Saturday, January 8, 2011

Residence restrictions talking points

Residence restrictions talking points

  • Residence restrictions have not been shown to be effective in reducing recidivism, preventing sex crimes, protecting children, or increasing public safety.

  • There is no empirical relationship between proximity to schools and sex offense recidivism (Levenson, Zandbergen & Hart 2008).

  • Residential restrictions greatly diminish housing availability (Zandbergen & Hart 2006), increasing homelessness and transience, interfering with tracking and supervision, and undermining the purpose of registries.

  • Decades of criminological research have shown that stable employment, housing, and social support are important factors in facilitating successful community re-entry for offenders and reducing recidivism. Policies that interfere with successful reintegration are not likely to serve the interest of public safety.

  • The vast majority (over 90%) of child sexual abuse victims are molested by friends or family members (US DOJ), not strangers lurking in schoolyards. Sexually motivated child abductions are very rare events (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children).

  • Sex offense recidivism rates are much lower than commonly believed. Although some sex offenders do repeat their crimes, the majority do not.
    • 5.3% -- U.S. DOJ, 3 year follow-up, 9,691 U.S. offenders
    • 14% -- Solicitor General’s Office of Canada, 6 year follow-up, international sample of over 20,000 sex offenders

  • Advancements in research allow us to assess risk and determine which offenders are most likely to repeat their crimes. These procedures are universally accepted across North America and Europe. They are used in Florida’s Jimmy Ryce Act to identify and detain the most dangerous sex offenders in Florida.  Research has consistently determined that molesters of boys and rapists of adult women are at highest risk, and that incestuous offenders have very low reoffense rates.

Recommendations for evidence based policy:
  • Before passing proposed legislation, more data should be collected to determine whether residential exclusion zones result in decreased sex offense recidivism.
  • Policies that exacerbate factors (e.g. unemployment, instability, lack of positive social support) known to be associated with increased risk for recidivism are not likely to be effective in protecting communities.
  • Loitering zones should be strongly considered as an alternative to residence restrictions. 24 hour loitering zones are a feasible alternative to residence restrictions and are more likely to accomplish intended goals of public protection. Some jurisdictions, such as Hillsborough County, elected not to enact municipal residence restrictions but instead chose to create loitering zones. Instead of regulating only where sex offenders sleep at night as residence restrictions do, loitering zones actually keep sex offenders from frequenting places where they can cultivate relationships with children.
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"When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect."
~Adlia Stevenson U.S. Vice President (1893–1897) and Congressman (1879–1881)

On a Personal Note

Thanks for the opportunity to express my thoughts regarding the issue of citizens’ rights, particularly addressing certain sex offenders’ crimes that do not fit the devastating, inequitable and endless punishment given.


As you know, many young men and women lives across the nation are being destroyed by incarceration, life-time registry and restrictive laws that do more harm than good. For those individuals, there is no second chance.

Below is a personal letter to President Obama:
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“Dear President Obama,

I truly agree with your sentiments that individuals, such as ex-felons, should be able to receive a second chance at life. Since we all know that one can veer off that path of life and travel along rough, rocky terrain, sometimes running off and ending up in some ditch. We all have made our fill of mistakes and sometimes those held a costly consequence that changed life forever. So we lived through it, trying harder to make things right with family, friends and those around us, but what about those who aren’t able to make things right even if they tried…because they’re labeled as too dirty, a leper, a person who is rejected from society and home.

But what if they’re a seventeen year old and had sex with a fifteen year old, consensual at that? Or they’re a teen that had gotten so enraged after a breakup that he sent out naked pictures of his girlfriend on his cell phone or email? Or an individual urinates where someone just happens to see them?

All are wrong and a travesty but do they deserve the life of no second chance with a registry that ends all. They are labeled, no jobs, no where to live…they have been deemed a menace to society, a plague. These certain circumstances, and many other situations similar to these, I believe still deserve a second change.

Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

After my son’s early release and two years of prison, I thought I had handled that fact graciously knowing after serving his time he would be able to get that fresh start, that second chance. He was an exemplary inmate, GED, college courses and vocational classes. Little did I know that a second chance on the outside was the farthest from the truth? He now struggles and lives in a trailer park sharing a trailer with another and surrounded by others in the same rocking boat, one to float endlessly in shark infested waters. I see him little because of probation requirements (he couldn’t live with us because we were 800 feet near a school). My family is afraid of what would happen to them if he lived with them…vigilantism. My son has no other place to stay since others condemn him of his crime that is screamed from the highest rooftop. Sex offender, sex offender!

Not all sex offenders are pedophiles or predators but some are simply young kids that make one stupid and rash decision that eventually changes everything, and they have no idea what they’ve done until their life is never their own. Exactly, where is that second chance for those sex-offenders who are lumped together with pedophiles and predators? Now, it makes me sick to think of my son’s future and many like him that are on the registry and many with no second chance…ever. I am asking you as a mother and as another concerned citizen of the United States that these laws are looked at again and taken into serious consideration in what they are doing to the Constitution of the United States, not for sex offenders in general but the future rights of every citizen, before anymore are put into effect. They unjustly strip an offender of their rights and place them in a guillotine that can be easily set off by anyone and at anytime. Where is the second chance for ex-sex offenders in the present, pending and future laws?”
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What truly saddens me is the weakness and deterioration of what the sex offense issue is doing to our once, great nation. Across Europe, others are seeing the injustice and disregard of rights, but we ignore this problem and it makes me wonder where humanity is heading….

We have become a hysterical society in which our latest witch-hunt is a sex offender--no matter his/her crime.

Below is a email sent from a foreign advocate to a father of a sex offender:
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“The tragic story of your son's death is just so sad that it's difficult to explain how. It was very hard to read your letters. It seems almost unbelievable that this can take place in a democracy! From our point of view, there is no justice in this. Not in any way: not for you, your son, the former girl friend – or even the state.

It is an abusive legal system. It seems barbaric. And we are so very sorry that this takes place. That's why it's so important for us to try to neutralize the debate with this…, hopefully making some changes. ….. to show the every day life of the sex offenders, trying to show how they keep on being punished, even after served prison time…..But we will for sure tell the story of the injustice that your son has been exposed to.”
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I appreciate everyone's commitment and backing to protect everyone's civil rights, plainly as noted in the Constitution of the United States and is presupposed, giving ALL men are “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”