IV. Registration of Youth Offenders in Practice
After they have served out their sentences in juvenile detention or prison, youth sex offenders must comply with a complex array of legal requirements applicable to all sex offenders, whether children or adults. Under sex offender registration laws, youth offenders must register with law enforcement, providing their name, home address, place of employment, school address, a current photograph, and other personal information.
Perhaps the most onerous aspects of registration from the perspective of the youth offender are the community notification and residency restriction requirements, which can relegate a youth sex offender who has served their time to the margins of society. Under community notification laws, the police make registration information accessible to the public, typically via the Internet. And under residency restriction laws, youth sex offenders are prohibited from living within a designated distance of places where children gather, such as schools, playgrounds, parks, and even bus stops. These requirements can apply for decades or even a youth offender’s entire life.
Read in isolation, certain sex offender registration requirements may appear reasonable and insignificant to some. It is only once the totality of the requirements, their interrelationship, and their operation in practice are examined that their full impact can be understood.
Community Notification for Youth Offenders
Community notification involves publicizing information about persons on sex offender registries. States and the federal government provide information about sex offenders through publicly accessible websites. Communities are also notified about sex offenders in their area through public meetings, fliers, and newspaper announcements. Some jurisdictions have expanded notification to include highway billboards, postcards, lawn signs, and publicly available and searchable websites produced by private entities. One youth offender told Human Rights Watch, “I have to display a sign in my window that says
‘Sex Offender Lives Here’.”[130]
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A series of newspaper clippings that a father of two sons has collected over the years. The two sons are listed on the public sex offender registry for offenses committed when they were ages 9 and 11, and they were often publicly named in the local newspapers. © 2013 Mariam Dwedar/Human Rights Watch |
Community notification was initially reserved for offenders classified as having a high risk of reoffending. But today, every jurisdiction that registers sex offenders also makes publicly available certain information about them, regardless of individual risk classifications and irrespective of the fact that a registrant was a youth offender.
Community notification, as the term is commonly understood, embraces both the public disclosure of registrants’ information and the disclosure of the information to law enforcement officials only (the latter is often called “non-public” community notification). However, as discussed below, the capacity of states and law enforcement to protect the integrity of “non-public” community notification is eroding.
Public Disclosure of Child Registration Information
With the passage of SORNA in 2006, federal guidelines for community notification became more stringent, requiring that states post on publicly accessible websites the picture, home address, and location of the school and employer of certain categories of sex offenders—whether or not they were juveniles at the time of the offense. The state
websites are linked together via the National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW). [131]
Since 2007, the number of states subjecting children to community notification via the internet has grown as jurisdictions passed legislation to come into compliance with SORNA.[132] As noted by one expert, “[t]hat means on many state sex-offender web sites, you can find juveniles’ photos, names and addresses, and in some cases their birth dates and maps to their homes, alongside those of pedophiles and adult rapists.”[133]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) received hundreds of critical public comments about the treatment of children as adults for purposes of public notification.[134] Perhaps as a result, under the Supplemental SORNA Guidelines issued on January 11, 2011, DOJ allowed “jurisdictions to use their discretion to exempt information concerning sex offenders required to register on the basis of a juvenile delinquency adjudication from public Web site posting.”[135] However, as of January 2013, not one state previously deemed in compliance with SORNA went back to amend its laws to exempt children from public disclosure.[136]
As of 2011, most jurisdictions subjected children convicted of sex offenses in adult court to the same community notification regimes as adult sex offenders.[137] Fourteen states apply the same notification standards applied to adults to both children convicted in adult court and children adjudicated delinquent of sex offenses.[138] Other states give judges some discretion over which youth sex offenders are subject to community notification. Some jurisdictions permit youths to petition to be removed after a number of years. In some states, a juvenile adjudicated delinquent has to be 14 to be listed on public sex-offender registries. In others, children may be eligible for public Internet community notification at age 10, 11, or 12.[139] Handling of photographs varies as well by state: some jurisdictions do not post the picture of children unless they reoffend, while others post the image of a child upon their initial registration at ages as young as 9, 10, 12, or 14.
