Sex Crimes Chronicles - 30 (Volume Thirty)

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Approximately 95 percent of the youth offenders we interviewed were found delinquent of sex offenses in juvenile court proceedings; less than five percent were convicted in criminal courts. Many of the registrants were subjected to the same sex offender registration, public disclosure, and residency restrictions as adults. We identified the majority of interviewees through a written request we posted in a bulletin circulated among loved ones of individuals on registries, mental health treatment providers, juvenile advocates, social workers, and defense attorneys.

Approximately interviewees were identified by a search of state sex offender registries. In addition to seeking geographic diversity, we sought registrants from an array of locations including both rural and urban areas and ethnic and racial backgrounds. The overwhelming majority of the individuals interviewed for this report started registering when they were children under age Registrants were between the ages of 14 and 48 at the time we interviewed them. We made a substantial effort to interview registrants of various ages to better assess the impact of being a child or adolescent on the sex offender registry.

The majority of the interviews with youth offenders were conducted at their homes. All interviews were conducted in private. A family member or significant other was present for a portion of most of the interviews. Registrants were also asked a series of questions to determine whether the registrant experienced psycho-social harm, felt vulnerable to or experienced violence, or was subject to discrimination because of his or her status as a registrant. Before each interview, Human Rights Watch informed each interviewee of the purpose of the investigation and the kinds of issues that would be covered, and asked whether they wanted to participate.

A parent or guardian gave permission before contact was made with potential interviewees under the age of We informed interviewees that they could discontinue the interview at any time or decline to answer any specific questions without consequence. No financial incentives were offered or provided to persons interviewed. Human Rights Watch has disguised with pseudonyms the identities of all interviewees, except in two cases where the degree of publicity surrounding the cases made disguising the identities impossible, and we had the informed consent of the two individuals to use their real names.

All documents cited in the report are publicly available or on file with Human Rights Watch. Sexual violence is a serious problem in the United States. According to a US Department of Justice DOJ study, an estimated , rapes and sexual assaults occurred in the United States in the most recent year for which data are available.

While 24, incidents of sexual violence against children is a disturbing number, it may be an underestimate. Victim fear, shame, or loyalty to the abuser can each contribute to the underreporting of sexual violence. There is evidence, however, that victims today —including child victims—are more likely to disclose abuse, at least to loved ones, than they once were. Historically, the reluctance or inability of survivors of abuse or their family members to report sexual assault crimes has contributed to under-enforcement of the law: For adults, the emotional and psychological consequences of sexual violence can be profound and enduring and include depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Marc Chaffin, who has studied the specific impacts on child victims of child-on-child sexual offenses,. In many cases, the trauma of child sexual abuse is made more complex because the abuse occurs within the family. Denise, a single mother of two boys, Troy age 15 and Ted age 12 , recalled the day Ted confided in her that he had been sexually abused by Troy: I felt confused and shocked. As I listened to Ted, I began feeling everything through him and seeing it through his eyes. I felt so deeply sad for what he had been through, and I battled with feelings of responsibility.

What could I have done to prevent this? She stated that it,. Child sexual abuse is a complicated form of harm. The effect sexual violence can have on survivors, their family members, and their communities can be harrowing. After a sexual assault, victims may experience a wide range of emotions, such as sadness, anger, fear, shame, guilt, grief, or self-blame; and they may grow up to experience a variety of psychological, social, relationship, and physical difficulties.

In part as a result of high-profile cases of sexual abuse in the late s and s, state and federal policymakers passed an array of registration, community notification, and residency restriction laws for individuals convicted of sex offenses. Each state, US territory, and federally-recognized Indian Tribe now has its own set of sex offender registration, notification, and residency restriction laws. Overlaying this diversity is a series of federal laws. States moved quickly to implement federal sex offender legislation, with a majority passing notification and registration statutes for adult sex offenders between and Congress passed its first community notification law in in response to the abduction and murder of seven-year-old New Jersey resident Megan Kanka.

Some form of community notification for adult sex offenders has been present in all 50 states and the District of Columbia since The Lychner Act, passed in , amended the federal community notification laws, providing for a national database to track sex offenders and subjecting certain offenders to lifetime registration and notification requirements. When first adopted, federal registration and notification laws neither required nor prohibited inclusion of persons convicted of sex offenses as children youth sex offenders.

But by the mids, many state sex offender registration laws were drafted to include children adjudicated delinquent of sex offenses as well as children tried and convicted of sex offenses in adult court. The resulting policies swept youth sex offenders into a system created to regulate the post-conviction lives of adult sex offenders.

In an effort to protect children from sexual assault and hold sex offenders accountable, lawmakers failed to fully consider that some of the sex offenders they were targeting were themselves children, in need of policy responses tailored to their specific needs and circumstances. Today, federal law and the laws of all 50 states require adults to register with law enforcement. Eleven states and the District of Columbia do not register any child offenders adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court.

However, these 12 jurisdictions do require registration for children convicted of sex offenses in adult court. In many states, everyone who is required to register is included on the online registry. In the 50 states and the District of Columbia, adults and children convicted in criminal court are generally subject to public notification, meaning that these individuals are included on the online registry. A growing number of states and municipalities have also prohibited registered offenders from living within a designated distance typically to 2, feet of places where children gather, such as schools, playgrounds, and daycare centers.

