Sex Crimes

Social Networking Site Bans Sex Offenders, Turns Over Data

The social networking site MySpace has provided the names of 90,000 registered sex offenders now banned from the site to two state attorneys general.  The move comes despite the fact that a government sponsored task force found that online solicitation of children was not as big a deal as some had made it out to be. From the New York Times:

MySpace provided two state attorneys general the names of 90,000 registered sex offenders it had banned from its site in response to a subpoena.

The figure is 40,000 more than the amount previously acknowledged by MySpace, according to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who along with Attorney General Roy Cooper of North Carolina are among officials pressing social networking sites to adopt more stringent safety measures.

“Almost 100,000 convicted sex offenders mixing with children on MySpace — shown by our subpoena — is absolutely appalling and totally unacceptable,” Mr. Blumenthal said in a statement. “For every one of them, there may be hundreds of others using false names and ages.”

Last year, MySpace, owned by News Corporation, and Facebook.com agreed to set security standards after the Web sites were criticized for not doing enough to protect minors from sexual predators lurking on social networking sites.

Facebook, a privately held company based in Palo Alto, Calif., said the company was still working with Mr. Blumenthal to respond to a similar subpoena.

The disclosure renews the debate of whether social networking sites are a haven for sex offenders. “This is just the tip of the iceberg on MySpace,” said John A. Phillips, chief executive of Aristotle, a company that supplies identity and age verification technologies for companies like the New York State Lottery, breweries and film studios. “These are just the convicted sex offenders” who used their real names.

MySpace’s disclosure follows a report by the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, a panel created by 49 attorneys general, that said the issue is overblown. It concluded the problem of bullying among children, both online and offline, was far more serious than sexual solicitation of minors by adults online.

Mr. Phillips, who served as a member of that task force, has been critical of the report. Ernest Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said the figure was “disturbing” but that there is no way to know how large the presence of online predators really is.

“We don’t know if that’s 80 percent of the population targeting kids on the Internet or 1 percent,” Mr. Allen said.

He commended MySpace for removing convicted sex offenders from its site. “This clearly reinforces the fact that there are a significant number of people who seek access to kids online,” Mr. Allen said.

Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace, said the company had spent the last two years purging problem members from its site.

“The reality is there are 700,000-plus sex offenders living in the streets of America,” Mr. Nigam said. “What we did was build cutting-edge technology to figure out where they might be living on the Internet and remove them from our site.”

MySpace reported that its community grows 10 percent year over year but has also reported a 36 percent drop in the number of registered sex offenders trying to create profiles.

H/T: TalkLeft.

Florida County Alerts Residents By Phone When Sex Offenders Move In

Want to know if a sex offender is moving into the neighborhood, but don't have internet access? Well, residents in one Floridian county will receive "a heads-up phone call when a sex offender or predator moves into their neighborhood." From the Fort Myers News-Press:

A pre-recorded phone blast is sent out over land lines within a quarter-mile radius. The message informs residents of what's happening and who to call with information.

But the sheriff's office is joining several other Florida law enforcement agencies in expanding that program to include notifications when sex offenders are on the move.

Sgt. Tracy Booth, who oversees the sexual offender program at the sheriff's office, said by law, her agency is required to notify schools, parks and day care facilities when a sexual predator moves. But parents also can check the agency's Web site or sign up for e-mail alerts about where offenders are living.

As of Friday, the county was tracking 529 sexual offenders and 36 sexual predators.

"But parents are busy, and they don't always have time to check the Web sites or seek out the information," Booth said. "This is another tool to let them know, to get the word out there."

Claudia Corrigan is vice president of the Fort Lauderdale-based nonprofit A Child Is Missing, which is providing the service to the sheriff's office free of charge. Booth said once her staff verifies the new address of the offender, a call is made to A Child Is Missing, which can put out the information almost immediately. Calls will be made only between 7 a.m. and 10:30 p.m.

Corrigan said her office's technology allows 1,000 phone calls to be placed in under one minute. Because her office identifies itself as the law enforcement agency trying to release the message, there is a 98 percent listen rate.

"This is very important, and it's not meant to scare anyone or have anyone act out against the offender," Corrigan said. "But it just gives parents a little more awareness."

In fact, the recording states the information is not to be used to harass the offender. The pre-recorded statement will simply tell the listener the name of the offender, offer a description and reveal where he or she is living. Corrigan said the phone system will try each number three times before leaving a message, if there is an answering machine.

But it works only for published land line numbers. Those with a cell phone or private number who want to be registered can sign up at: achildismissing.org.