“Non-Public” Notification
Even in jurisdictions requiring disclosure of registry information only to law enforcement agencies (also known as “non-public” disclosure), a child’s information and picture can be, and often is, still disseminated publicly. Members of the public can obtain information on non-public registrants upon request and, with a few clicks of a button, widely disseminate a child’s photograph and personal information.
Youth sex offender registrants interviewed for this report described various ways in which their photographs and personal information were made public even when not posted on official state sex offender registration websites:
- Nicholas T. was placed on the registry at the age of 16 for the attempted rape of a younger neighbor.[140] He stated that “a member of the community made flyers that said ‘Beware – Sex Offender in the Neighborhood.’ The flyers, with my grade school picture, offense, and address, were posted all over the place.”[141]
- “My son, [Max B.], started registering at the age of 10 when he was found guilty of inappropriately touching his 8-year-old sister. The local police assured us that they would allow him to register as a non-public registrant until he turned 12. However, a few months after [Max] went on the registry, the local newspaper ran a Halloween story entitled ‘Know where the Monsters are Hiding,’ warning families to beware of the registered sex offenders in the neighborhood when taking their little ones out to go trick-or-treating. The article listed all the sex offenders in our town. [Max’s] name and address was listed.”[142]
- The police in a small town in Illinois created a “Wall of Shame” containing photographs, names, and addresses of all the registered sex offenders in the area, including child registrants and those deemed low-risk and subject to law-enforcement registration only. People from the town frequently visit the police station to check out the wall of shame.[143]
Official sex offender registration information is also available for purchase or use by private security companies, which sometimes create their own searchable web-based sex offender registries. Companies such as Offendex (also known as The Official Sex Offender Archive©) and HomeFacts (also known as RealtyTrac Holdings, LLC™) transfer all state sex offender registration information, including registrant pictures and addresses, to their websites, iPhone/Droid Android applications, or Facebook, to be searched freely by anyone. These companies appear to take no responsibility for deleting records of persons removed from the registry.[144] The Offendex website indicates that the company distinguishes itself from official government records because it includes “both current and past sex offender records nationwide.”[145] Stating that “[e]ven if the sex offender is not required to register that does not mean the record itself goes away [sic]. The information is still public and available through many court and private databases nationwide.”[146]
A newspaper clipping that a father retained regarding the location of sex offenders on Halloween. According to the law, on Halloween registered sex offenders must remain inside their homes, turn the porch light off, and place a sign in their yard that states, “No candy at this residence.” Local police officers also make home visits to ensure compliance. © 2013 Mariam Dwedar/Human Rights Watch.
Maya R.Maya R., now age 28 and a resident of Michigan, was arrested at the age of 10 for sexual experimentation. “Me and my step brothers, who were ages 8 and 5, ‘flashed’ each other and play-acted sex while fully-clothed.”[147] A year later, Maya pled guilty to the charges of criminal sexual conduct in the first and second degree, offenses that required her to register as a sex offender for 25 years.[148] In court proceedings, Maya told the judge that she engaged in sexual activity with both boys. However, she says she lied in court to get away from her stepmother.[149] Maya was committed to a girl’s juvenile prison and spent 18 months there. “I successfully completed the treatment program and was released back into the community.”[150] Upon her return, she says, she felt like a stranger. “[W]hen I was arrested I was in the sixth grade. When I returned from prison I was in the ninth grade. I was on probation from 1998 to 2002 while I attended high school. I also wrote for my school’s newspaper, sang in the choir, performed in theatre, was involved with Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD), and was the president of Diversity Club.”[151] In 1999, when Maya turned 18, her photograph and name were added to the state sex offender public website.[152] In Michigan all children, whether adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court or tried as adults, must register.[153] While children adjudicated delinquent are still under 18 years of age, juvenile registration and included materials are exempt from the public notification requirements.[154] However, public registration is required when the child, adjudicated for certain sexual offenses, turns 18 years old.[155] As a result of being placed on the public registry, Maya was fired from her job. “Despite the setback, I graduated high school in 2002 with academic and leadership honors and took the next step of applying to college,” she said.