In an effort to standardize the vast and growing number of state sex offender registration systems, Congress passed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act in The Adam Walsh Act did not, in its initial draft, specifically address the situation of child offenders. SORNA made several broad changes to existing federal guidelines on sex offender registration that include, but are not limited to:. To comply with SORNA, jurisdictions must also require registered offenders to keep their information current in each jurisdiction in which they reside, work, or attend school.

Throughout the United States, sex offender registries include offenders convicted for a range of acts, from offensive or vulgar behavior to heinous crimes. Registries create the impression that neighborhoods are thick with recidivist sexual predators, making it impossible for residents, including parents, to discern who actually is dangerous. Many people assume that anyone listed on the sex offender registry must be a rapist or a child molester. But most states spread the net much more widely. In reality, this policy was based on a misconception: Individuals who commit sexual offenses are not all the same.

A one-size-fits-all approach to sex offender registration does not contribute to public safety, especially since, as described further below, the most dangerous offenders are often supervised in the same way as very low-risk offenders who are not likely to commit new sex offenses. A report from the Texas Department of Public Safety revealed that the number of registered sex offenders in Texas more than tripled between and The figure was 54, offenders, including nearly 7, who were placed on the registry for offenses committed as children.

Despite the massive growth in the number of registered sex offenders, studies of states that have implemented registration requirements are inconclusive as to whether the registries have any effect on the incidence of reported sex offenses. First, sex offender registries are focused on preventing recidivism, when instead the focus should be on deterring the first offense from ever happening.

As discussed in detail in the following chapter, youth offenders, including youth sex offenders, have even lower rates of recidivism than adults. The emotion provoked by the sexual abuse of a child is powerful—powerful enough to make many overlook the embedded false presumptions and misperceptions about risks of reoffending, especially with regard to children who have committed sexual offenses against other children.

Second, sex offender registration overburdens law enforcement. Third, registration fails to target resources where they are most needed. Federal guidelines adopted under SORNA risk worsening the problem by mandating that states eliminate the use of risk assessment tools to help identify those offenders who are likely to reoffend.

Assigning sex offender tiers based on crime of conviction provides very little information about who a sex offender is and what his or her risk for reoffense may be. While the sex offender database grows exponentially, funding for monitoring sex offenders is on the decline. A review of state sex offender registration legislation applied to child offenders found that only a small number of states were registering child sex offenders based solely upon the type of offense.

Federal and state laws on sex offender registration and notification fail to take into account relevant—indeed, fundamental—differences between children and adults. These include not only differences in cognitive capacity, which affect their culpability, but also differences in their amenability to rehabilitation, in the nature of their sexual behaviors and offenses and in the likelihood that they will reoffend.

Indeed recent laws, like the Adam Walsh Act, reserve the harshest punishments for those who target children without seeming to appreciate that child offenders, whose crimes almost always involve other kids, are particularly likely to be subjected to these harsher penalties. It is axiomatic that children are in the process of growing up, both physically and mentally. Their forming identities make young offenders excellent candidates for rehabilitation—they are far more able than adults to learn new skills, find new values, and re-embark on a better, law-abiding life.

Justice is best served when these rehabilitative principles, which are at the core of human rights standards, are at the heart of responses to child sex offending. Psychological research confirms what every parent knows: Adolescent thinking is present-oriented and tends to ignore, discount, or not fully understand future outcomes and implications.

Neuroscientists are now providing a physiological explanation for the features of childhood that developmental psychologists—as well as parents and teachers—have identified for years. Moreover, the fact that young people continue to develop into early adulthood suggests that they may be particularly amenable to change. Only a relatively small proportion of adolescents who experiment in risky or illegal activities develop entrenched patterns of problem behavior that persist into adulthood.

The image of the adult sexual predator is a poor fit for the vast majority of children who commit sexual offenses.

Raised on the Registry

Children are not merely younger versions of adult sexual offenders. Current science contradicts the theory that children who have committed a sexual offense specialize in sexual crime, nor is there any evidence of the kind of fixed, abnormal sexual preferences that are part of the image of a pedophile. Compared to adult sexual offending, sexual misconduct by children is generally less aggressive, often more experimental than deviant, and occurs over shorter periods of time.

Youth sex offenders come from a variety of social and family backgrounds. Many of the sexual behaviors of youth are problematic, and need to be addressed in a clinical setting or by the justice system, but placing children who commit sex offenses on a registry—often for life— is going too far. As noted above, there is no scientific foundation for the belief that children who commit sexual offenses pose a danger of future sexual predation. Recidivism rates for youth sex offenders are consistently low. One study that included a cohort composed mostly of youth convicted of violent sex offenses found a recidivism rate of 10 percent.

The enactment across the United States of increasingly comprehensive sex offender registration laws has brought predictable results: In February , approximately , individuals nationwide were listed on sex offender registries. While it may be safe to assume that the number of registered youth offenders has expanded alongside adult registrants, there are no disaggregated national statistics on youth sex offenders.

This chapter therefore contains information Human Rights Watch culled mainly from our interviews with youth sex offenders and the family members of another 15 youth comprising cases. Throughout the United States, children as young as nine years old who are adjudicated delinquent may be subject to sex offender registration laws. For example, in Delaware in , there were approximately children on the sex offender registry, 55 of whom were under the age of Human Rights Watch recorded several important dates for each of the youth sex offenders interviewed for this report, allowing us to determine their age at conviction and the age they were first placed on the registry.

The median age at conviction or adjudication was The median age at first registration was Eight interviewed registrants were age 10 or younger at the time of their conviction and when registration began, with the youngest being 9 years old. A full 84 percent of those interviewed by Human Rights Watch were 17 years old or younger when they began registering.

