Are Vigilantes worse than ‘sex offenders’?

190 murdered individuals known to have been murdered due to sex crime accusations or convictions

http://www.petitiononline.com/vigi2010/petition.html

Yes, some registrants may be vile despicable humans, but only a small percentage.

Both registrants and innocent citizens have experienced serious and negative consequences resulting from the implementation of the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, passed in 1994, which included national sex offender registration laws, and Megan’s Law, passed in 1996, requiring public notification of registrant. This paper reviews the predictions made by the author in 1996 regarding these laws and the negative impact documented since their implementation

http://www.appa-net.org/eweb/docs/appa/pubs/RML.pdf

Children being labeled ‘sex offender’ for doing what adults do

Girls taking pictures of themselves (nude) and sending to friends.

The girl is charged with manufacturing and distributing child porn (felony) and her friends are all charged as well.  Hasn’t this gone far enough yet?

http://www.nolanchart.com/article5167.html

Collateral Damage: Family Members of Registered ‘sex offenders’

The title really says it all.

http://www.opd.ohio.gov/AWA_Information/AW_levenson_family_impact_study.pdf

Unjust and Ineffective: America has pioneered the harsh punishment of ‘sex offenders’. Does It Work?

The short answer : NO

 http://freerangekids.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/burn-your-sex-offender-map/

Therapy is highly effective, even long term

Even long term, after 17 years, therpy is over 90% successful.  However, laws such as Adam Walsh Act are poised to make therapy less successful.

They were interviewed six times each during the 17 years.     …   Data thus indicate that treatment was successful for 91% of these men.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/v3j5u1647867p427/

Registries not conducive to child safety

The US’s burgeoning sex-offender registries are becoming more of a problem than a solution. “Because so many offences require registration, the number of registered sex offenders in America has exploded

http://www.netfamilynews.org/labels/predator%20panic.html

Registry is – FEAR WITHOUT FUNCTION

The results from all three datasets do not support the hypothesis that sex offender registries are effective tools for increasing public safety.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1437098

A person has to ask themself, did politicians do ANY investigation or consultation with experts before voting on this law?

Police say ‘too many registrants’

“If you had 4,000 or 5,000 high-risk offenders you could do a much better job than if you have 50,000 or a 100,000 sex offenders and it’s one size fits all,” said Zimring.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=6998171

California Study says most registrants not dangerous

Wonder why Jaycee Dugard was not found sooner?  In California, there are over 90,000 registered sex offenders, and only 9% are dangerous.  They are spending so much energy focusing on the other 91%, that they cannot properly manage the 9% that are dangerous.  And Adam Walsh Act wants to increase the number they are monitoring, and for longer periods of time!

http://www.connectsafely.org/NetFamilyNews/more-on-sex-offender-registry-flaws.html

Can AWA turn registrants violent?

Dr. Roy Baumeister of the University of Florida has done a great deal of research on social exclusion.  His studies show that isolation, such as that caused by the registry, can actually make registrants less stable.  His studies show that social exclusion can actually REVERSE the effects of therapy and rehabiliation.

There is reason to believe that the pain of social exclusion shares many of the same neural and psychological mechanisms as experiences of physical pain.

http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=fulltext.printArticle&jcode=psp&vol=91&issue=1&format=html&page=1&language=eng