I wonder if the Do-Not-Call-List covers autodialed messages about sex offenders.

New York State Senator Proposes Residency Restrictions

One week after a New York court struck down Rockland County's sex offender banishment law (opinion available here), State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith has proposed a new bill entitled “Major Statewide Legislation Aimed to Protect Children from Sex Offenders,” (available here) which prohibits a sex offender from living anywhere in New York within 1,000 feet of any park, daycare center or school building for at least ten years after release.  From f/k/a:

Only one week after NYS Supreme Court Justice William Kelly struck down Rockland County’s sex offender residency law in the case of Peo. v. Oberlander, and in “direct response” to the decision, Senate Majority Leader Malcolm A. Smith proposed S.01300, calling the bill “Major Statewide Legislation Aimed to Protect Children from Sex Offenders”.   Senator Johnson’s legislation would prohibit a registered sex offender from living anywhere in New York State within 1,000 feet of a school building, park, or day care center, for at least ten years after release, and would impose criminal penalties for violations.

Because Oberlander held that State law and policy pre-empted action by local units of government with regard to sex offender residency restrictions [SORR], and about 80 local SORR laws are on the books across New York State, some statewide action is indeed warranted.  What we did not need, however, was a stampede to spread residency bans that are a bad idea on a local level throughout the entire State.

It takes no courage at all for a politician to support such residency bans.  It does take courage, and a deep sense of commitment to fair and effective government, to resist the temptation to “do something/anything” and make believe the problem is solved.

The text of S.01300 has been posted.  It would be an amendment to Section 168-b of the correction law.  Under the new Sec. 168-W (1) “No sex offender shall reside in a residence that is within one thousand feet of any” school, building where day care is provided, or park.

The residency ban will last “for the greater of ten years or the period or term of probation, parole, conditional release or post-release supervision,” and “shall apply to sex offenders convicted or released on or after” the law becomes effective [sixty days after it becomes law].

Sen. Johnson is right that the many local laws have created a “confusing patchwork” that we “need to simply.”  But, he is also right that we need to get our laws right.  Rather than calling for hearings to determine whether current State policy is wise and effective, and whether residency bans actually protect children, Sen. Smith and Sen. Craig Johnson have done the politically expedient thing and immediately moved to impose on the entire state a law that many law enforcement and criminal justice experts have found to be not merely ineffective, but actually counterproductive — and, which will put an expensive and time-consuming burden on law enforcement.

Senator Smith, along with Senator Johnson, has decided to mollify the excessive fears of some members of our community by taking rights away from a disfavored group, even after they have served their time and have met their parole or probation requirements, and with no regard to the actual risk presented by each individual offender.

The response provides an interesting contrast with New Jersey. In that state, several courts struck down residency restrictions on preemption grounds. However, as far as I know the state legislature didn't make a political issue out of it. In New York, it seems like the legislature has taken a different approach. The state has been free to pass residency restrictions all along - so this seems like a basic attempt to politicize a court decision. I wonder if the bill will gain traction.

Connecticut AG Demands Sex Offender Data From MySpace

Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal's office is demanding that MySpace hand over data of registered sex offenders on its social networking site. From CNET:

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal also told CNET News that his office is reviewing independent research about registered sex offenders said to still populate the site. Blumenthal declined to comment on whether he plans to take further action.

Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, said in a statement provided via e-mail that MySpace was using "state of the art technology to aggressively identify and remove registered sex offenders from our site." He added that MySpace was cooperating with Blumenthal and other state attorneys general requesting information.

Law enforcement officials and parents are concerned that sex offenders can easily find victims on social networks. From deleted profile information, officials can see whether sex offenders have violated parole by joining a social network and whether they have been communicating with minors on the site.

When a GPS Bracelet isn't Enough

A helpful reader alerted me that some Washington lawmakers are pushing for a brave new world in sex offender punishment:

Lawmakers are considering a controversial bill that would outfit sex offenders with a surgically-implanted device that tracks their movement. 

The devices would replace the ankle bracelets that are currently used to track offenders. The bracelets have been criticized as a lacking device as offenders have successfully removed them in the past before disappearing off of the radar. 

"(The devices would) be a little more difficult to take off," said Rep. Maralyn Chase, D-Edmonds. 

Chase is among a handful of lawmakers are looking into radio chips that can be planted under the skin. Some of the designs are no larger than a grain of rice. 

The radio chips would allow police to track an offender from a sex offender using the same technology used at the Tacoma Narrows bridge toll. 

