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Photo: Jana Birchum “Today, there are few true believers left who vocally insist upon this history. To many in the criminal justice system, it is now a source of embarrassment that there was ever a time when police and prosecutors were convinced that bands of Satanists had infiltrated the nation’s day care centers in order… Continue reading Convicted of a Crime That Never Happened

Exclusive focus on the young offender—rather than a rejection of the entire sex offender regime—avoids the larger, less politically popular truth. “Sex offender registries are harmful to kids and to adults,” says Emily Horowitz, associate professor of sociology and criminal justice at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, and a board member of the National Center… Continue reading Don’t Just Get Kids Off the Sex Offender Registry. Abolish It

This is a great interview with Deborah Esquenazi, director of Southwest of Salem, a documentary about the San Antonio Four, which will premier at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 15th. Deb explains how NCRJ Director Debbie Nathan got her started on the project. She also mentions two other important NCRJ cases, those of Bernard… Continue reading Justice for some, not all

Dr. Emily Horowitz, NCRJ Boad member and author of Protecting Our Kids: How Sex Offender Laws are Failing Us, will be speaking in Boston on April 11th. The event will take place from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. at the Poetry Center in the Sawyer Library, 73 Tremont Street in Boston. Click here to see the… Continue reading Dr. Emily Horowitz Will Discuss her Book in Boston on April 11

photo credit: jim d’entremont This Sunday at 2:00 p.m. EDT Eric Tennen, one of Bernard Baran’s attorneys, will be discussing the case on Worcester radio stations WCRN. You can listen to the program by following this link.

photo: the sentinel “However, overwhelming research has shown that sexual offenders, as a whole, are some of the least likely groups to commit new crimes, Rydberg said. “Rydberg said one major study found that only about 5 percent of sexual offenders committed a new sexual crime within five years. The U.S. Department of Justice places… Continue reading When facts aren’t facts: A look at the effectiveness of sexual offender registries

The National Center for Reason and Justice (NCRJ)  Invites you to a special evening with the “SAN ANTONIO 4” Wednesday, April 13, 2016 7:30 PM Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen St., NYC   photo credit: debbie nathan The “San Antonio 4” are four Latina lesbians who collectively spent more than 50 years in Texas prisons after being… Continue reading A Special Evening With the San Antonio Four

(Photo by Jana Birchum) “Fran and Dan Keller were prosecuted wrongly and unjustly. It’s long past time for their complete exoneration.” The Kellers have long been sponsored by the National Center for Reason and Justice. Read the article by Michael King in the Austin Chronicle.

As this heartwrenching story from This American Life shows, police and prosecutors err not only in falsely accusing people who did not commit sex crimes. They also may disbelieve victims of sex crimes that really took place. This is more likely to happen if the victim doesn’t behave “correctly,” or (more frequently) is the “wrong”… Continue reading Anatomy of Doubt

Illustration by Geoff McFetridge “One morning in 2007, Leah DuBuc, a twenty-two-year-old college student in Kalamazoo, began writing an essay for English class that she hoped would save her life. She knew that people like her had been beaten, bombed, shot at, killed. The essay aired details about her past that she’d long tried to… Continue reading The List