The Question is: Who will you believe?
We are in a crisis in America. It is a crisis of character, courage, and truth.
We are a medial driven culture with a media that is concerned more with editorial than fact. Objective reporting is buried under feel good phrases like 'Fair and Balanced', while the true interest of the media is to sell soap. Politicians legislate through tactics focused on getting votes rather than what is good for America. Courageous Judges rule on law and Constitution and are overturned by Courts that rule on ideology.
Sound research, empirical evidence, and real solutions are ignored as powerful organizations play on fear to continue fear and garner more donations and power for themselves.
Fear is a function of information. The less information, the larger the fear. Take the time to read the truth, understand it, and change to an environment of informed preparedness rather than trembling in uninformed fear driven by myth, hyperbole, and lies.
United States Department of Justice
Recidivism of Sex Offenders Released in 1994, ~5.3%. (A ten year study.)
Recidivism of All Prisoners Released in 1994, ~67.5%. (A ten year study.)
More Is Not Better: Chrysanthi Leon, JD. Ph.D., University of Delaware.
Dr. Leon presents an extensive study on the sex offender registry and suggests that it is not meeting the intentions it purports to serve.
Dr. Leon suggests that the beliefs associated with 'sex offenders' and the risks posed by persons convicted of a sex offense are not supported by facts.
This study recognizes that there are dangerous sex offenders and that there are tools that are better predictors of those offenders than the simplistic 'broad brush' approach of current registry schemes.
Careful study of the information presented in this study can lead to more effective legislation, creating the desired effect of safer communities, protecting children, and enhancing the designation of justice in these cases.
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Read these Important Evidence Based Reports and Studies.
Unintended Consequences
Jill Levinson, Ph.D. shows that the registry is harming the very people it is intended to protect. This important study finds that the registry and residency restrictions do little to make communities more safe or protect children and, in fact, harm the innocent. This study finds that those most amenable to treatment, young offenders, are at risk of failing in treatment because the registry and residency restrictions make the treatment process meaningless.
[PDF] Collateral Damage: Family Members of Registered Sex Offenders
Ineffective
Banishment of Sex Offenders is Unfair and Ineffective
by Jacob Sullum
11/28/2007
Sex offender residency laws are ineffective
By Paul Riede
February 25, 2009, 5:00AM
Sex crime registry ineffective; check the Church instead
By Sean Kittridge
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 1:03 a.m.
Unjust and ineffective sex laws
Aug 6th 2009
From The Economist print edition
Note: This Article Available by Subscription Only (The Economist.)
ONE day in 1996 the lights went off in a classroom in Georgia so that the students could watch a video. Wendy Whitaker, a 17-year-old pupil at the time, was sitting near the back...
The Cost
It is touted by supporters of the registry that "if it saves one child, then it is worth it."
Of course, this sort of defense is the defense of those who know that their position is wrong. The registry has not been shown to have saved a single child. In fact, the false security offered by the registry is arguably the reason Chelsea King is not alive today, Sowell and Garrido were allowed to commit their unforgivable and violent offenses, and the reason many are less safe today than before registries.
The previous two columns reveal that the registry has serious unintended consequences and it completely ineffective.
Yet, legislators continue to play on fear and tell lies to support beliefs, rather than have the political courage to understand the truth and create legislation that works.
The Justice Policy Institute reports that the cost of all the states being on compliance with SORNA (Sex Offender Registry Notification Act: The Adam Walsh Act) is nearly Half a Billion Dollars. While the United States Department of Justice reports that sex offenders represent the lowest rate of recidivism for all crimes except murder (see Dr. Leon's report above.)
The State of Georgia spends over $15,000,000.00 (Fifteen Million Dollars) a year on its current registry. The Sex Offender Registry Review Board reports that 65% of the people on the Georgia Registry should not be on any registry.
To implement compliance with SORNA, The cost to Georgia will be an additional $15,000,000.00. If Georgia does not make it's already over-reaching, and ineffective registry come into compliance with SORNA and removes the 65% of those the SORRB contends do not need to be on a registry, might it be possible that the State will not have to close schools and reduce other public services?
The hidden agenda is that National Center for Missing and Abused Children has an annual budget of over $43,000,000.00 (Forty-three Million Dollars.) They claim the 'rescue' of over one thousand children last year. What they are not telling you is that of those thousand, over 98% were recovery of children involved in custody battles (parental abduction)where no abuse was charged or claimed.
Stop the hysteria and stupidity. Become informed, Read and Understand. Demand that your legislators do the same.