"Right now, we get a postcard at home every few weeks saying we have a sex offender moving into the neighborhood. But unless you know where they live and what they look like how are you going to have protection?" said Chase. 

The Department of Corrections admits even with the current devices, officers often lose signal. DOC officials also note that no tracking device can prevent crime. 

"It certainly is not prevention. It certainly is not 100-percent," said Anna Aylward with the state DOC.

The bill is currently in committee. 

If only such innovative minds could harness their efforts to find real, long-term solutions to the problems of sexual violence. Physical implants would really take monitoring of sex offenders to a whole new level. I didn't find it particuarly comforting that the article compared applying the devices to sex offenders, who are actual living human beings, to similar techonology being used for vehicles passing through tolls.

L.A. Times Calls for Jessica's Law to be Rewritten or Dropped

The Los Angeles Times is running an interesting editorial calling for Jessica's Law to be dropped or rewritten, since it "is unaffordable and doesn't improve safety." From the Los Angeles Times:

Of all the ill-considered ballot initiatives approved by California voters over the years, few can match Jessica's Law for sheer self-destructiveness. The measure, billed as a way to protect children from sexual predators when it appeared on the ballot in 2006 as Proposition 83, is worsening the yawning state budget gap amid zero evidence that it's protecting anyone -- in fact, according to a state panel, it may be threatening public safety.

This page warned that the initiative would be an expensive mistake, but that didn't stop 70% of voters from approving it. That may be because sexual predators are nobody's idea of a good neighbor, and voters thought that forcing sex offenders to wear GPS tracking devices for life and forbidding them to live within 2,000 feet of schools and parks would keep them at bay. What they didn't consider were cost and practicality.

Among its many failings, the measure doesn't distinguish between criminals who are at high risk of re-offending and those who aren't. That means a teenager convicted of having sex with his underage girlfriend, as just one example, is subject to GPS monitoring and residence restrictions for the rest of his life, even if he never commits another crime. It also fails to specify what agency is responsible for monitoring those thousands of former inmates, or to devote money to pay for it.

State corrections officials announced Jan. 12 that they are now monitoring all 6,622 paroled sex offenders with GPS devices, after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger set aside $106 million in last year's budget for the program. Where the state will come up with the money while facing a $42-billion shortfall over the next 18 months is an open question. What's more, the state will monitor sex offenders only for as long as they remain on parole -- after that, it's up to municipal agencies, none of which have the staff, equipment or spare funding to do the job.

The expense might be worthwhile if Jessica's Law were actually reducing sex crimes. Yet research has found no connection between where a sex offender lives and the likelihood that he'll offend again, nor is there any evidence that GPS monitoring lowers recidivism. Further, it's very hard for parolees to find homes that aren't near schools or parks, leading to a 12-fold increase in the number of homeless sex offenders since the law was passed in 2006. A lack of stable housing only increases the odds that an ex-con will return to crime -- or as the state Sex Offender Management Board put it in a report Tuesday: "Residency restrictions that preclude or eliminate appropriate offender housing can threaten public safety instead of enhancing it."

Lawmakers rarely show the courage to fix problems created by get-tough-on-crime voter initiatives, but there will never be a better time to improve Jessica's Law. The state budget and the prison system are in crisis and must be reinvented, and amending this law -- which the Legislature can do with a two-thirds vote -- would benefit them both. Ideally, the measure should be overturned, but at a minimum the Legislature should create a review process that allows low-risk offenders to escape the residency and monitoring rules. California simply can't afford to pay more to be less safe.

All California Sex Offender Parolees To Wear GPS Ankle Bracelets

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has announced that all 6,622 sex offender parolees in the state will now be fitted with GPS ankle bracelets. From MSNBC:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger applauded the move as an added layer of protection for California children.

“Having a GPS device on every sex offender parolee in California is an important public safety tool that will hold these individuals accountable for their actions and whereabouts,” the former actor said. “Protecting our children and families from sexual predators is a priority, and with a GPS device on every sex offender on parole and parole agents monitoring these offenders aggressively, we will make our communities safer.”

The sex offenders have all already been fitted with an ankle bracelet that transmits its location to parole agents who monitor them, according to the governor's office. Agents also visit the offenders on a routine basis.

The department of corrections had originally projected to have every sex offender parolee under GPS monitoring by June 2009 but it was able to accessorize the parolees six months early.

"Due to the diligence and hard work of our entire parole division, CDCR is more than six months ahead of schedule in placing the entire sex offender population on GPS supervision," said Division of Adult Parole's Director, Tom Hoffman. "California is by far the nation's leader when it comes to tracking sex offenders using GPS, and this massive effort will assist us in better monitoring the activities of sex offenders on parole and improving public safety."

