Sex Crimes

Around the Web

School and law enforcement officials notified a Missouri man that he could not attend his son's eighth-grade graduation, because he was a convicted sex offender and wasn't allowed on school property.  The man faces up to four years in prison if he were to attend.  He served five years in prison after being convicted in 1990 of forcible rape of a 15-year-old girl when he was 17.

As previously mentioned, Ohio's new Adam Walsh-compliant law has been found to be unconstitutional by a county judge last week.  In his court order, the Judge ruled that the new requirements are unlawful because they increase punishment without a court hearing and are retroactively applied to sex offenders whose crimes were committed before the law passed in 2007.  This decision "reinforces the arguments presented in a federal class-action lawsuit filed in January by the Public Defender's Office on behalf of sex offender registrants statewide convicted before the new law was enacted."  In the ruling, the judge contended that the law's intention is "to punish and ostracize this unpopular group," rather than enhance public safety.

CrimProf Blog brings out attention to an interesting New York Times article which examines the results of a new study on the death penalty and crime.  The study finds that 1) the death penalty is imposed more often when the victim is white, and 2) the race of the defendant by itself plays a major role in explaining who is sentenced to death. Pending the outcome of Kennedy, these sorts of death penalty studies could have increasing relevance to certain sex crimes.

CrimProf Blog also reports that Human Rights Watch "estimates that 22 percent of male inmates in the Unites States have been raped at least once during their incarceration."  You can listen to NPR's commentary on the subject, entitled "Addressing the Harsh Reality of Rape in Prison" here. A public defender is also covering the story here.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is considering a case in which a man is challenging his conviction of sexual abuse of children by possession and control of child pornography.  The man admitted to viewing at least 30 images of child pornography but argued that since he didn't knowingly save them to his computer's hard drive, he wasn't in control or possession of the images. Authorities found the images in his Web browser's cache file, where a computer automatically saves files so they can quickly be viewed again.

A bill which could allocate more than $1 billion over the next eight years to combat those who trade in child pornography has been unanimously approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.  The Committee voted to send an amended version of the Combating Child Exploitation Act (chiefly sponsored by Sen. Joe Biden), to the full slate of politicians for a vote.  The amendment "adds new sections to the original bill that would rewrite existing child pornography laws: [o]ne section is designed to make it clear that live Webcam broadcasts of child abuse are illegal, [while] [a]nother change is aimed at closing another perceived loophole, prohibiting digital alteration of an innocent image of a child so that sexually explicit activity is instead depicted."

Welcome to the Blogosphere

Frequent Sex Crimes commenter, David Hess, has started a new blog, Sex Offenders - A Reality Based Discussion.  He already has quite a few interesting posts. I'll definitely be reading.

US v. Williams

I've recovering from a nasty cold, but the USSC issuing an opinion in US v. Williams was enough to wake me from my Sudafed-induced daze. You might remember this was the case that Doug Berman said had definite sleeper potential. As it turns out, the case has a lot more to do with the law of solicitation in regards to the First Amendment than it does with child pornography law. Of course, you wouldn't know that reading some of the media coverage of the case. CNN, for example, offers the odd headline of "Child porn is not protected speech" to describe the ruling (as though that were in doubt). Basically, the holding is well-described in this post by Eugene Volokh at Volokh Conspiracy:

Today's U.S. v. Williams opinion might seem like a child pornography case; but the key (though not unexpected) holding is that there is a First Amendment exception for solicitation of crime or offer to commit a crime, see Part II-B.

This is not the same as the "incitement" exception, which bars only speech that's intended and likely to produce imminent lawless conduct. Rather, it's an exception that covers a proposal to engage in specified illegal activity, even if the activity is to happen at some unspecified time in the future, and even if the activity isn't likely to happen. "Please help me out of my marital problems, my friend, by killing my wife" wouldn't be incitement, for instance, but it would be solicitation. Likewise, "please help me out of my marital problems, my friend, by shooting my wife right now" probably wouldn't be incitement if it was highly unlikely to succeed, but it would also be solicitation or attempt (some solicitations are punishable as attempts). Solicitation to commit a crime is generally outlawed, but of course criminal laws have to pass muster under the First Amendment. Williams holds that this is indeed so.

