Learn the Facts and Statistics with Current Reports, Studies and Books:

A list of Reports, Studies and Books that conclude the proliferation of “Sex Offender” Legislation over the past 20 years in America that was meant to memorialize an assaulted, murdered or missing child has largely failed.

The Residency Restrictions, GPS Monitoring, stigmatizing and publically posting Juveniles and first time offenders has NOT, reduced Sex Offender recidivism rates, provided safety, healing or support for victims, reflected the scientific research on sexual victimization, offending and risk or provided successful strategies for prevention. These reports and books also confirm the real recidivism rates for sexual assaults are 3.5-5.5%, NOT the 70, 80, 90 and 100% that State and Federal Politicians and the media continue to claim.

Books:

• Sex Offender Laws: Failed Polices, New Directions, by Dr. Richard Wright 2009
• The Modern Day Leper, by Dick Witherow 2009
• Knowledge as Power: Criminal Registration and Community Notification Laws in America, by Wayne Logan 2009
• Failure to Protect: America's Sexual Predator Laws and the Rise of the Preventive State by Eric S. Janus 2009
• Moral Panic: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America, by Philip Jenkins 2004
• Reconsidering Sex Crimes and Offenders: Prosecution or Persecution?, by Laura J. Zilney and Lisa A. Zilney 2009
• Perverts and Predators: The Making of Sexual Offending Laws,  by Laura J. Zilney 2009
• Anatomy of the McMartin Child Molestation Case, by Edgar W. Butler 2001
• It's Okay We're Only Sex Offenders, by Alan Rigby 2008

DVD’s:

• Witch Hunt, Narrated by Sean Penn www.witchhuntmovie.com

 

Reports & Studies:

No Easy Answers: Human Rights Watch Study, September 11, 2007:
http://hrw.org/reports/2007/us0907/

The Adam Walsh Act: Scarlet Letter, by Lara Geer Farley, April 17, 2008:
http://washburnlaw.edu/wlj/47-2/articles/geerfarley-lara.pdf

Fact Sheets Examine Impact of Sex Offender Registries: Justice Policy Institute, September 2, 2008:
http://www.justicepolicy.org/content-hmID=1811&smID=1588&ssmID=74.htm

10 Myths and facts about Sex Offenders: CSOM, August 2000:
http://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.html

Collateral Damage: Family Members of Registered Sex Offenders by Jill Levenson, Ph.D.,  Associate Professor of Human Services at Lynn University Published in (2009) issue of American Journal of Criminal Justice,
Collateral Damage - Family Members of Registered Sex Offenders.pdf


Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies: 
Final Report of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force to the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking of State Attorneys General of the United States., December 31, 2008:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/pubrelease/isttf/

Revising the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act: Our Best Hope for Dealing with Sex-Abuse Hysteria in the United States, Richard A. Gardner, 1993
The 1974 Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act has had unforeseen negative consequences in terms of encouraging false allegations of sex abuse. In order to receive federal funding, states had to pass legislation that mandated specific persons to report suspected cases of child abuse and granted immunity to the reporters.
http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume5/j5_1_3.htm

Residential Proximity to Schools and Daycare Centers:
Influence on sex offense recidivism, An empirical analysis by Jill Levenson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Human Services at Lynn University, December 23, 2008:
Residential proximityto schools and daycare centers.pdf

When Evidence Is Ignored: Residential Restrictions For Sex Offenders
By Richard Tewksbury and Jill Levenson
http://www.aca.org/publications/pdf/Tewksbury.pdf

The Pursuit of Safety: Sex Offender Policy in the United States, Vera
Institute of Justice, September 2008:
http://www.vera.org/content/pursuit-safety-sex-offender-policy-united-states

The Ethics of American Youth – Josephson Institute - 2008 Summary
Survey of Teens Reveals Entrenched Habits of Dishonesty, Stealing, Lying, and Cheating Rates Climb to Alarming Rates:
http://charactercounts.org/programs/reportcard/index.html
(But yet just an accusation from a teen is sufficient for a conviction, time in prison, loss of employment, loss of home, loss of family and a lifetime of being stigmatized as a Sex Offender)

Failure to Register: An Empirical Analysis of Sex Offense Recidivism, by Jill Levenson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Human Services at Lynn University,   April 1, 2009
Failure to Register; An Empirical Analysis of Sex Offense Recidivism.pdf

Treatment and Reentry Practices for Sex Offenders, An Overview of States, Vera Institute of Justice, September 2008:
http://www.vera.org/content/treatment-and-reentry-practices-sex-offenders-overview-states-0