Jessica’s Law, also known as Proposition 83, which was passed overwhelmingly by California voters in 2006, required that every paroled sex offender be monitored by GPS. More than a year before Jessica’s Law passed, the department of corrections began using GPS to monitor sex offenders and has more GPS units in the field than any other state or law enforcement agency in the country.

California Proposition 6 Fails

This is from the L.A. times summary of Proposition 6:

Increase the annual state funding of state and local criminal justice programs by $365 million to $965 million, adjusting for inflation. It also would boost penalties for gang activity and other crimes and assign the state to pay for satellite tracking of sex offenders and other former state prison inmates.

The sex-offender related portion of the Proposition was created because the state foolishly pretended lifetime, real-time GPS monitoring of sex offenders would be paid for by the offenders themselves. Now that Proposition 6 has overwhelmingly failed, it is unclear how the GPS monitoring plan will be implemented in the state.

Texas Attorney General Wants Sex Offender Internet Info

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said yesterday that he would like to expand the state's sex offender register to include Internet information, such as e-mail address and screen names. We previously discussed a similar program from the federal government. From The Houston Chronicle:

"Parents could check all the e-mail addresses sent to and from their children's computer to find out if their children are communicating with a sex offender," Abbott said. He said his proposal would provide Texans with the "most comprehensive reporting requirements in the country" and said it would provide law enforcement, and ultimately the public, "with new and better tools to track and monitor sex offenders."

In Texas, there are some 53,000 registered sex offenders.

The attorney general's plan would need the Legislature's approval. Abbott said he planned to meet with lawmakers in the coming weeks.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chair of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said he didn't have any problems providing the public with more information on sex offenders and thought Abbott's proposals had a fair chance of passing the Legislature next year.

Texas leaders have enacted increasingly strict registration requirements for sex offenders. Earlier this year, the Texas sex offender registry expanded to include an offender's school or place of work.

Later this year, Texans will be able to sign up for e-mailed alerts when an offender moves into a neighborhood. The public "can sign up to be notified about changes in a specific ZIP code or regarding a specific offender," said Tom Vinger, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, which maintains the state registry.

Some question whether the focus on online predators creates a false sense of security.

Jill Levenson, a clinical social worker and professor of human services at Lynn University in Florida, said children "are most often molested by people who are acquainted with the family, relatives and friends of the family, people who are trusted and use that trust to gain access."

As for whether tougher reporting requirements are effective in lowering the rate of sex crimes, Levenson said the studies she and others have done have been, at best, mixed.

"Overall, the totality of research so far looking at the impact of registration and notification with sex crime rates does not really indicate there is a strong deterrent or preventive effect," Levenson said.

She said she knew of no public registries in the nation containing offenders' e-mail addresses or online names.

Abbott's proposal would require offenders to report their cell phone numbers to law enforcement. Some offenders would be banned from the Web.

Sex Offenders Required to Register Internet Details

Under a new law signed by President Bush ("Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act of 2008" or the "KIDS Act of 2008,"), social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace will be able to track and expel potential sex predators. The law requires sex offenders to submit their identifying Internet information along with their home addresses. Wired has more. From Newsday.com:

Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook can now trace and expel potential sexual predators under a new law requiring sex offenders to submit all identifying Internet information along with home addresses.

Under the law, signed yesterday by President George W. Bush registered sex offenders must submit all e-mail addresses, instant messenger names or other online identifiers for inclusion in the National Sex Offender Registry.

The U.S. attorney general will make that information available on a database where approved Web sites can cross-check their users' information and weed out any potential predators, said New York Sen. Charles Schumer, who introduced the original bill.

Under the law, sex offenders not providing all Internet information face the same penalty as those who fail to register their home address - up to 10 years in prison.        

"Millions of teenagers log on to Web sites like MySpace and they, and their parents, shouldn't have to worry about running into these predators online," Schumer said. "Sex offenders have no business joining social networking communities - especially those with teenage users - and our legislation will help keep them out."

Many child advocacy groups and other social networking sites, including the American Family Association, MySpace and Facebook have also endorsed the legislation.

"We at Facebook are very pleased that Congress has acted to enhance sex offender reporting requirements and give us access to data that will supplement our robust safety systems," said Chris Kelly, chief privacy officer at Facebook.

H/T: Crime and Consequences.

Update 10/15: Sentencing Law & Policy is covering the bill here and highlights the connection to McCain.