The oddity in the case is that the person convicted didn't actually have any images that constituted child pornography. Rather, the defendant was advertising hardcore kiddie porn on the Web with non-pornographic images of children. From a First Amendment standpoint, I defer to Volokh's expertise in the matter. However, from a substantive criminal law standpoint, I think the outcome illustrates a major divide between common law and Model Penal Code (MPC) perspectives on inchoate crimes (as also noted by commenter Sean M at Volokh Conspiracy). The PROTECT Act, which was the law at issue in the case), as applied embraces the perspective of the MPC and seemingly abandons any impossibility defense in this area. I have no real problem with this outcome, but rather find it a fascinating undercurrent to the opinion.

Since I'm still feeling a bit under the weather, I'm happy to direct you to other posts around the web on the case to fill the void in my coverage:

Court allows taxing bond interest, attack on child porn
More on United States v. Williams
Does Williams provide a tea leaf for Kennedy? (I sure hope not)
If you want to feel good about the Williams ruling...
BREAKING -- Court Upholds Child Porn Law 7-2
Brief Guide to the First Amendment and Sexually Themed Speech (this is a nice background post by Volokh in addition to the substantive one I linked to above)
Court Upholds Law That Prohibits Promotion of Child Pornography
Supreme Court Upholds Child P*orn Law

Around the Web

The New York Times has an article discussing a unique courtroom in Westchester County, New York that handles sex offender cases and almost nothing else. According to the article, the idea was that such courts might cultivate expertise among judges, prosecutors and defense lawyers who would become knowledgeable about the complexities involved — the likelihood that a suspect will be a repeat offender and the restrictions needed to prevent that offender from striking again. "[F]ew issues raise more fears among Americans than the possibility of a predatory sex offender moving next door, the rationale for such a court seemed persuasive to many."  The article notes that the experimental courtroom idea has been adopted in several nearby counties.

The Chicago Tribune's Washington Blog has a new post discussing how "[t]he attorney general is directing all agencies of the United States that arrest or detain individuals or supervise individuals facing charges to collect DNA samples from individuals who are arrested, facing charges, or convicted, and from non-United States persons who are detained under the authority of the United States...''  The post notes that this directive stems from the requirements of the DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005 and the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006.  Agencies that collect DNA will have to submit it to the FBI.

A Florida man who was convicted of "using a samurai sword to kill his estranged wife's boyfriend," has been sentenced to 40 years in prison. Although the man faced 25 years to life for the murder, the Judge  took into account that the victim was a sex offender – although he added that is no excuse for murder.  This story was previously mentioned here.

The Chicago Tribune has an article discussing an Indiana man who is "challenging the constitutionality of a state statute that retroactively broadened a law regarding Indiana's sex offender registry."  The man pleaded guilty eight years ago to one count of vicarious sexual gratification and one count of child molesting.  He spent three years in prison and another three on probation. The man was also required under a separate state law at the time to register as a sex offender for 10 years. But in 2006, he was notified that he was considered a sexually violent predator and would have to register for life.

A Public Defender blog has a post discussing how "the heavy chains of probationary conditions apply to all 'sex offenders' across the board," and the associated problems with such an approach. 

An interesting new article discusses the various critiques of sex offender registry requirements.  The consensus: they don't protect anyone. Kris Hamilton, who counsels offenders, says, "I'm not sure it protects anybody," adding "it gives a false sense of security."

Anonymous Rape Kits

Huffington Post has the story of how anonymous rape kit testing will go nationwide over the next year:

Starting next year across the country, rape victims too afraid or too ashamed to go to police can undergo an emergency-room forensic rape exam, and the evidence gathered will be kept on file in a sealed envelope in case they decide to press charges.

