By Vicki Henry
Women Against Registry advocates for the families who have loved ones required to register as sexual offenders.
According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s [NCMEC] last published figures, there are over 912,000 men, women and children (as young as 8 and 10 in some states) required to register.
The NCMEC has ceased publishing the number of registered citizens as it will soon top 1,000,000. The “crimes” range from urinating in public (indecent exposure), sexting, incest, mooning, exposure, false accusations by a soon-to-be ex-wife, angry girlfriend, or spiteful student, viewing abusive OR suggestive images of anyone 18 years old or younger, playing doctor, prostitution, solicitation, Romeo and Juliet consensual sexual dating relationships, rape, endangering the welfare of a child, the old bait-n-switch internet stings (taking sometimes 12 months before a person steps over the line), guys on the autism spectrum or with intellectual disabilities, and many others.
If you multiply the number on the registry by 2 or 3 family members, you can clearly see there are well over 3 million wives, children, moms, aunts, girlfriends, grandmothers and other family members who experience the collateral damage of being murdered, harassed, threatened, children beaten, having signs placed in their yards, homes set on fire, vehicles damaged, asked to leave their churches and other organizations, having their children passed over for educational opportunities, having flyers distributed around their neighborhood, wives losing their jobs when someone learns they are married to a registrant. Professionals indicate three things are needed for successful reintegration: a job, a place to live, and a “positive” support system.
The Supreme Court’s Crucial Mistake About Sex Crime Statistics – ‘Frightening and High’ (Debunks the 80% recidivism rate cited by now SCOTUS Justice Kennedy)
It is very important that you read the abstract and then the full 12-page essay by Ira Mark and Tara Ellman.
ABSTRACT This brief essay reveals that the sources relied upon by the Supreme Court in Smith v. Doe, a heavily cited constitutional decision on sex offender registries, in fact provide no support at all for the facts about sex offender re-offense rates that the Court treats as central to its constitutional conclusions. This misreading of the social science was abetted in part by the Solicitor General’s misrepresentations in the amicus brief it filed in this case. The false “facts” stated in the opinion have since been relied upon repeatedly by other courts in their own constitutional decisions, thus infecting an entire field of law as well as policy making by legislative bodies. Recent decisions by the Pennsylvania and California supreme courts establish principles that would support major judicial reforms of sex offender registries, if they were applied to the facts. This paper appeared in Constitutional Commentary Fall, 2015. (Google: Frightening and High)
A study reviewing sex crimes as reported to police revealed that:
a) 93% of child sexual abuse victims knew their abuser;
b) 34.2% were family members;
c) 58.7% were acquaintances;
d) Only 7% of the perpetrators of child victims were strangers;
e) 40% of sexual assaults take place in the victim’s own home;
f) 20% take place in the home of a friend, neighbor or relative (Jill Levenson, PhD, Lynn University)
There is a tremendous need to fund programs like “Stop It Now” that teaches parents how to begin and maintain a dialog with their children to intervene before harm occurs and about grooming behaviors as well as other things at age-appropriate levels in their Circles of Safety.
Our question to the public is one of, when does redemption begin? When are those required to register given their lives back without the stigma and hate?
We support the principles of Restorative/Transformative Justice; restore the victim, restore the offender AND restore the community. Unfortunately, our justice systems, federal and some states, prefer to annihilate human beings using mandatory minimum sentences, leaving our families destitute for years or decades and call that justice.
Our country is evidently proud to be ‘the incarceration nation’ with 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s incarcerated.
Here is an example of how our families are harmed. A well-meaning teacher printed out profile pictures of local registrants and put them on the board around the classroom. She promoted her effort to protect her students by suggesting they look at and remember those people.
One student pointed at one picture and said, “Katie isn’t that your dad?” It was….
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Vicki Henry
Women Against Registry, President
800-311-3764
Fighting the Destruction of Families
http://www.womenagainstregistry.com
Facebook: Women Against Registry
Follow us on Twitter: @WomenAgainstReg
LinkedIn group Families of Registrants
