have a sense of well-being that comes from having a regular paycheck and a safe
home, as opposed to having a sex offender who has a lot of free time on his
hands.” -- Richard Hamill, President,
“We're not aware of any evidence that residency
restrictions have prevented a child from being victimized.” --
Carolyn Atwell-Davis, Director of Legislative Affairs,
“Therapy works for these people. Let them be punished for their crimes, let
them out and let them get on with their lives. Let them work. Let them have stable homes and families and
let them live in peace. Harassing them, making
them move and continually punishing them does far more harm than good. A sex offender in therapy with a job and a
place to live is less of a threat than one that is constantly harassed.” --
Robert Shilling, Detective, Crimes Against Children Division,
There is not a shred
of evidence tough laws and residency restrictions have saved one child. There is however, corroboration from the
experts, that Sex Offender Registries and “safety zones” are doing nothing more
than giving the public a false sense of security.
Again, I call for a
National Sex Offender Policy Forum.
Why are we all in
deep denial about this problem? As long
as citizens rely on uninformed politicians, the misinformed media and myths
about sex offenders, all children remain at risk. We need to come to terms with our denial and
seek real solutions, and we need to do it today. How many more
Christopher’s, Jessica’s, Dylan’s, Megan’s, Polly’s, and Jacob’s have to die
before we WAKE UP?
At the end of the
day, we are all responsible; we are all involved in the safety of our families
and have an investment in the outcome of this discussion.
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