Most jurisdictions mandate registration of children convicted of a wide range of sex offenses in adult court. Implementation of registration, including the federal SORNA provisions, varies across jurisdictions, resulting in a wide variety of offenses and offenders triggering registration requirements.

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The following are examples of the wide range of offenses that can trigger registration requirements for youth sex offenders:. The cases examined for this report had a total of convictions often due to multiple charges arising from the same incident. There were an additional convictions in 43 other crime categories. When sexual interactions involve a non-consenting party, the sexual interactions are, by definition, abusive. Under many current laws, she could be adjudicated delinquent and required to register as a sex offender.

Some children are convicted and required to register after engaging in allegedly consensual sex with other children. These cases, known as statutory rape cases, have received a great deal of press attention and have in some cases led states to reform their laws so that children convicted of statutory rape are not required to register.

The intent of sex offender registration and notification laws is to protect children from sexual victimization and exploitation by adults, [] and it was not the original intent of federal legislators to criminalize sexual interactions between adolescent peers when there is no evidence of coercion. For instance, in Michigan, year-old Alexander D.

Alexander and his girlfriend met when they were freshmen in high school and dated for nearly a year before having sex. In Michigan, the legal age of consent is However, Alexander will remain on the sex offender registry until the year In Florida, an year-old boy, Grayson A. The girlfriend, Lily A.

In a interview, Grayson stated that he lost at least 17 jobs because of being on the sex offender registry. Grayson became homeless and ended up living in his car. Among those interviewed by Human Rights Watch for this report, the majority were first placed on sex offender registries between and Over 60 percent of the interviewees had been registered for five years or less at the time of our interviews with them. Although there are no national statistics on the race and gender of youth offenders subject to sex offender registration, a Department of Justice study of youth offenders, examining data on youth offenders committing sex offenses against other children, found that 93 percent of the offenders were male.

Among the youth offenders interviewed by Human Rights Watch for this report, After they have served out their sentences in juvenile detention or prison, youth sex offenders must comply with a complex array of legal requirements applicable to all sex offenders, whether children or adults. Under sex offender registration laws, youth offenders must register with law enforcement, providing their name, home address, place of employment, school address, a current photograph, and other personal information.

Perhaps the most onerous aspects of registration from the perspective of the youth offender are the community notification and residency restriction requirements, which can relegate a youth sex offender who has served their time to the margins of society. Under community notification laws, the police make registration information accessible to the public, typically via the Internet. And under residency restriction laws, youth sex offenders are prohibited from living within a designated distance of places where children gather, such as schools, playgrounds, parks, and even bus stops.

Read in isolation, certain sex offender registration requirements may appear reasonable and insignificant to some.

It is only once the totality of the requirements, their interrelationship, and their operation in practice are examined that their full impact can be understood. Community notification involves publicizing information about persons on sex offender registries. States and the federal government provide information about sex offenders through publicly accessible websites. Communities are also notified about sex offenders in their area through public meetings, fliers, and newspaper announcements. Some jurisdictions have expanded notification to include highway billboards, postcards, lawn signs, and publicly available and searchable websites produced by private entities.

A series of newspaper clippings that a father of two sons has collected over the years. The two sons are listed on the public sex offender registry for offenses committed when they were ages 9 and 11, and they were often publicly named in the local newspapers. Community notification was initially reserved for offenders classified as having a high risk of reoffending. But today, every jurisdiction that registers sex offenders also makes publicly available certain information about them, regardless of individual risk classifications and irrespective of the fact that a registrant was a youth offender.

With the passage of SORNA in , federal guidelines for community notification became more stringent, requiring that states post on publicly accessible websites the picture, home address, and location of the school and employer of certain categories of sex offenders—whether or not they were juveniles at the time of the offense. Since , the number of states subjecting children to community notification via the internet has grown as jurisdictions passed legislation to come into compliance with SORNA.

The Department of Justice DOJ received hundreds of critical public comments about the treatment of children as adults for purposes of public notification. As of , most jurisdictions subjected children convicted of sex offenses in adult court to the same community notification regimes as adult sex offenders.

Some jurisdictions permit youths to petition to be removed after a number of years. In some states, a juvenile adjudicated delinquent has to be 14 to be listed on public sex-offender registries. In others, children may be eligible for public Internet community notification at age 10, 11, or Youth sex offender registrants interviewed for this report described various ways in which their photographs and personal information were made public even when not posted on official state sex offender registration websites:.

Official sex offender registration information is also available for purchase or use by private security companies, which sometimes create their own searchable web-based sex offender registries. These companies appear to take no responsibility for deleting records of persons removed from the registry.

The information is still public and available through many court and private databases nationwide. A newspaper clipping that a father retained regarding the location of sex offenders on Halloween. However, she says she lied in court to get away from her stepmother. When I returned from prison I was in the ninth grade. I was on probation from to while I attended high school. In her freshman year of college, Maya lived in the campus dormitory. Maya said she was forced to drop out of college.

The laws make it very difficult for me locate places where I can live. Despite her the sex offender label, Maya continued to try to find ways to succeed. She worked as a missionary and taught English overseas. While abroad, she fell in love and married a Filipino man. As of early , Maya and her husband were living in Michigan with a two-year-old girl and a baby boy on the way.

Officials in many jurisdictions have imposed residency and zoning restrictions on registered sex offenders, including children. Yet research on the effectiveness of residency restrictions imposed on adult sex offenders offers no indication that these laws achieve their intended goals of preventing abuse, protecting children, or reducing reoffending.

