By Sandy . . . Once again, I will receive negative comments about this piece. Once again, I will be reminded that many on the registry live fulfilling, happy lives. Thank God that they do. But they seldom are the focus of the media or write to me or post anguished comments on our websites. This is the reality of…
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“No similar regime has ever been imposed on any other group of law-abiding former felons who have fully served the sentence for the crime they committed years earlier.” By Dr. Ira Ellman . . . In Romer v. Evans the Court drew a constitutional distinction between civil laws enacted for a broad public purpose that justifies “the incidental disadvantages they…
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By Drs. Kristen Russell and Daniel Pollack . . . Committing a sex offense can ruin two lives — the victim’s and the offender’s. For the offender, the result can be significant incarceration time and financial penalties. In all states, persons convicted of certain crimes are required to register on a sex offender registry. The registry is viewable by the general…
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By Sandy . . . Over the past almost ten years, I have written many editorials and expository articles based on things that are happening in the world of our advocacy, especially things involving consequences of being on the registry. Looking back at our archived Digest copies, the first one I find there in which I wrote such a piece…
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By Kristan N. Russell and Shawn C. Marsh . . . Few crimes stimulate such visceral reactions and deep-seated fears as sexual offenses. Accordingly, societal responses to sexual offending such as registration and notification laws tend to be quite punitive and highly stigmatizing for the offender. Yet these social control practices are widely considered by the public to be essential for community safety.…
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Cheryl, My name is Christopher E. Pelloski, MD. I have written two books that chronicle my experience within and research about the current U.S. criminal justice system and sex offender registry, Trauma, Shame, and the Power of Love, and A Torturous Path. I listened to your recent piece about the sex offender registry on NPR, and I believe some key…
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By Paul M. Renfro . . . The “sex offense legal regime,” which has developed alongside mass incarceration over the last forty years, has failed. US sex offender registries now list nearly one million people. Federal, state, and local ordinances prohibit convicted sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools, parks, day care centers, and other spaces where children…
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By Anton L. Delgado . . . When Dwayne Daughtry meets someone for the first time, it rarely starts with an introduction. “Every day I feel like I’m reliving my crime all over again,” Daughtry said. “When people talk to me, the first thing they want to hear about is what I did — not what I do or who…
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