No Easy Answers RIGHTS Sex Offender Laws in the US WATCH September 2007 Volume 19, No
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United States HUMAN No Easy Answers RIGHTS Sex Offender Laws in the US WATCH September 2007 Volume 19, No. 4(G) No Easy Answers Sex Offender Laws in the US Acknowledgements.................................................................................................. 1 I. Summary..............................................................................................................2 Public Safety and Mistaken Premises..................................................................4 Over-breadth of the Registration Requirement.....................................................5 Unrestricted Access to Registry Information........................................................ 6 Residency Restrictions ........................................................................................7 Juvenile Offenders.............................................................................................. 8 Are the Laws Counterproductive? ....................................................................... 9 US Sex Offender Policies: Alone in the World.....................................................10 Rethinking Sex Offender Laws........................................................................... 11 II. Methodology...................................................................................................... 13 III. Recommendations ............................................................................................ 15 Adam Walsh Act................................................................................................ 15 State Sex Offender Registries ............................................................................ 15 Community Notification .................................................................................... 17 Residency Restrictions ......................................................................................19 Treatment, Research, and Education .................................................................20 IV. Sexual Violence in the United States.................................................................21 Sexual Violence ................................................................................................ 21 Danger from Strangers?.....................................................................................24 High Rates of Recidivism? .................................................................................25 Case Study: North Carolina ............................................................................... 31 Treatment .........................................................................................................33 V. Sex Offender Registration Laws .........................................................................35 The Role of Federal Law.....................................................................................35 State Registration Laws.....................................................................................38 How Bad Can Registration Be? Chris F.’s Story ...................................................43 Do Registries Help Law Enforcement?................................................................44 Rethinking Registration.....................................................................................46 VI. Public Access to Information on Sex Offenders..................................................47 Legislative History.............................................................................................48 Community Notification by Law Enforcement.....................................................49 Internet Registries: Expanding Community Notification to the World..................53 State Internet Registries....................................................................................54 Does Community Notification Work?..................................................................58 Is Community Notification Counterproductive? ..................................................62 Rethinking Community Notification: Vermont as a Model ..................................62 A Model Registration and Community Notification Program: Minnesota .............63 VII. Sex Offender Laws and Child Offenders............................................................65 Children as Sex Offenders.................................................................................67 Jim T.’s story ..................................................................................................... 71 Consensual Teenage Sex...................................................................................72 Case Study: Dan M.’s story................................................................................74 Adjudicated Youth on Public Registries: Sealed Records “Unsealed” by Sex Offender Laws...................................................................................................75 Rethinking Sex Offender Laws for Juvenile Offenders.........................................77 VIII. Consequences of Registration and Community Notification Laws for Registrants and Their Loved Ones.............................................................................................78 Case study: Walter D. ....................................................................................... 80 Privacy............................................................................................................. 80 Employment......................................................................................................81 Vigilante Violence ............................................................................................ 86 Living Peacefully at Home .................................................................................92 Suicide and Despair..........................................................................................97 IX. Residency Restriction Laws.............................................................................100 Iowa ............................................................................................................... 104 Oklahoma.......................................................................................................109 Georgia........................................................................................................... 110 California........................................................................................................ 112 Local Ordinances .............................................................................................114 Do Residency Restrictions Protect Public Safety?..............................................115 Impact on Family Unity.....................................................................................117 Rethinking Residency Restrictions................................................................... 118 Other Countries and Sex Offender Laws........................................................... 118 X. Human Rights and Sex Offender Laws .............................................................. 119 Special Rights of Child Offenders .................................................................... 121 A Human Rights Analysis of US Sex Offender Laws .......................................... 122 Sex Offenders Laws in US Courts..................................................................... 125 XI. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 130 Appendix ............................................................................................................. 132 Acknowledgements Human Rights Watch would like to thank all of the survivors of sexual violence, former offenders and their families, social workers, advocates, law enforcement officials, and attorneys who shared their experiences and perspective with us for this report. We are especially grateful to those who trusted us with very painful and personal stories. Corinne Carey, former researcher for the US Program, undertook the original research for this report. The report was written by Sarah Tofte with the assistance of Jamie Fellner, director of the US Program, who also edited the report. Dr. Patrick Vinck, director of the Berkeley-Tulane Initiative on Vulnerable Populations at the Human Rights Center, University of California-Berkeley, tabulated the data for Human Rights Watch’s study of North Carolina’s online sex offender registry. Ashoka Mukpo, US Program Associate, and US Program interns Anjali Balasingham, Andrea Barrow, Madeline Gressel, and Kari White provided important research assistance. Zama Coursen-Neff, acting deputy director of the Children’s Rights Division and Janet Walsh, acting director of the Women’s Rights Division, reviewed the report. Ian Gorvin, deputy director of the Program Office, and Aisling Reidy, senior legal counsel, edited the report. Ashoka Mukpo, Grace Choi, and Andrea Holley provided invaluable production assistance. We want to acknowledge our special gratitude to Patty Wetterling, Alisa Klein, Jim Rensel, Nancy Daley, Dr. Robert Prentky, and Dr. Levenson for providing guidance and insights in helping us to shape the research and writing of this report. Dr. Richard Tewksbury, Dr. Levenson, and Ms. Wetterling also reviewed the report. Human Rights Watch would also like to thank Peter B. Lewis, the Open Society Institute, and the John Merck Foundation, all of whom generously support the work of the US Program. 1 Human