The new federal requirement that states pay for "Jane Doe rape kits" is aimed at removing one of the biggest obstacles to prosecuting rape cases: Some women are so traumatized they don't come forward until it is too late to collect hair, semen or other samples.

"Sometimes the issue of actually having to make a report to police can be a barrier to victims, and this will allow that barrier to cease, to allow the victim to think about it before deciding whether to talk to police," said Carey Goryl, executive director of the International Association of Forensic Nurses.

The practice is already followed at some health clinics, colleges and hospitals around the country and by the state of Massachusetts. But many other jurisdictions refuse to cover the estimated $800 cost of a forensic rape exam unless the victim files a police report.

Beginning in 2009, states will have to pay for Jane Doe rape kits to continue receiving funding under the federal Violence Against Women Act, which provides tax dollars for women's shelters and law enforcement training. States will decide how many locations will offer anonymous rape exams and how long the evidence should be kept.

While I see nothing wrong with this proposal, I'm not sure it will make any real dent in the chronic levels of rape reporting. I wonder if there are really many victims who are "too afraid or too ashamed to go to the police," but are not too afraid or too ashamed to go to the emergency room to have a rape exam. As I said, I don't see anything wrong with the law - I just don't expect it to make a significant difference.

Residency Restrictions and the USSC

Berman posts:

It is clear based on lots of lower court litigation that the constitutionality of sex offender residency restrictions will come before the US Supreme Court sooner or later. It is thus interesting to speculate exactly when and how these issues will get to the High Court.

New posts at other blogs reporting on recent constitutional rulings from state courts in Indiana and Ohio highlight the possibility that these issues will get to the Justices through the state court system.  However, some recent notable federal district rulings about various sex offender issues suggest federal sex offender cases could get to the Court first, especially if we start seeing some major circuit action on these matters.

Notably, the constitutional issues presented in different cases often vary: frequently ex post facto punishment claims are pressed by former offenders subject to new residency restrictions, but various due process and takings claims have also found some traction in some settings.  And, though not always central to the legal issues, the background and specific crimes of a sex offender complaining about residency restrictions can always have an impact on judicial and public reactions to various types of constitutional claims.

Does anyone know of any especially potent residency restrictions cases in the pipeline that might be presented to the Supreem Court in the near future?

The Supreme Court had some chances to hear cases out of the 8th Circuit when Doe v. Miller and Weems v. Little Rock Police Department were decided. The Court passed. Since then, there has been little activity at the federal level in regards to residency restrictions. Most of the litigation has been in state courts. This presents a couple major obstacles to the USSC hearing a residency restriction case in the near future. First, without more federal litigation a circuit split is unlikely to develop. And without a circuit split, the Court is less inclined to hear a federal appeal. Second, the Court doesn't take as many cases out of individual states especially when those state court rulings can be independently based upon state constitutional claims. I think it is more likely that the USSC will hear an AWA registration case before it hears a residency restriction case.

Carnival Against Sexual Violence 47

It has been posted at abyss2hope. Here is the legal section:

In Amnesty International Calls for Protocol for Rape Victims at IHS posted at Falmouth Institute/American Indian Report Blog, we get a discussion of the request for people to join forces with American Indian and Alaska Native women in demanding that the Indian Health Service standardized protocols be used for treating all victims of sexual assault.

In A Poorly Drafted Sex Crime Law and "Rape by Fraud" posted at Sex Crimes, we get a discussion of a Massachusetts bill which leaves the definition of fraud so broadly defined that it would go beyond the intended scope of the bill.

In Tulane Ignored Rape Allegation Against Disgraced Frat posted at Student Activism, we get a discussion about the treatment of a fraternity which was suspended only after ten members of Tulane University’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity were arrested.

In Idiots? posted at Mortality's Thoughts, we get a discussion about the flaw in proving a crime only through intent with the example of a man in Sweden who wasn't convicted after shooting 2 teens and killing 1 because they couldn't prove that the man intended to kill those teens.

