Articles

I was reading reviews of a new book by Nick Cave entitled Faith, Hope and Carnage.  The reviews included quotes from the book that made me stop to think.  “Hope is optimism with a broken heart” and “This is how I chose to live my life – in uncertainty.”   I recalled something I wrote to myself a few months

“A Portland man was acquitted last month after being granted a new trial on appeal, nearly five years after he was convicted in connection with an undercover child sex sting.”  (The Columbian, “Portland man arrested in Clark County sting acquitted of child sex abuse in new trial,” Becca Robbins, October 2, 2023) “His case was featured in an August 2020

NARSOL continues to fight against the harsh, barbaric laws that are passed to further punish people on the registry who have served out their sentence and are trying to reintegrate back into society as law-abiding citizens. Appearing in an article published this week concerning a situation in Illinois where research is not a priority for some policy makers, NARSOL is

The Newberry city commissioners in Alachua County considered expanding their residency restrictions beyond the state’s 1000 feet.  The city attorney said that “while a stricter code would be allowable, it may not be enforceable because the state will not prosecute a local ordinance that is not also a violation of state law, unless the city enters into an agreement with

By Catherine L. Carpenter Professor Carpenter says we are in a sex panic which “has bred widespread and ever-escalating legislation, impacted the lives of more than a million people and their families, and caused public hysteria and violence.”  (Notre Dame Journal of Legislation, “Panicked Legislation,” Catherine L. Carpenter, 49 Notre Dame J. Leg. 1 (2023)) Carpenter says that this fear

The Washington State Sex Offender Policy Board might be making some recommendations in 2024: Do away with community notifications about sex offenders when they move into neighborhoods. Make registries only available to law enforcement. Research shows that community notification and registries are ineffective.  There are also websites that let the public know who is on the registry and where each

The following information has already been posted at our site but is being posted again for those that did not see the original post. Justice Policy Journal, Spring 2016, “Bad Data: How government agencies distort statistics on sex-crime recidivism”, Alissa R. Ackerman and Marshall Burns,  http://www.cjcj.org/uploads/cjcj/documents/jpj_bad_data.pdf Ackerman and Burns looked at 287 studies of sexual recidivism rates and selected seven

At the Crestview Council meeting on September 25, 2023, one of the members quoted from a 2019 government study, saying that 67% of “these people” will be arrested again within 9 years, with the implication being for another sex offense.  The study that was cited was the 2019 Bureau of Justice Statistics report “Recidivism of Sex Offenders Released from State

On September 25, 2023, the Crestview City Council voted 3 to 1 in favor of a sex offender ordinance that will expand the residency restriction from the state’s 1000 feet to 1500 feet from schools, day care facilities, parks, playgrounds, SCHOOL BUS STOPS, and COMMUNITY CENTERS. Councilman Bullard is to be commended for not supporting this ordinance because of some

By Jon Cruz First published at narsol.org New York is one of relatively few states not to classify people required to register for past sexual offenses through an automatic rubric; it conducts a hearing to determine one’s “risk level” to the community. When I once inquired of an attorney why Florida did not conduct individual risk assessments, I was told