In , Iowa enacted a law that prohibits sex offenders from living within 2, feet of a school or daycare center. It makes great sense politically, but has no affect [sic] whatsoever on public safety. Because residency restrictions have such questionable utility in deterring offenses committed by adults, there is little reason to expect they would deter children from committing sex offenses.

Meanwhile, sex offender residency restrictions have been shown to increase transience, homelessness, and instability. The duration of registration required of youth offenders convicted in adult court is, in most states, the same as that required of adults. But children adjudicated delinquent are often subject to shorter requirements or may petition to be removed from the registry.

The following are two examples of youth offenders subject to lifetime registration requirements:. Even when registration is limited in duration, youth offender registrants can experience severe difficulties and high costs in purging their information from the registry. It is now and I am still on the state website and all those other registration sites. I feel like it will never end. Sex offender registration and notification laws impose harsh, sometimes debilitating, and often lifelong sanctions on children convicted or adjudicated guilty of sex offenses.

Many of the individuals interviewed for this report described being placed in a juvenile facility for a few years after being found guilty of the underlying sex offense; those convicted as adults spend time in adult prison. When they return to their communities as teenagers or young adults, they are already significantly behind their contemporaries in education, socialization, establishing stable family relations, and developing employment skills.

Yet, required to register as sex offenders, they soon learn they face further obstacles that may be nearly impossible to overcome. As we document below, youth placed on registries are often ostracized, threatened, and subject to strict residency requirements. Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by identity formation. These harms are compounded by the shame that comes with registration and notification, which often lacks an endpoint.

Among the youth offenders and family members of 15 additional youth offenders interviewed for this report, most people, or Nearly a fifth of those interviewed 58 people, or Typically, children and adolescents have difficulty navigating close interpersonal relationships. Now age 22, he is still on the registry and on sex offender parole, which means that anyone he wants to talk to, by phone or in person, is required to first fill out a form and obtain approval by his parole officer. No one cares if I am alive.

In fact, I think they would prefer me dead. The alienation that emerges from a system set up to regulate personal relationships can thwart healthy development in young people. Human Rights Watch found that, left with little hope of ever leading a normal life, some youth offenders on the registry opted for what they may have viewed as the only remaining route of escape—suicide. I was just a kid. One child was adjudicated delinquent for a sex offense at age At the age of 17 he took his own life. His picture, address and information on the Web….

Another young man who was placed on the registry at age 12 committed suicide at age 17, a few months after Michigan passed a law to remove offenders who were under 14 at the time of the offense from the registry. The mother of a former registrant told Human Rights Watch about the circumstances that led to her son, Carson E. Adjudicated delinquent at the age of 13 for rape, he successfully completed sex offender treatment and as a result was later removed from the public registry and subject to law-enforcement-only registration.

But nearly 10 years after his offense, he started facing serious difficulties. At the age of 25, and within weeks of graduating from college, Carson committed suicide. His mother says she knows in her heart that he killed himself because upon graduation, he was going to look for professional work and knew his background would come up in every job interview. In , when he was 15 years old, Dominic was charged with having molested his sister when he was approximately 14 and she was approximately Dominic denied the allegations.

In , after Dominic had spent over a year going back and forth between a psychiatric hospital and jail, his defense attorney told Dominic and his mother that if he did not admit to the allegations, he would be transferred to adult court and face up to 20 years in prison.

While in detention, Dominic received honors and was known for his artistic skill. By the age of 17 he was granted special permission to attend college courses off campus. He was able to work and earn money. In April , at the age of 21, Dominic was released from detention and placed on parole under the jurisdiction of the adult criminal court until the year Dominic is subject to sex offender registration and notification requirements. During the pre-release meeting, Dominic also had to sign a Collateral Contact Form, which required him to identify a contact to assist in monitoring his behavior.

The form states that this person may be, for example, a roommate, employer, family member, spouse, significant other, pastor, sponsor, or friend. Dominic specified his maternal grandmother, Grace. But Grace was told that she can never have Dominic in her home because his sister, the victim, resides there. In early January , Dominic tried to commit suicide. The parole officers demanded that she bring Dominic from the car into the office so that he could sign the papers. After a stressful few minutes, a parole officer came out and told Grace that she could take Dominic to the hospital.

Laws that place youth offenders on sex offender registries expose them to vigilante attacks and are at odds with existing state laws that protect the confidentiality of juvenile records. Among the cases examined for this report, 52 percent youth offenders experienced violence or threats of violence against themselves or family members that they directly attributed to their registration.

Family photos of two boys at ages 10 and 8 now adults in their late twenties who were subject to sex offender registration for offenses committed at ages 12 and Individuals aware of their registration have thrown molotov cocktails through the window of the family home, as well as threatened, insulted, and shouted profanities at all members of the family. Weatherford, Texas, May 1, Other registrants experienced harassment as a result of their registration status. They thought I was not a virgin.

A male youth offender living in Texas recounted several incidents of harassment: I had to run inside. I wish I could kill you! Registration laws can have a severe impact on the families of registrants. Young people exiting custody in the juvenile justice system or adult prisons are often discharged back to families already struggling with domestic violence, substance abuse, mental health issues, unemployment, and poverty.

