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Should very young sex offenders be placed on a registry?

By Douglas A. Berman

These two notable pieces from yesterday's Dallas Morning News prompts the question in the title of this post: Justice experts say sex offender registry ruins a juvenile's 2nd chance Sex-offender label on boys unravels family's lives Here is how the first of these pieces gets started: The faces of child sex offenders are startling ? chubby cheeks, big eyes, a mop of hair, or wispy strands held back with barrettes. The descriptions on Texas' public registry are equally jolting: 4 feet tall, 65 pounds; 4 feet, 2 inches, 70 pounds.  "Those are not the people that we're walking around terrified of," says Michele Deitch, a University of Texas law professor. The inclusion of children as young as 10 on the state's public sex offender registry is a little-known policy ? even to juvenile justice experts such as Deitch...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 20, 2009 (boomark / email).