An excerpt from the beginning of a fantastic article out of Oregon by Kristina Knittel, a graduate of the UO law school, where she studied child advocacy law. Formerly an instructor for child sexual abuse prevention, she serves as a child and family advocate through her professional and volunteer work in the areas of trauma and resilience. She lives in Bend.
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As an advocate for survivors of abuse and as someone who has personally been impacted by sexual violence, I care deeply about true accountability for offenders, prevention of new harm and the safety and healing of our communities. Because of those priorities and values, I was alarmed at The Register Guard’s editorial that advocated for a public safety policy that is disconnected from what we know works, does not keep our communities safe and fails to support families’ healing.
The overwhelming consensus from experts across the board is that sex offender registries do not to make communities safer. In one of the largest nationwide studies using the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report data, researchers found that after implementation of sex offender registration and notification laws, 70% of states experienced no change or saw an increase in the incidences of sexual assaults.
It’s simply not a sensible public safety policy. There are a number of reasons why the lists do not work. First, 95% of sex crimes are committed by people who would not be on any sex offender registry, even with full compliance. About 93% of sex crimes against children are committed by people close to that child…………..
Source: Guest View: Sex offender registries poor safety policy – Opinion – The Register-Guard – Eugene, OR