Children face unemployment, school enrollment challenges, and sometimes homelessness upon release. The impact may be more pronounced for families with children subject to sex offender registration requirements. Many registrants and family members told Human Rights Watch about the stresses placed on families as a result of registration. These include the following examples:. Families also suffer as a result of the public stigma associated with the registration status of their loved one.

Parents of registrants reported experiencing increased financial burdens from the moment their child was placed on the registry. Some family members of registrants lost their jobs as a result of the sex offender registration status of their family member. I lost my job when the school district found out that I had a young child on the registry. The fees associated with registration can be prohibitively high for a young person.

These expenses often fall on the family, especially when the individual on the registry is a dependent child. I was too young to work. He still lives with his mother. He struggles to keep jobs to help his mother prevent the house from going into foreclosure. The effects of registration can touch later generations of children as well. Many of the individuals we spoke with were placed on the registry as children but are now married with children of their own. Offender registration laws can have especially harmful impacts on the children of registrants.

Additionally, 59 percent reported that other children at school treated them differently when it was discovered that they had a parent on the registry. Most youth offender registrants with children we spoke with had very young children who had not yet attained school age. We were able, however, to interview a few school-age children with a parent on the registry. A year-old child, Cindy D. In Delaware, where they live, a child under 14 years of age cannot legally give consent.

We asked both non-registered and registered parents to describe ways that their children have been directly affected by sex offender registration laws. Individuals placed on the registry for offenses committed over a decade ago, when they were children, cannot even pick up their own children at school. I want to be involved in their lives but I also want them to be able to live free to be who they are without having to carry such a burden. One girl with a father on the sex offender registry wrote Human Rights Watch a letter about her life as a child of a registered sex offender.

Local lawmakers have passed municipal ordinances prohibiting individuals on sex offender registries from residing or traveling within close proximity to places where children commonly congregate. Given the large number of parks, schools, daycare centers, and playgrounds in some cities, there can be very few places where sex offenders can live. In one study, adult registrants cited difficulties in finding housing and being forced to move as the most common problems resulting from their registrant status.

Studies show that adolescents and young adults on sex offender registries have an even harder time securing housing than older adults on registries. They keep us homeless. I am banned from living in a homeless shelter. It is impossible to meet these expectations. Currently I am homeless … for something that happened when I was 12 years old.

The majority of parents with a child on the registry interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported having trouble providing shelter for their family due to residency restrictions requiring the child registrant to live a certain distance from schools, parks, playgrounds, daycare centers, or bus stops.

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And once they are living on their own, registrants face similar challenges in procuring housing. Public housing authorities can also evict the family of a child on the sex offender registry. The federal Office of Housing and Urban Development allows local housing authorities to terminate assistance to an entire family if any member of the household is arrested or adjudicated delinquent of certain sex offenses. Because state registration, notification, and residency restrictions often stipulate that offenders may not live in or near the homes of victims, housing issues can become extremely complicated when the victim of a youth offender registrant is a sibling.

In these instances, parents are faced with a horrible choice between which of their children to keep in the home. Some parents are forced to place a child with a relative or family friend, or to place a child in the care of the state. Lucas was given five years deferred adjudication for the sexual offense.

Later, he and Emma married. But Lucas was subsequently arrested twice for violations of probation. In , Lucas was arrested for failure to register and subsequently sentenced to 10 years in prison. While incarcerated, his wife gave birth to their daughter. In , Lucas was finally released from prison to a halfway house where he was to remain until he could find proper housing.

At the age of 14, Lewis A. Upon his release, Lewis was made a ward of the state and placed in foster care because his Dad said he could not manage him. At the age of 18, he no longer qualified for foster care and was on his own. Upon release from foster care, Lewis contacted Isabella D.

When Human Rights Watch first interviewed Lewis, he was just 18 years old and had spent nearly nine months homeless in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He survived the previous winter by living in an abandoned building. The voucher, through Michigan Rehabilitation Services, helped with the rent, but it took months to find an apartment that would 1 accept the voucher and 2 rent to a registered sex offender.

As the voucher ran out they had to apply for an extension to get more time to look for housing. Finally in August , Lewis moved into his own apartment. He also enrolled in an adult program and was working towards getting his GED. Lewis was supposed to spend Thanksgiving with Isabella and her family, but he decided to spend the weekend with his father. Immediately after the holiday, Lewis was arrested for vandalizing a cemetery with some older men.

In December , Lewis pled guilty to the vandalism charge and has since served his time. But he still sits in jail. As a registered sex offender, Lewis cannot be released from jail until he has a permanent address. Lewis cannot live in public assisted housing because he is a registered sex offender. Isabella has tried to help get Lewis shelter and made referrals to shelters and other agencies. She recently contacted agencies that assist individuals with mental disabilities and was told that all referrals must come from the community mental health center.

The community mental health center will not consider making a referral until it can conduct intake, i. Isabella and the other teacher still visit Lewis every week in jail. Even though Michigan law does not subject juveniles adjudicated as young as Lewis to public notification, it is very difficult for him to live day-to-day. Essentially, these restrictions ban registrants from passing through certain areas of the city. Interviewees reported having to map out routes before traveling anywhere.

For example, Blake G. Blake was required to register as a sex offender in the new state. The county where Blake and his family moved to also had stringent residency and zoning restrictions. I can be arrested if I am walking anywhere near a school or park. There are also strict restrictions on the presence of registrants near bus stops. Bus stops are plentiful and not well-defined. In rural areas, school bus stops are not marked or labeled and are often at the end of a driveway or any designated location where the school bus picks up a child. In Orange County, Florida, where the law prohibits a registered sex offender from residing within 2, feet of a school bus stop, day care center, park, or school, researchers mapped residential parcels of land and found that Because they live with their parents or other adult caregivers, children and very young adults have little control over where they live.

