Sex offender registry
Studies have shown that actuarial risk assessment instruments[3] consistently outperform the offense-based system mandated by federal law.
Some aspects of the current sex offender registries in the United States have been widely criticized by civil rights organizations Human Rights Watch[5][6] and the ACLU,[7] professional organizations Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers[8][9] and Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers,[10] reformist groups Reform Sex Offender Laws, Inc.,[11] Women Against Registry[12] and USA FAIR,[13] and by child safety advocate Patty Wetterling, the Chair of National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
[20] [failed verification] In 2022, despite opposition from the Department of Justice, many states' attorneys-general, and NCMEC, the American Law Institute approved a revision to the Model Penal Code which included elimination of the registry for most offenses.
As a result, individuals who have been convicted of a designated offence at any time after 2001, and relocate to Ontario, are obligated to register for a period of at least 10 years.
It can be accessed only by law enforcement agencies and has names, addresses, photographs, fingerprints, DNA samples, and PAN and Aadhaar numbers of convicted sex offenders.
They must also notify the Garda of any changes to this information or if they intend to stay somewhere other than their registered address for more than 7 days (including if they are traveling abroad).
Individuals are subject to these registration requirements for varying durations, based on a sliding scale of the severity of the sentence they received.
This scale is as follows: In 2000, South Korea implemented sex offender registry system aimed at enhancing public safety and preventing sexual crimes.
[33] In addition to the registry, South Korean government has implemented measures such as mandatory electronic monitoring for convicted child sex offenders and public disclosure of their personal information upon release.
[38] According to the Minister of Police and Corrections Anne Tolley, Cabinet has agreed to allocate $35.5 million over the next ten years for the technology component of the register and initial ICT work is underway as of 14 August 2014.
[41] The National Register for Sex Offenders was established in terms of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Related Matters) Amendment Act, 2007.
[42] The Sexual Offences Act Chapter 11:28 Part III provides for Notification Requirements for Sex Offenders.
There are several gaps in this policy noted by members of the Caribbean Committee against Sex Crimes, most notably that the registry only deals with offenses committed within the Jurisdiction of Trinidad and Tobago.
On 13 September 2019, Trinidad and Tobago passed THE SEXUAL OFFENCES (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2019 which will allow the High Court discretion to sentence sex offenders to be placed on a public registry available on a website.
Trinidad and Tobago is now the smallest country in the world to adopt any form of Public Sex Offender Registration law.
[45][46] Anthropology professor Roger Lancaster has called the restrictions "tantamount to practices of banishment" that he deems disproportional, noting that registries include not just the "worst of the worst", but also "adults who supplied pornography to teenage minors; young schoolteachers who foolishly fell in love with one of their students; men who urinated in public, or were caught having sex in remote areas of public parks after dark."
In many instances, individuals have pleaded guilty to an offense like urinating in public decades ago, not realizing the result would be their placement on a sex offender registry, and all of the restrictions that come with it.
If a felon in Florida is convicted of enough non-sexual felonies in a certain period of time, however, they are required to register for the rest of their life on a "Habitual Offender" registry that is available to the general public.
Simply doing a standard Google search of a person's full name will instantly bring multiple copies of all the appeals that have ever been published about that individual.
In some localities in the United States, the lists of all sex offenders are made available to the public: for example, through the newspapers, community notification, or the Internet.
In general, in states applying risk-based registry schemes, low-risk (Tier I) offenders are often excluded from the public disclosure.
[72] Sex offenders on parole or probation in the United States are generally subject to the same restrictions as other parolees and probationers.
Such places are usually schools, worship centers, and parks, but could also include public venues (stadiums), airports, apartments, malls, major retail stores, college campuses, and certain neighborhoods (unless for essential business).
Some U.S. states have Civic Confinement laws, which allow very-high-risk sex offenders to be placed in secure facilities, "in many ways like prisons", where they are supposed to be offered treatment and regularly reevaluated for possible release.
[77] Thus, despite the public awareness of the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders, there has been little evidence to back the claim that mandatory registration has made society safer.
[81] A later study done by the Department of Justice showed an even lower sex offender recidivism rate of about 2.1 percent after 3 years.
More than half of the children of sex offenders say that fellow students treat them worse due to a parent's RSO status.
A November 2006 Maryland Court of Appeals ruling exempts homeless persons from that state's registration requirements, which has prompted a drive to compose new laws covering this contingency.
[87][88][89] The colony at the causeway grew to as many as 140 registrants living there as of July 2009, but eventually became a political embarrassment and was disbanded in April 2010, when the residents moved into acceptable housing in the area.
[93] However, in 2013, the Human Rights Watch conducted an investigation regarding the excessive punishments and death penalties of the United States where it was found that child perpetrators experience very harsh punishments, which according to the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, jurisdictions are required to register juveniles convicted of sex offenses on a national, public online registry.
