The NCRJ opposes sex offender registries, child safety zones, civil commitment, residency restrictions, and other collateral consequences associated with current sex offender laws. These practices violate longstanding legal norms (the idea that punishment should be delimited) and globally recognized human rights. They also have no scientific support.

A growing body of research shows that these are not only ineffective; they may even have effects contrary to their stated aims. Sex offender registries and other forms permanent punishment create a permanent pariah class of uprooted, homeless, unemployable persons; they thus give ex-convicts no stake in their own rehabilitation and might even make them more likely to commit other crimes.

For more information, please take a look at the excellent resources page created and maintained by our board member Emily Horowitz, professor of sociology and criminology at St. Francis College in Brooklyn.