States differ as to which offenses trigger registration, and state systems do a very poor job of working together to ensure registrants who travel are treated fairly. For example, Elijah B. When he moved to Texas, he transferred his registration from Flint, Michigan to Houston. A few years later, Elijah met his wife.

Both were working and they lived together in a new apartment. Elijah explained to Human Rights Watch,. However, all too often state registration systems treat individuals convicted of sexual offenses in other states differently from individuals convicted of the same offenses within the state. However, Alabama law would require a Florida resident who committed the same crime to register as a sex offender if he moves to Alabama. Children can find their access to education curtailed even before they begin registering.

Many children convicted of sexual offenses are expelled from public school. Crimes committed on school grounds can have immediate consequences in many states. For example, in Delaware, if police find probable cause to believe a child committed a crime at school, the student must be immediately suspended and referred to alternative services. Among the youth offender registrants whose cases were examined for this report, a majority Others had difficulties in school because of the public nature of their registration status. They taped them all over the school.

By then it was too late and I was terrified everyone would find out I was a registered sex offender. I dropped out but later got my GED. Several individuals we spoke with believe this has negatively affected their college admissions. The most commonly reported consequence of registration for adult sex offenders is difficulty finding and maintaining employment.

Individuals we interviewed said that their registration status for offenses committed as children decades ago continues to limit their job opportunities. Certain institutions, including public schools, child care centers, and nursing homes, are legally required to investigate and obtain criminal histories of all applicants for professional or certified licensed positions.

Some states implement blanket laws to prevent registered sex offenders from obtaining certain types of employment or volunteer positions. Maya also spent nearly four years at a juvenile prison. Being part of the juvenile justice system, made me determined to prove that with determination, love, and a little support, productive citizens can emerge. Many girls in there were forced into prostitution by a parent. Upon release from prison, Maya persevered and overcame the barriers inherent in being on the registry to graduate from high school, obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree in both social work and comparative religion, and earn a Masters in Social Work MSW degree.

Despite being 16 years removed from her only arrest and despite having been taken off the registry, the stigma remains. Maya is hopeful that she will one day complete an internship, become a licensed social worker, and realize her dream of helping homeless individuals. I accumulate about 20 W-2 forms at the end of each year.

I have to support my wife and kids. I estimate that between January to April I have applied for positions. Many states require sex offenders to pay a one-time initial registration fee. A registrant must keep the registration current in each jurisdiction where the offender resides, is an employee, or is a student, by appearing in-person at least once a year. Certain fees and costs related to registration can be assessed at each appearance.

States often impose additional costs on registrants, some of which are imposed on all persons convicted of offenses of a particular severity such as all felons in the state. It would be hard for an individual who works a full-time job to be able to manage these types of fees and the demands of registering in general. He spent 27 years and 8 months in prison, primarily at Angola State Penitentiary. He was released from prison at the age of 44, after the Supreme Court ruled in Graham v.

Florida that the sentence of life without parole was unconstitutional for juveniles convicted of non-homicide offenses. James was required to register as a sex offender within three days of release from prison. He was also required to:. Most jobs would not pay you within two weeks of starting the job. It would be difficult for an individual who was on the outside with a decent job to scrape together these fees. Oklahoma takes a public health approach to sex offenders in the juvenile justice system that could serve as a model for other states considering alternative approaches to youth sex offender registration.

While Oklahoma does not currently take the same approach to youth offenders sentenced in the criminal court system, there is no reason in principle why it could not do so. Most youth sex offenders in Oklahoma are treated differently than adults. The system includes the following features:. Public Notification— The adult registry in Oklahoma is public and fully accessible online. The juvenile registry is confidential and only accessible by law enforcement officials.

Offenses— Children registering based on a criminal conviction in adult court are subject to the same automatic offense-based registration system that applies to adults. Children adjudicated delinquent of a sex offense, however, can be placed on the registry only after an individualized assessment of the risk they may pose.

Expiration— Juvenile registration expires at age A child can be rolled over to the adult registry, but this requires a separate petition, hearing, and judicial determination. In Oklahoma, before a child found guilty in the juvenile system of a registerable sex offense is placed on the registry, his or her case must be evaluated using a three-step process.

First, the local prosecutor must make a determination that the child in question, even after completing treatment, still poses a significant risk of reoffending sexually. If so, the prosecutor files an application to have the court require the child to register as a sex offender upon release from custody. The filing of this application triggers phase two of the process, in which the child must undergo evaluation by a panel of two mental health professionals who prepare a report for the court recommending for or against registration.

Over the first 10 years that the sex offender registry existed in Oklahoma, only 10 youth offenders adjudicated delinquent were required to register, according to the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs. Federal law mandates that any state that does not meet the requirements of the Adam Walsh Act will receive up to a 10 percent reduction in federal grant money. Nearly all jurisdictions have made failure to register a criminal offense punishable by fines and imprisonment.

Ongoing Economic Consequences

In many states, the sentence for a single offense of failure to register can be as long as 10 years in prison, and in two states—Louisiana and Nebraska—the sentence for a second failure-to-register conviction is 20 years imprisonment. Our research suggests that most youth offenders do not understand the many rules incumbent on registrants or the full implications of failing to comply with all of the rules. In many cases, they do not even know that a serious criminal sentence is hanging over their heads should they fail to comply with every particular.

