Please check out the FAQ and Library sections as we have added new content and brought these features online.
Announcements for Oct 25 2009 (2nd Update)
As of 1236hrs CST on Oct 25, 2009, all forums are operational. We are still seeing some errors and continue to work diligently to correct these problems. Please do not hesitate to contact the web development team by email (admin@sosen.us) with any issues you might encounter.
Announcements For 25 Oct 2009
As of 0:59 CST, Oct 25, 2009, the forums are back online. We still have a lot of work to do, but we are diligently working to complete the current project. Please let the web development team know if there are any issues you encounter by emailing admin@sosen.us.
Texas State Auditor: Sex Offenders Who Complete Treatment 61% Less Likely to Return to Prison
Recently while conducting research for his Master’s thesis, one SOSEN member found a 2007 report by the Texas State Auditor showing that the state’s sex offenders who complete the prison Sex Offender Treatment Program are 80% LESS LIKELY to return to prison for a new charge. These rates are 61.6% lower than that of other sex offenders who refused or were not allowed to participate in the program.
The Texas State Auditor report (Report No. 07-026) was released in March 2007 and can be found at http://www.sao.state.tx.us/reports/main/07-026.html. Have you found something interesting? Email admin@sosen.us and let us know.
Under Construction
This Site is Currently Down for Maintenance
We appologize for the inconvenience, but the part of the SOSEN website you tried to access is currently down for maintenance. This is a temporary outage as the web development team works to improve services and make our site a better place for all of our membership. At this time we are working diligently to make the outage as short as possible.
Thank you for your patience.
Changing Attitudes about the Sex Offender Registry.
Human Rights watch has just published an article dealing with the effect of the Jaycee Lee Dugard Case. Where in the past a case such as this would have called for more and tougher laws regarding former sex offenders, with the chilling facts of this case coming to light many people are reexamining the flaws in the registry.
Below is an excerpt from the article.
“Although Garrido’s case is extraordinary, it illustrates the flaws in America’s sex offender registration and community notification schemes. Experts in sexual violence say that placing all convicted sex offenders on a registry for life may do more harm than good. The public nature of the registry makes it nearly impossible for convicted sex offenders to re-enter the community with the kind of support system they need to reduce their likelihood of committing another offence. Low-level offenders who pose little risk to the community are monitored in the same way as high-risk offenders, diluting police resources to concentrate on those, such as Garrido, who pose a high risk of committing another offence.”
To read more…
http://cfcoklahoma.org/New_Site/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=0&func=view&catid=21&id=2869#2869
And yet another quality article that points out the flaws of the sex offender registry system, this time from the Wall Street Journal. This article also shows that there are options available other than listing everyone convicted of a sex crime.
"There are now so many people on the registry it’s difficult for law enforcement to effectively track them all, and "it’s more helpful for law enforcement to know…who the highest-risk offenders are," said Janet Neeley, a deputy California attorney general and member of the state’s sex offender board."
"Under its law, California has chosen to use a program called Static 99, which categorizes sex offenders based on their likelihood to reoffend. To predict risk, it looks at things like the nature of the crime, the offender’s relationship with the victim and whether the offender has been able to form long-term intimate relationships."
Read more… http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125194251857582015.html