Sex Offender Registry laws

I believe we need a national sex offender management system. Some of the people walking free in the US are sexually violent and are not interested in or capable of reform, and the odds that they will re-commit are extremely high.

I believe the registry needs to look very different than what we have now. I'm not going to go into the flaws of the current registries, because every state has a different program, and those programs are of different sizes and very varied.

They have some commonalities: they're mandated by federal law, they have tremendous popular support, and they don't appear effective.

Good to know -

• Most sex crimes don't result in a conviction, so no sex offender to register
• Most sex crimes are not committed by a registered sex offender (RSO)
• A distressing number of the people on the RSO lists committed a statutory crime. Some of them were convicted of things like public urination.
• Most RSOs are not monitored at all. They just have to report on their movements and check in on some schedule, and they are restricted from living in certain areas.
• The RSO lists treat all the same - an 18 year old with a 16 year old girl friend is very likely to get the same requirement and duration on the list as a pedophile.

What needs to happen? We need to standardize and correct.

• Registration duration and level needs to be based on such factors as severity of crime, the predatory aspect of the crime, the criminal history, and the treatment history.
• Statutory crimes where the law is grey need to be disqualified from inclusion on the lists (ex: 19 year old with a 17 year old, both with normal intelligence, etc.,)
• Crimes of escalation should receive different registration requirements and durations, as there may be potential to rehabilitate before the person becomes a full-fledged pedophile/outcast
• Level 3 offenders -repeating, highly predatory, resistant to therapy- should get a gps cuff
• Those currently on the RSO list in every state need to be provided with a method of getting off the list based on panel review, with a secondary review of their decisions
• The registry needs to be updated at the local level and maintained at the national level, and access needs to be restricted on a need to know basis.

Things to remember:

• Sex offenders have cars and bus passes, and -if they're intending to commit another predatory crime- they are fully willing to drive out of their neighborhood to do so. Placing physical restrictions on where they can live does not seem to work, and it does seem to provide a false sense of security to many.
• Sex offenders have civil rights, and when you start to see that they don't, that they've been entirely marginalized in their community and by society, then something is going wrong. Every restrictive law is an articulation between the rights of one entity and the rights of another, in light of the given scenario.
• Not all sex offenders are the same, and some can be rehabilitated.

I have no sympathy for predators, no matter the source of their illness. Not all RSOs are predators.

The registry was clearly intended to track those who are and may continue to be a danger to society, and too many RSOs are not a danger to society and never were. In order to function effectively and justly, we need a fix.