Archive: Opinions

I am a proponent for overhaul of the public sex offender registry so that it effectively promotes healthy recovery for victims, a safe environment for registrants and their families post-release, and community education to better prevent sex crimes. Sadly, the package of bills signed by Senator Nozzolio fail at all costs to achieve any of these things.

Senator Nozzolio incorrectly states that sex offenders have high re-offense rates. This is patently false. All state, federal and independent research indicates that the opposite is true. In fact, in 2007 New York calculated the recidivism rate at just 3.5% - lower than almost every other crime. A more recent study from this year using Connecticut DOC data indicated just 2.7%. Didn't Nozzolio do any research before proposing such far-reaching, expensive legislation?

It doesn't stop there. Nozzolio uses the least likely, emotionally charged scenarios to muster up public support. What parent doesn't want to protect their children? Unfortunately, the registry and related legislation fails to do this. According to the US Department of Justice, 90-97% of child victims know their abusers - which goes hand-in-hand with Dr. Jeffrey Sandler's 2008 study on the impact of the registry on sex crime rates, which found that 95% of sex crimes are committed by people with no prior conviction for one. The same study also found no reduction in sex crime rates by first-time OR repeat offenders from 1986-2007; 10 years before and 11 years after the debut of the public registry.

Aside from the overwhelming research that severely negates the effectiveness Nozzolio claims these bills will have on sex crime, he has coldly ignored a certain population of residents: the children and family members of registrants. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people in New York alone suffer harassment, public humiliation, job loss, social repercussions and property damage due to the public dissemination of their family member's charge and home address. Children of registrants report being especially targeted by other peers and even adults. What kind of law sacrifices some children for others? What kind of policy promotes the destruction of families for political gain? What kind of newspaper allows played-out lies and myths to be printed without a shred of research beforehand?

If we truly want to protect children from sex crime, we must be willing to accept the entire scope of reality - not just what's convenient. Don't you wish your public policy-makers felt the same?

Shana Rowan
Oneida, NY

v8i18