The ABA Journal reports that one in 100 adults in the U.S. is serving time in prison or jail right now. According to 2006 Justice Department figures, the numbers are even higher for minority groups: 1 in 36 Hispanic adults and 1 in 15 African-American adults are behind bars. The Associated Press also has an article available here. I would guess that most Americans believe that most of those incarcerated are sex offenders, murderers, and armed robbers. However, a vast majority of that imprisoned population is non-violent offenders.
Sentencing Law and Policy has a post discussing Kentucky bill (previously mentioned here) that would “require the forfeiture of all real and personal property used in or acquired as a result of certain sexual offenses against minors.” If passed, the law would allow for "the seizure of property used by convicted sex offenders, including their cars, money, computers, money, homes — any personal belongings they may have used during the sex crime against a minor." As Berman discusses, it will be interesting to see if the recent trouble residency restrictions have experienced with takings issues will carryover to these new provisions.
U.S. News & World Report has an article discussing a new theory that links spanking to deviant sexual behavior. The article mentions that a meta-analysis of spanking studies found 93 percent agreement among studies that spanking can lead to such problems as "delinquent and anti-social behavior in childhood along with aggression, criminal and anti-social behavior and spousal or child abuse as an adult."
A teenage boy in Wisconsin was ordered to register as a sex offender after an appeals court upheld a lower court’s decision to deny the boy’s request to delay such registration. According to court records, the boy was prosecuted for sexual activity that took place within a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship when he was 16 and the girl was 14. The teen will be on the registry for 15 years after his supervision is completed.
FourthAmendment.com has an informative post about the lawsuit against NBC concerning "To Catch A Predator", which we previously mentioned here.
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