U.S. Department of Justice: Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1994 Recidivism Rates for Sex Offenders- 5.3% and for Child Victimizers- 3.3%
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crimoff.htm#recidivism

Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4), 2004-2009, US Department of Health and Human Services, January 28, 2010
The Rate of Sexual Abuse is DOWN 44%!
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/abuse_neglect/natl_incid/index.html#reports

How Safe Are Trick-or-Treaters? An Analysis of Child Sex Crime Rates on Halloween. by Mark Chaffin, Jill Levenson, Elizabeth Letourneau, and Paul Stern, July 6, 2009:   
How Safe are Trick or Treaters.pdf

Youth Sex Offenses Fact and Fiction, Justice Policy Institute, February 2009
http://www.nacdl.org/sl_docs.nsf/issues/sexoffender_attachments/$FILE/JPI_Fact.pdf

Registering Harm: How Sex Offender Registries Fail Youth and Communities, Justice Policy Institute, November 21, 2008:http://www.justicepolicy.org/content-hmID=1811&smID=1581&ssmID=80.htm

Sex Offender Residence Restrictions: Unintended Consequences and Community Reentry, by Jill S. Levenson 2007
Sex Offender Residence Restrictions: Unintended Consequences and Community Reentry.pdf

Juvenile Sex Offender Recidivism Rates in Virginia: 10 Year Follow-Up, July 2005:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/sebu/2005/00000017/00000003/00005061

2010 Report: Virginia State Police Monitoring of Sex Offenders Required to Comply with the Registry        
2010 VSP Monitoring of Sex Offenders Required to Comply with the Registry.pdf


New Jersey DOC Study on the Effectiveness of Sex Offender Registration, February 11, 2009: 
New Jersey DOC Study on the effectiveness of Sex Offender Registration 2.11.09.pdf

New York State Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives Research Bulletin: Sex Offender Populations, Recidivism and Actuarial Assessment, 2007
New York State Division of Probation and Correctional Alternatives Research Bulletin.pdf

The Council of State Governments Resolution in Opposition of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act as it Applies to Juvenile Offenders, December 6, 2008:
http://csg-web.csg.org/policy/pubsafety/documents/CSGResolutionOpposingSORNA.pdf

What Will it Cost States to Comply with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act? (State by State) by Justice Policy Institute
http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/08-08_FAC_SORNACosts_JJ.pdf

Sex Offender Registration and Notification: Limited Effects in New Jerseyby Kristen M. Zgoba and Karen Bachar, National Institute of Justice, April 2009  
www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/225402.pdf

Megan’s Law: Assessing the Practical and Monetary Efficacy by Kristen Zgoba, New Jersey Department of Corrections, December 2008
www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/225370.pdf

Does a Watched Pot Boil?: A Time-Series Analysis of New York State’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Law, by Jeffrey C. Sandler November 2008
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=2008-18509-003

Do Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws Affect Criminal Behavior? by J.J. Prescott and Jonah E. Rockoff, February 2008 
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1100584

The Influence of Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws in the United States by Jeffery T. Walker, 2008    www.reentry.net/search/attachment.86354

Megan’s Law and Its Impact on Community Re-Entry for Sex Offenders, by Jill S. Levenson, July 2007
www.nacdl.org/sl_docs.nsf/issues/SexOffender_attachments/$FILE/Lev_Megan.pdf

The California Sexually Violent Predator Statute, California Coalition for Sexual Offending January 2009
The California Sexually Violent Predator Statute.pdf

CSOMB Recommends Rejecting the AWA
CSOMB Recommends Rejecting the AWA.pdf

SOL Research.org:
Research on Sex Offender Laws and their Effects on People and Society
http://www.solresearch.org/~SOLR/

The Adam Walsh Act: A False Sense of Security or an Effective Public Policy Initiative? by Naomi J. Freeman New York State Office of Mental Health, Albany
and Jeffrey C. Sandler University at Albany, New York 2009
http://cjp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/0887403409338565v1

The Vilification of Sex Offenders: Do Laws Targeting Sex Offenders Increase Recidivism and Sexual Violence? by Hollida Wakefield Institute for Psychological Therapies 2006
http://ccoso.org/Vilification.pdf

Sex Offender Treatment: Reconciling Criminal Justice Priorities and Therapeutic Goals by Mary Ann Farkas & Gale Miller, December 2008:
http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/fsr.2008.21.2.78?journalCode=fsr

Sexual Predator Laws: A Two-Decade Retrospective by Eric S. Janus & Robert A. Prentky, December 2008:
http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/fsr.2008.21.2.90?journalCode=fsr