In Eleven-Year-Old Rape Victim Was Asking For It posted at Steph's blog, we get a discussion of the community-service sentence given by Judge Robert Atherton to Jon Dixon.

In Federal Lawsuit to Challenge Law Enforcement on Ignoring Crimes Against Black Women and Girls:Romona Moore posted at What About Our Daughters, we get a discussion about legal action being taken to get law enforcement to respond before missing women are found dead.

In Rapist is a contributing member of society posted at Astraea's Scales, we get a discussion of the danger of judging rapists as if they hadn't been convicted of rape.

In Ohio Supreme Court upholds life sentence for rape committed as juvenile posted at Cincinnati Law Library Association, we get a discussion of the Ohio Supreme Court's ruling which upheld the state’s mandatory life imprisonment sentence for the forcible rape of an underage victim.

In Defining Rape When Vulnerability Created By Others posted at abyss2hope: A rape survivor's zigzag journey into the open, I begin a series of posts on defining rape sparked by a question from a commenter about a scenario in a Law and Order episode where a girl was drugged and raped by one man and then soon after found by a friend who decided to have sex with her despite of or because of signs of her trauma.

In Raped or Abused? Go to Jail! posted at BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS, we get a discussion of the treatment of women in countries such as Pakistan when women run away from abusive marriages.

He Will Be Getting Out of Prison Around 3338 AD

Sentencing Law & Policy has the story of a rather lengthy sentence for one sex offender:

A convicted sex offender could be sentenced to more than a millenium in prison for molesting two girls, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Horace Mann Williams, 44, is facing a penalty of up to 1,330 years in prison when he is sentenced Friday at the Murrieta Courthouse, said Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunsky.

Williams previously spent six years in prison for sexual molestation in the early 1990s.

He was convicted in February of 11 felony counts of lewd acts upon a child under 14 and one count of digital penetration of a child under 14, along with a sentence-enhancing allegation of multiple victims.

Outside court, jurors said they convicted Williams because he showed a pattern of behavior typical for child molesters.

“After a first offense and after a parole violation, he couldn't stay away from girls,” one juror said.

In his closing argument, Strunsky noted that over nearly 10 years, three girls made similar accusations against the defendant.

Personally, I think a sentence of 1,200 years would have been more appropriate. Berman added these thoughts about the penalty:

I think it is worth speculating whether Williams, if he had been threatened with the death penalty for repeat child rape, might have been more deterred after his release for his first offense.  Obviously, the prospect of being subject to imprisonment for over a millenium did not keep Williams from molesting kids again.  Though I doubt the distant threat of the a distant execution would have deterred Williams, I also see the good arguments for states to continue to consider experimenting with alternatives to incarceration for repeat sex offenders.  Perhaps if states get serious about new approach to preventing repeat sex offending, somebody might figure out a better way to deal with these crimes before the year 3308 when Williams could be scheduled for release.

As commenters at SL&P have noted, I think Berman is overstating his case just a bit. The death penalty might have made a difference (depending upon empirical evidence of whether the death penalty actually deters crime), but it might also have encouraged the defendant to kill the victim (the "freebie" theory). Berman, as illustrated in the comments, has never bought into the freebie theory in such cases. I think it is an open empirical question. However, if you believe the death penalty would have deterred, I don't see how you can have it both ways in arguing that it wouldn't have at least encouraged some defendants to kill the victim. Berman makes a clever argument that the certainty of death is higher for the murder/rape than for the rape alone. While certainly true, even if one believes in deterrence for the death penalty generally, such fine-tuned math assessments have always seemed a bit beyond the capabilities of the average child rapist. And for Berman's argument to work, the following must be true: % death sentence for child rape and murder - % death sentence for child rape > % decrease in being caught by virtue of killing the only witness in a child rape. Again, I think many child rapists will roll the dice and kill the victim.

Who Are the Online Predators?