As noted above, registrants begin their sex offender registration after release from detention, jail, or prison. Over 84 percent of the youth offenders we interviewed were still age 17 or younger at release. They had paperwork from when I was 13 where I acknowledged that I understood that condition. To date, no study has examined failure to register from the perspective of individuals placed on the registry for offenses committed as children. Our interviews indicate that it may be particularly difficult for youth offenders to meet all registration requirements, for reasons linked to their youth and immaturity as well as the onerous nature of the requirements.

Studies of the failure-to-register offense among all offenders adults and children emphasize the difficulty of maintaining registration, noting the sheer volume of obligations and the constant vigilance required of registrants to stay in compliance. Many of the young people interviewed for this report who were convicted of failure to register were unable to afford registration fees, obtain a proper residence, or otherwise comply with requirements to obtain identification.

All states require individuals on the sex offender registry to carry some form of additional identification, and they can be asked, by law enforcement, to produce this identification at any time. Human Rights Watch met year-old Jayden C. Identification card that must be updated yearly and carried at all times by registered sex offenders in Oklahoma.

Registrants are required to renew the license or ID card annually. As a teenager living in Oklahoma, Nathaniel H. The clerk threw my license and told me to get out of the store. A woman standing behind me looked at my license as she picked it up off the floor. She handed it back to me with a look of disgust on her face. The serious sentences imposed on youth offenders for failure—to-register crimes appear disproportionate to the offenses, given that their youth and immaturity can make it exceptionally difficult for them to comply with registration laws.

It is unclear whether prosecutions for failure to register are having the desired effect of deterring subsequent sex crimes. Four published studies have examined the relationship between failure to register and sex-offense recidivism. Human Rights Watch was not able to find any studies on the relationship between failure to register and sex offense recidivism among youth sex offenders, but there is no reason to think one would find a stronger correlation in the youth offender population than in the overall offender population.

Given that existing research finds very low rates of sex offense recidivism among youth sex offenders, neither public safety nor crime deterrence appears to justify their incarceration for failure-to-register crimes. Even if one thinks registration is appropriate for some youth sex offenders, there is strong reason to question whether offenders under age 18 should be subjected to criminal prosecution for failure to register. At times, the juvenile or adult court proceedings that result in convictions for sexual offenses are marred by due process failings, prompting additional questions about the fairness of subjecting youth sex offenders to registration.

Children accused of any type of offense not only sexual offenses are particularly vulnerable during criminal proceedings. Children and adolescents are less mature than adults and have less life experience on which to draw, and this makes understanding the court process, the charges, and the consequences of a plea more difficult. A photograph of Ethan A. At the age of 10, Ethan and his younger brother went to live with their father and stepmother in Amarillo. In , when Ethan was 11, his step-mother accused Ethan of molesting his 3-month-old sister and of touching the genitals of his younger brother.

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This page was last edited on 28 November , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Logo for 30 for 30 Volume I films. The Band That Wouldn't Die. A profile of Baltimore 's love affair with football and the Colts , focusing on the Colts Marching Band. After the Colts decamped for Indianapolis in , the band remained in Baltimore and helped promote the eventual return of the NFL to the city. Fresh interviews and archival footage track the life and demise of the United States Football League in the mids.

A highlight is Tollin's interview with Donald Trump , the former New Jersey Generals owner whose post-interview comments on the league give this documentary its title. A look at the October Muhammad Ali — Larry Holmes fight and its impact on both fighters, featuring fresh interviews with participants and previously unseen lead-up footage from both fighters' camps. The death of Len Bias from a cocaine-induced heart attack, two days after Boston selected him as the second overall pick in the NBA draft , and its impact on casual drug use, especially by the sports community.

The racial and cultural evolution of Miami during the s as represented within the University of Miami football team. The New York Knicks. A profile of Paul Westhead 's coaching tenure at Loyola Marymount University — , where his Lions' team was known for its high-scoring run-and-gun offense and talented players such as Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers , who died on-court in The Trial of Allen Iverson. The trial of Hampton, Virginia , high school athlete Allen Iverson , convicted for his role in a racially tinged melee, and its impact on both the community and on Iverson's life.

Meeting at New York City's La Rotisserie Francaise restaurant in , a group of writers and academics develop Rotisserie Fantasy baseball , only to see it take off in popularity and leave them behind. A profile of Ricky Williams focuses on his brief departure from the NFL , when he sought self-redemption amidst media criticism and fresh rumors of marijuana use. The relationship between the Raiders and the minority fan base in Los Angeles during the team's 13 seasons in L. One event overshadows them all: Simpson's run from the police. The life of Mat Hoffman and his year career of advancing BMX riding , both creatively and promotionally.

Motivated by the dream his late father had for him, Michael Jordan retires from basketball and has a brief career in minor league baseball. The Kirkland National Little League team's success at the Little League World Series , examining why their title win is considered one of the biggest upsets in the event's history. A look at the rivalry and friendship between tennis legends Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Terry Fox 's attempt to run across Canada in support of fundraising for cancer research captures the attention of his fellow Canadians and the world.

Four Days in October. The successful track and field career of Marion Jones , her admission of performance-enhancing drug use, and subsequent prison sentence. The recruiting of high school football player Marcus Dupree by multiple big-time college programs, his resulting injury-prone college and professional career, and how his pursuit by college and USFL teams changed the recruiting process. The rise, fall, and rebirth of the SMU Mustangs football program , which received a 1-year " death penalty " for major infractions after former SMU player David Stanley blew the whistle on the long-suspected program.

