New York – Many state laws targeting convicted sex offenders violate the rights of people who pose little risk, a leading human-rights group said Wednesday. It called for repeal of laws restricting where these ex-offenders can live and for curbs on access to online registries.
Human Rights Watch depicted its report, two years in the making, as the first comprehensive study of U.S. sex-offender policies. It said many of the laws are of questionable value in protecting children from sex crimes, but expose offenders who have served their sentences to harassment and violence.
“These are laws that weren’t based on reason – they were based on a few horrific cases,” said Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. program at Human Rights Watch. “But it’s very difficult for politicians to demonstrate the courage to urge changes in these laws.”
The report, titled “No Easy Answers,” criticizes the three main categories of laws that have spread nationwide in the past 15 years: those that require registration of convicted sex offenders; create online registries accessible to the public; and impose residency restrictions that ban registered offenders from living near schools, parks and other designated facilities.
Concern about such laws, typically named after youthful victims, has grown in recent years. At least four homicides have been attributed to self-styled vigilantes who killed men listed on the registries, and some law enforcement officials contend that residency restrictions cause more problems than they solve by driving offenders away from jobs, relatives and treatment programs.
But support for the measures among politicians and the public remains high.
“Our first priority is for victims and future victims,” said California state Sen. George Runner, an author of get-tough legislation that – among other provisions – bars registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park.
Iowa is among more than 20 states with similar measures. But its law banning offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and child-care centers is now opposed by the state’s prosecutors, who say it is counterproductive.
“The residency law doesn’t have any tie to safety,” said Polk County Attorney John Sarcone.
Sarcone, based in Des Moines, said the law has backfired by forcing sex offenders to move out of their homes, sometimes living under bridges or in rest stops where it becomes more difficult for authorities to monitor them.
In Colorado, only Greenwood Village restricts where offenders can live, with a law passed in 2006. Lyons officials recently shot down a similar proposal, and Aurora put off debating one.
Human Rights Watch said the new laws often cover offenders who did not victimize children and sometimes deter them from getting treatment or maintaining supportive family contacts, the report said.
The report challenges some widespread perceptions about sex offenders.
For example, it says that while the state laws are focused on protecting children from sexual abuse by strangers, most abuse is committed by family members and trusted authority figures.