I'd like to thank Corey for his warm welcome and his gracious offer to guest blog here at Sex Crimes.  I often read Corey's fine work as I follow the ongoing social, legal, and political developments that have become our modern policy towards sex crimes.  While crime and the law frequently engender intense rhetoric, nowhere does the rhetoric seem so stark than when it comes to sex offenders.  Perhaps this is entirely justified; after all, sex crimes represent behaviors that many folks loath most.  But such rhetoric tends to blur rather than define the problem.

Today, former Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, had an editorial in USA Today advocating for additional federal legislation to deal with online predators and child pornography.  AG Gonzales has been instrumental in making online sex crimes a priority for the Justice department. Today's editorial contains this often heard assessment:

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, approximately one in seven youth (10- to 17-years-old) receives a sexual solicitation over the Internet. One in five girls, and one in 10 boys, will be sexually victimized before adulthood. 

The implicating, of course, is that children and adolescents are being solicited for sex by adults online.  Yet, a recent study published in the American Psychologist conclude that such assumptions are false:

The publicity about online "predators" who prey on naive children using trickery and violence is largely inaccurate. Internet sex crimes involving adults and juveniles more often fit a model of statutory rape--adult offenders who meet, develop relationships with, and openly seduce underage teenagers--than a model of forcible sexual assault or pedophilic child molesting...

Much of the fog that has become our modern sex offender policy is bogged down by the fact that we don't have much reliable data, and what we do have, is often misunderstood by even those who who have the best intentions.  When it comes to sex crimes, however, we need to ensure that we're getting the research right. 

 

Guest Blogger: Steven Erickson

I hope you all will join me in welcoming Steven Erickson who will be guest-blogging here at Sex Crimes. Some of you might know him from his blog posts (which I often link to) at Crime & Consequences.  Erickson is currently a MIRECC Fellow at Yale University and this Fall he will be a John M. Olin fellow. He has previously completed fellowships at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and the University of Rochester. He has the unusual combination of a JD, LLM, and PhD in Psychology making him a trained lawyer and psychologist. Most importantly for this blog, Erickson has substantial experience in sex offender evaluation and treatment. Because of his background, he brings a much needed medical perspective to legal debates about sex crime issues. You can read his scholarship here.

I am definitely looking forward to reading what Erickson has to say during his stint here.

Beyond Rape

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a five part series titled Beyond Rape about one rape survivor's experience with the criminal justice system.  Here is a portion of the second piece in the series:

Six days after I identified David Francis, the county sheriff's server handed me a subpoena. I had to testify at a parole revocation hearing on July 24 at the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center.

Why? I wondered. He's already locked up. I had heard that rape victims felt raped a second time by the criminal justice system, but I thought that had ended in the 1970s with training programs for law enforcement and medical professionals. Now I was seeing it. I was a cog in the system, not a person with feelings.

I had to go to the jail, sit across a table from the guy who raped me, and testify against him so they could revoke his parole. That way, if the county released him on bail before the trial, he'd have to go back to a state prison.

I was not allowed to bring my husband or a friend with me. The only person I could bring would be my attorney.

I didn't have an attorney. My case was being handled by the county prosecutor, who was working for the people of Ohio. When the case went to trial, I would be a mere witness.

I panicked. How could I face my rapist alone?

The set of articles is really an unusual work for a major newspaper. The level of detail in the exploration of how the system worked in one case is really amazing. I definitely recommend checking out all the articles.

HT: abyss2hope

Congratulations . . .