The story of the Michigan men's basketball recruiting class, called the Fab Five , one of whom Chris Webber was later involved in a notorious pay-for-play scandal. A profile of Chuck Wepner , the original inspiration for Sylvester Stallone 's Rocky Balboa character, and how Rocky -like glory eluded Wepner as he took several strange turns in an effort to stay in the spotlight. The story of Chris Herren , a high school basketball star and NBA player; his career-long struggles with drug abuse; and his ultimate discovery of redemption and personal fulfillment through the game.

The continuing rivalry between Auburn University and the University of Alabama , focusing on the history between the two programs, the bad blood between their fans, and how this intense rivalry came to a pinnacle, just when they ended up needing each other most. Life of Dewey Bozella and his 26 years behind bars, where he found strength and purpose through boxing becoming the light heavyweight champion of Sing Sing prison , and his goal to be proven innocent and box professionally once he was released.

The story of Norwegian speed-skating gold medalist Johann Olav Koss , who founded the non-profit organization Right to Play , which brings sports to children in third-world and war-torn countries. An exploration of the road to fortune in sports and the eventual detours for various reasons to financial difficulties and bankruptcy, as experienced by top athletes including Leon Searcy , Andre Rison , Keith McCants , Bernie Kosar , and Cliff Floyd. A profile of the Men's meter final at the Summer Olympics and the lives of the eight men who participated, including Ben Johnson whose world record of 9.

The story of one fan's obsessive quest to purchase, at a auction, James Naismith 's original rules of basketball , perhaps the most important historical document in American sports history, and to bring it "home" to Lawrence, Kansas , where Naismith taught and coached at the University of Kansas for 39 years. The life of Ben Wilson , a well-regarded Chicago high school basketball star, and how his November murder one day before the start of his senior season had a wide-ranging impact. Mississippi native Wright Thompson explores tumultuous events of , when the University of Mississippi campus both erupted in violence over integration and swelled with pride over its unbeaten football team , and how those incidents continue to shape the state 50 years later.

A profile of Bo Jackson and how his college and professional feats in two sports baseball and football captured the public's imagination and made Jackson a cultural and marketing icon. The film features the recollections of Martin Demoff, the agent for both Elway and Marino, who shares a personal diary he kept to chronicle the indecision the Baltimore Colts had with drafting Elway with the first pick or trading it away, as well as the other teams' interest in his two future- Hall of Fame clients.

Child-on-Child Sexual Violence in the United States

A chronicling of the life of Eddie Aikau , a big wave surfer and lifeguard whose death served as inspiration to an entire spiritual movement. Louis , and how Spirits owners Ozzie and Daniel Silna , with their team about to be left out in the ABA's merger with the NBA , managed to negotiate a deal that allowed the brothers' involvement in pro basketball to continue in a most unusual fashion. The story of how young businessman John Spano struck a deal to purchase the New York Islanders in , only to be later revealed as a fraud and being near financial insolvency.

Brian Koppelman and David Levien. The story of a year-old Jimmy Connors and his unexpected and extraordinary underdog run at the US Open , where he played as a wildcard entrant and reached the semifinals of the men's singles draw. A profile of Bernard King and Ernie Grunfeld , their decades-long friendship, and their on-court partnership on the University of Tennessee basketball team , better known as the "Ernie and Bernie Show".

The stories of two Ohio State football figures connected with Youngstown, Ohio , running back Maurice Clarett a native of the city and coach Jim Tressel former head coach at Youngstown State University , their football exploits at OSU including a national championship in , and their scandalous exits from the school.

The Price of Gold originally went by the title Tonya and Nancy during production. A recollection of the original Big East Conference , from its simple beginnings and regional rivalries to its national prominence as one of the most successful college basketball leagues, and how it ended up fighting for its survival in the s during conference realignment.

A look back at the Detroit Pistons of the late s and early s. Narrated by rapper Kid Rock , a native of nearby Romeo. An examination of the competitive nature that teammates Greg LeMond and Bernard Hinault exhibited in the Tour de France ; a film based on Richard Moore's book of the same name. How Mafia associate Henry Hill orchestrated a point-shaving scheme involving Boston College basketball. Narrated by Ray Liotta , who portrayed Hill in Goodfellas. A year retrospective of the Loma Prieta earthquake , which struck just before the scheduled start of Game 3 of the World Series.

A look back at the New York Knicks ' championship teams of the s. The rise, fall, and post-football life of Brian Bosworth. A sequel to The U profiles the Miami Hurricanes football program and its rise from scandal and calls for the school to drop the sport to a national championship, only to see new controversy after booster Nevin Shapiro is revealed to have given improper benefits to the program. An exploration of the Miracle on Ice from the point of view of the defeated Soviet Union team.

I Hate Christian Laettner. A look at the life and basketball career of Christian Laettner and the intense dislike some fans still harbor for the former Duke University and NBA star. A profile of Sonny Vaccaro , who rose from steel town roots in Pennsylvania to become an influential force in both basketball and the athletic shoe industry. The story of Nick Piantanida , a New Jersey pet store owner and truck driver whose love of parachuting and skydiving puts him on a quest to break the record for the highest recorded parachute jump.

An exploration of the turbulent relationship between Olympic wrestling brothers Mark and Dave Schultz and their eccentric benefactor, John du Pont , culminating in the murder of Dave by du Pont.

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