Changing sex offender law needs to be evidence-based

Chris Christo/The Boston Herald via AP

“The Boston Release Network, an organization that promotes public safety by helping returning citizens reintegrate into the community, notes that of the 59 individuals using their services, none have committed or even been arrested …

Acquitted by a jury, but forced to register as a sex offender

The Appellate Squawk blog, written by a New York attorney who specializes in criminal appeals, portrays the majority’s willingness to second-guess the jurors by crediting testimony they rejected as another example of the special rules that seem to apply in …

The Sex Offender Registry: Vengeful, unconstitutional and due for full repeal

As Clarence Darrow famously said, “You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man’s freedom. You can only be free if I am free.” Protecting the constitutional rights of everyone, even those convicted of sex …

Should the Sex Offender Registry be Abolished? A Live Debate

For the affirmative: NCRJ Director Dr. Emily Horowitz

For the negative: Marci Hamilton from CHILD USA

Watch here.…

Death, assaults and sex offenses: Life behind Central New York Psychiatric Center’s walls

photo: david robinson/iohud

“A New York State psychiatric center operated illegally with impunity while two dead bodies, 40 assaults and 25 sex offenses triggered police responses behind its walls from 2012 to 2016, The Journal News/lohud has found.

“The newly …

Employment Opportunity

Mitchell Hamline School of Law – Employment Opportunity

Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Fellow

The Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center seeks applications for a full-time fellowship position. This is a two-year, full-time position, working directly with …

Sex Registries as Modern-Day Witch Pyres

“Perhaps the most irrefutable statement that can be made about modern day America is this: we have a penchant for putting people in cages. More than any other nation on the planet, we rely on incarceration as the fix for …

Will Feminism’s Past Mistakes Haunt #MeToo?

“The last couple of months also echo a troublesome history, however, whose legacy persists in the law and the Zeitgeist. “When does a watershed become a sex panic?” Masha Gessen asked recently in the New Yorker. The answer: what …

Children on Sex Offender Registries Are Suicide Risks

“The most troubling findings, the authors say, pertained to suicidal intent and victimization experiences. The study found that registered children were four times as likely to report a recent suicide attempt in the last 30 days, compared to nonregistered children. …

What Jury Found Kevin Spacey Guilty?

Chris Pizzello / Invision/AP

“Is Kevin Spacey a criminal sexual molester? I don’t know. Neither do you, unless you were actually molested by him, or, it seems, unless you’re the Boston Globe. ‘This Was A Criminal Act,’ the Globe…