. . . to my 144 Criminal Law students who took their exams today. Good job to all of you. I enjoyed teaching both of my sections a lot (I hope the feeling was mutual). Of course, over the next month while I'm grading 144 essay exams, that enjoyment may fade a little. ;)

Court Rules Ohio's AWA Compliance Statute Unconstitutional

In Evans v. Ohio, a court in Cuyahoga County ruled that the state's AWA compliance statute is unconstitutional because it violates the Ohio Constitution's prohibition against retroactive punishments and violates the ex post facto clause of the U.S. Constitution. While there has been some recent pushback against the AWA at the federal level, this is a notable successful challenge at the state level.  Here is a key portion of the opinion (which thanks to a couple helpful readers you can download here):

The Act is punitive because it is not tailored to a non-punitive purpose. The Adam Walsh Act fails to consider an offender's likelihood to re-offend. The expanded notification provisions ostracize offenders. The residency restrictions are arbitrary. The Act is not tailored because it imposes new restrictions and obligations without any regard for the offender's potential for future harm.

Sexoffenderresearch is covering the case here.

National Conference on Prostitution, Sex Work and Human Trafficking

The University of Toledo is hosting the 5th Annual National Conference on Prostitution, Sex Work and Human Trafficking on September 18-19, 2008:

The purpose of this conference is to bring together researchers and practitioners across the country and abroad to lay the groundwork for future research, advocacy, and program development. Social service providers, researchers, advocates, health care providers, criminal justice and other paraprofessionals are invited to come together to become educated on the issue of human trafficking and the needs, risks, and victimization of those involved in commercial sex work. If you are interested in presenting, please submit an abstract. Abstracts are due June 30th, 2008. If you are interested in attending, registration details can be found on our website (here).

HT: Feminist Law Professors

More on Massachusetts Rape by Fraud Statute

NPR has more on the Massachusetts proposal to make rape by fraud a felony:

Massachusetts is the latest state to consider putting a new crime on the books: rape by fraud. Currently, a sex act only qualifies as rape if physical force is used. We talk to a woman who was tricked into having sex with her boyfriend's brother — who pretended to be her boyfriend — and unable to convict him of rape because of this limited definition.

Under the new law, such forms of deception would be a crime. Some say the law goes too far, however, and could criminalize lies like, "Really, I'm divorced!"

HT: The Situationist

Difficulties with Enforcing City Residency Restrictions

A helpful reader sent me this article about some of the problems with enforcing residency restriction laws:

It's one thing to adopt a bylaw restricting where convicted sex offenders can live. It's another matter to enforce the new rules.

Southborough adopted such a bylaw at Town Meeting on April 17. If approved by the state attorney general's office, which has approved similar bylaws in Dedham, Marlborough, and West Boylston, registered sex offenders would be barred from residing in 90 percent of the town, according to a presentation delivered by Police Chief William Webber to Town Meeting members.

The bylaw bars registered offenders from living within 1,000 feet of schools, day-care centers, elderly housing, parks, and other facilities. Convicted offenders deemed likely to commit another sexual assault - those classified as Level 2 or 3 predators - would also be barred from living within 1,000 feet of places of worship.

The bylaw also prohibits registered sex offenders from loitering within 500 feet of school bus stops. A grandfather clause allows offenders living in Southborough prior to the bylaw's enactment to remain in their residences.

The question now is how rigorously the bylaw can be enforced. Based on Marlborough's experience with a similar law, the question remains unanswered. Marlborough police say they've invoked the city's ordinance only three times since it was adopted in May 2007. They stand by the law as an important tool to protect children and others from sexual predators, but admit it doesn't have much of a track record.

I expect for city-level residency restriction laws this trend will continue. Cities don't have enough resources to really enforce loitering and residency laws on a systemic level. Instead, prosecutions are likely to occur when the police stumble onto a violation. That usually occurs when an offender is being investigated for something else. At the state level, enforcement can occur at a higher level if the state is willing to allocate human and monetary resources.

BJS Stats on Domestic Violence

Via Empirical Legal Studies, I see that the Bureau of Justice Statistics has released a report concerning domestic violence prosecution and punishment. Among the many notable findings is this tidbit:

Prosecuted domestic sexual assault defendants had a higher overall conviction rate (98%) than prosecuted non-domestic sexual assault defendants (87%).

