Contemporary Sexuality - April 2009 - (Page 10) Quick Hits — Sex in the News Online sex offender information expands “The Justice Department says it’s there simply for information and not for punishment. If they were in our shoes, I think they’d reconsider.” — Carlos Robles Arizona parents who want to find out whether a suspicious email has been sent by a registered sex offender now can check the sender’s email address against the state’s database of convicted molesters. Utah residents can sign up for email alerts to notify them when a sex offender moves into their neighborhood. Wisconsin’s online registry provides maps to let users know exactly where the closest sex offender lives. And in Texas, the state’s sex offender registry — which includes more than 54,000 people — now features information ranging from offenders’ work addresses to their nicknames and even shoe sizes. The four states are among more than 24 states that quietly have added a wide range of new services — and new categories of information — to their online registries of convicted sex offenders. All 50 states have publicly searchable sex offender registries, which are accessible through a national database kept by the U.S. Justice Department, a website that averages 2.3 million page views a day. The new features come as states approach a July deadline to comply with the Adam Walsh Act, a 2006 federal law intended to crack down on the estimated 674,000 registered sex offenders in the United States. The law was named after the murdered 6-year-old son of “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh, who was informed by police in Florida on Dec. 16 that his son’s killer was identified after more than 25 years. The Adam Walsh Act requires all states to adopt the same minimum standards for registering and tracking sex offenders, including the information they post online. Under the law, states must include where sex offenders work and go to school, the cars they drive, the aliases they use, the crimes they have committed and more. The law also calls for some juvenile offenders as young as 14 to be included in online registries, though many states so far have balked at that provision, arguing that juveniles should not be singled out publicly. Many state lawmakers, corrections officials, advocacy organizations and members of the public have criticized the Adam Walsh Act, questioning its costs, demands and whether aspects of it do more harm than good. The posting of new information about sex offenders also has drawn criticism. Blogs and other Internet forums have buzzed as visitors voice frustration over the trove of details now available to anyone at the click of a mouse. “The Justice Department says it’s there simply for information and not for punishment. If they were in our shoes, I think they’d reconsider,” said Carlos Robles, 32, a registered sex offender in Austin, Texas. Robles — who received probation for engaging in voluntary sex with a 16-year-old when he was 20 — said nonviolent and low-risk criminals should not be included on the Texas registry. States are under pressure to comply with the Adam Walsh Act by July — or lose 10 percent of their share of funding under a federal grant program that pays for state and local police programs. At least 13 states last year and 12 states in 2007 passed laws authorizing the collection of new information from sex offenders, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). Some states passed the laws on their own, while others did so specifically to meet federal Adam Walsh Act demands, NCSL said. While some of the new laws stipulate that the collected information can be posted only on internal law enforcement websites, many states are adding some of it to their public registries as well, in accordance with Adam Walsh Act requirements. Wyoming, for instance, is among a dozen states where residents can view license plate numbers or vehicle descriptions of the cars driven by registered sex offenders. Those who support the surge in new online information say it can help law enforcers, parents and other members of the public keep a watchful eye on sex offenders, including many who are described as sexual predators and have used the Internet to commit their crimes. Critics say some online information, such as the size of offenders’ shoes in Texas, serves no reasonable law enforcement purpose. (Stateline.org, Jan. 15. Reprinted with permission.) Complete story is here: http://tiny.cc/n0xQj 10 Contemporary Sexuality www.aasect.org | April 2009 Vol. 43, No. 4 http://www.Stateline.org http://tiny.cc/n0xQj http://www.aasect.org
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