Brandishing the Mark of Cain: Defects in the Adam Walsh Act by Joseph L. Lester, December 2008:
http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/fsr.2008.21.2.107

Perpetual Panic, by Michael O’Hear Marquette University Law School, March 2009:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1357484

Still Time to Rethink the Misguided Approach of the Sex Offender Notification Act (SORNA) by Amy Baron-Evans May 2008
http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/fsr.2008.20.5.357

Life before the Modern Sex Offender Statutes, by Deborah W. Denno, Fordham University School of Law, January 2009:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1102663

One of These Laws is Not Like the Others: Why the Federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act Raises New Constitutional Questions, by Corey Rayburn Yung, The John Marshall Law School, August 2008:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1193871

Banishment of Sex Offenders: Individual Liberties, National Rights and the Dormant Commerce Clause, Environmental Justice, and Alternatives, by Shelley Ross Saxer, Pepperdine University, September 2008:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1266831

The Sex Offender Register: A Case Study in Function Creep, by Terry Thomas, Leeds Metropolitan University, June 2008:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1142362

Sex Offender Registries: Fear without Function? By Amanda Agan December 2008
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_ID=1437098

Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification: Past Present and Future, by Wayne A. Logan, Florida State University College of Law, February 2008:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1089204

The Emerging Criminal War on Sex Offenders, by Corey Rayburn Yung
August 2009
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1456042

Be They Fish or Not Fish: The Fishy Registration of Nonsexual Offenders, by Ofer Raban, University of Oregon, August 2007:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1009274

Making Outcasts out of Outlaws: The Unconstitutionality of Sex Offender Registration and Criminal Alien Detention Source:
Harvard Law Review Association, Vol. 117, No. 8 June 2004
Making Outcasts out of Outlaws

Never Going Home: Does it Make Us Safer? Does it Make Sense? Sex Offenders Residency Restrictions and Reforming Risk Management Law
By Caleb Durling - The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Vol. 97, No. 1
Fall 2006
Never Going Home: Does it Make Us Safer?

American and Canadian Approaches to Sex Offenders: A Study of the Politics of Dangerousness by Michael Petrunik, Lisa Murphy, & J. Paul Fedoroff, December 2008:
http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/fsr.2008.21.2.111?journalCode=fsr

From Wetterling to Walsh: The Growth of Federalization in Sex Offender Policy by Richard G. Wright, December 2008:
http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/fsr.2008.21.2.124

The Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act and the Commerce Clause by
Corey Rayburn Yung, December 2008:
http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/fsr.2008.21.2.133

Child Pornography Sentencing: The Road Here and the Road Ahead by Ian N. Friedman & Kristina W. Supler, December 2008:
http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1525/fsr.2008.21.2.83

The Consumption of Internet Child Pornography and Violent and Sex Offending, BMC Psychiatry, July 14, 2009
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/9/43

Profiling Online Sex Offenders, Cyber-Predators and Pedophiles, By Dr. Kimberly Young, The Center for Internet Addiction Recovery 2005
Profiling Online Sex Offenders

Fact Sheet on The Obama Administration’s 2011 Budget: More Policing, Prisons, and Punitive Policies, Justice Policy Institute February 2010

Byrne Justice Assistance Grants: JPI found that while the $500+ million proposed for this program can be used for prevention and education, in reality most money goes to law enforcement. Research has shown that increased law enforcement results in the least-effective solution-higher drug imprisonment rates-while this money could be more effectively spent on community drug treatment.

Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Funding: The Administration is requesting $600 million in hiring and retention grants for police officers, purportedly anticipating a rise in crime as the economy recovers. Such increased policing is likely to have a concentrated impact on communities of color, who are already disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system. JPI suggests this money would be better spent on creating jobs, housing, and treatment programs for increased public safety.

Adam Walsh Act: Having failed to bully states with threats of funding cuts if they fail to comply with the Adam Walsh Act, the federal government is adding a "carrot" to the "stick": $20 million to help states implement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). A number of reports have found little correlation between the use of sex offender registries and keeping children safe. In addition, broad compliance with SORNA will increase the number of people who cannot meet their basic needs (housing, employment), which is a major risk factor for recidivism. Especially hard-hit are youth on registries that may be barred from pro-social activities that can have a positive impact on improving their lives and on public safety.

Increased Funding for Prisons: Increased funding for prison beds will likely lead to higher prison populations and expenses without significantly improving public safety. In fact, most states are reducing prison populations due to the current economic crisis and are seeking more effective solutions.

http://www.justicepolicy.org/content-hmID=1811&smID=1581&ssmID=87.htm