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The Problem With Sex Offender Registries

By Michael Blankenship

As a teenager, Ricky Blackman carried an Oklahoma driver's license with the words "sex offender" stamped in red below his picture. His crime? Having sex with a 13-year-old girl when he was 16. The offense occurred when he lived in Iowa, and the label followed him to Oklahoma. As a Tier 3 offender on Oklahoma's sex offender registry, Blackman could not attend high school, visit the town library, or go to his younger brother's football games. But the label did more than limit where Blackman could go. It transformed him from an outgoing, sociable jock into an introvert who has trouble trusting people, his mother says. Read more... The case of Mr. Blackman is far from typical. It represents some of the worst in policy making - an overreaction to an issue that ends up being counterproductive...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Justice Gambit on February 11, 2010 (boomark / email).