While this discrepancy might appear significant, alone it doesn't provide much information. Prosecuted cases are a non-random sample of the overall pool of reported cases. So many cases are never prosecuted or result in a plea deal. Still, of those that go to trial it is interesting to see that domestic partner defendants are convicted at a higher rate. It is certainly a sea change from the days of the marital rape exception.

US v. Williams as a Sleeper Case

US v. Williams concerns the constitutionality of the PROTECT Act, yet another child pornography law which potentially runs afoul of the First Amendment. The Court granted cert to hear the case in March 2007 and heard arguments in the case. Doug Berman wonders if Williams will be a sleeper case for this term:

But there are a number of other cases still stewing at One First Street that could end up being very consequential: there is the porn case Williams, which could cover some notable First Amendment ground; I am thinking the ACCA case Rodriquez might include a little Sixth Amendment talk about criminal history; and the Irizarry case might say something very consequential about the departure/variance story after Booker.

What SCOTUS rulings are you eagerly awaiting, dear readers?  Does anyone predict that some sleeper case will end up being a bigger story than some of the more anticipated cases?

Williams certainly could have substantial effects if the Court upholds the PROTECT Act. Such a ruling would finally give Congress guidance on how to construct an obscenity or child pornography statute. However, if the Court strikes down the Act, then the decision will join several other opinions where Congress has failed to write a constitutional law regulating child pornography. And with that outcome, I doubt Williams will have any long term effects.

Facebook and Sex Offenders

Facebook is joining efforts by other online social networking websites by trying to limit sex offender access to the website:

Facebook, the world's second-largest social networking Web site, is adding more than 40 new safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies under an agreement with officials nationwide that was announced Thursday.

The measures include banning convicted sex offenders from the site, limiting older users' ability to contact subscribers under 18 and participating in a task force set up in January to find ways to verify users' ages and identities.

"The agreement marks another watershed step toward social networking safety, protecting kids from online predators and inappropriate content," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who announced the agreement Thursday with his counterparts in other states.

Officials from Washington, D.C., and 49 states have signed on.

These private/public cooperative efforts are interesting because they wouldn't even be possible without state registries. The public access to such registration information allows a variety of supplemental efforts by entirely private entities.  If all of the social networking websites adopt similar measures, then Congress doesn't have to pass a law (as it has considered) because a private organization has filled the gap. And any action by a private entity is certain to survive a legal challenge.

HT: Feminist Law Professors

Fear of Pedophiles

Dan Filler at The Faculty Lounge continues to post about sex crime issues with an interesting bit about how the government plays on the fear of pedophiles.  Filler was writing in response to this online ad.  Here is what he had to say:

Here's the problem with today's fear-of-pedophilia ad: in its effort to trade on popular anxiety - using existing fear to cause readers to pay attention - it also further produces that fear.  Every time the government waves the bloody shirt of pedophilia, a few more readers will begin to believe that the nation is in a child sexual assault crisis.  And it's simply not clear that this is remotely true.  But by generating that anxiety, more and more voters become open to the sorts of aggressive, repressive regulations supposedly needed to suppress this crime.  Internet speech bans.   Shaming sanctions.  And I won't be surprised if, at some future point, states begin to reguate the dating habits of single moms.  (The data suggest, at least, that this would be the most productive site of intervention.)

Market research may show that you need to employ this radioactive rhetoric to grab the attention of readers.  But it is also true that fear is the tool of authoritarian governments.  I've blogged previously about increasingly aggressive governmental surveillance and policing.  Today's ad is a small component of this troubling agenda.

Filler leaves out the last part of the process (and perhaps the most worrisome). Once these new policies are applied to sex offenders, it is only a matter of time until they are applied in other areas as well. The War on Drugs has illustrated this pattern pretty well. Modern police investigation techniques warranted by the unusual aspects of the drug war have spilled over into ordinary police practice. One day, registration, residency restrictions, community notification, internet use restrictions, and an array of other measures may be applied to a lot of criminals who aren't sex offenders.