[156] In her freshman year of college, Maya lived in the campus dormitory. She says she “found angry messages taped to her dorm room door and received threatening instant messages.”[157] She eventually had to move out of the dorm. “Even more stressful than students in the dorms telling me to ‘move out or else,’ was the constant inability to find and keep employment.”[158]Maya moved into off campus housing but quickly ran out of money and could not get a job. Maya said she was forced to drop out of college. “Without student loans to survive off of, I lived in a homeless shelter for about 90 days, I was told by managers at Subway, Burger King, and McDonalds, ‘We don’t hire sex-offenders,’ I was without a car, and also could not afford a cell phone.”[159] Maya told us, “Being on the registry has caused much stress and frustration in my life. The laws make it very difficult for me locate places where I can live. Once while attempting to register my address, a police officer refused to give me the paperwork and instead stated, ‘We’re just taking your kind out back and shooting them.’ This comment, coupled with not being able to get an internship, or a job, all contributed to me falling into a depression, which still comes and goes depending on the discrimination I experience each day.”[160] Despite her the sex offender label, Maya continued to try to find ways to succeed. She worked as a missionary and taught English overseas. While abroad, she fell in love and married a Filipino man. As of early 2013, Maya and her husband were living in Michigan with a two-year-old girl and a baby boy on the way. |
[130] Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Nicholas T., August 26, 2012.
[131] The National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW), located at www.nsopw.gov, was created by the US Department of Justice in 2005. The NSOPW works like a search engine by pulling information that is placed by states and local jurisdictions on their own public websites; it does not independently verify that information. US Department of Justice, Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking (SMART), “Sex Offender Registration and Notification in the United States: Current Case Law and Issues,” July 2012.
[132]To the best of our knowledge, it appears that seven states (Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, Tennessee, and Wyoming) changed their laws between 2007 and 2012 to require that children be subjected to community notification via the internet. In December 2012, Pennsylvania enacted SORNA and included children on the registry for the first time; however, the new law does not require children to be posted on the web.
[133] Maggie Jones, “How Can You Distinguish a Budding Pedophile From a Kid With Real Boundary Problems?” New York Times Magazine, July 22, 2007 (interviewing Brenda V. Smith, author of Breaking the Code of Silence: A Correction Officer's Handbook on Identifying and Addressing Staff Sexual Misconduct with Offenders, US Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections Project on Addressing Prison Rape, DC (June 2007)).
[134] 76 F.R. 1632. Official Public Comments to the National Guidelines for Sex Offender Registration and Notification, 73 Fed. Reg. 38030, July 2, 2008, https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2011/01/11/2011-505/supplemental-guidelines-for-sex-offender-registration-and-notification#h-9 (accessed March 21, 2013). Several comments focused on how, as a society, Americans generally refuse to punish the nation’s youth as harshly as they do other adults, or to hold them to the same level of culpability as people who are older and more mature. The avowed priority of the US juvenile justice system (in theory if not always in practice) has, historically, been rehabilitation rather than retribution. Juvenile proceedings by and large take place away from the public eye, and delinquency adjudications do not become part of a young person’s permanent criminal record.
[135]42 U.S.C. §16901 (2006), et seq. All United States Code references are current as of December 2012. Two sets of guidelines have been issued to assist in the implementation of SORNA. The National Guidelines for Sex Offender Registration and Notification, 73 Fed. Reg. 38030 (July 2, 2008) [hereinafter Final Guidelines], and the Supplemental Guidelines for Sex Offender Registration and Notification, 76 Fed. Reg. 1630 (Jan. 11, 2011) [hereinafter Supplemental Guidelines]. SORNA’s minimum standards require that jurisdictions register juveniles who were at least 14 years old at the time of the offense and who have been adjudicated delinquent for committing (or attempting or conspiring to commit) a sexual act with another by force, by the threat of serious violence, or by rendering unconscious or drugging the victim. “Sexual Act” is defined in 18 U.S.C. §2246. The Supplemental Guidelines for Sex Offender Registration and Notification give jurisdictions full discretion over whether they will post information about juveniles adjudicated delinquent of sex offenses on their public registry website. Supplemental Guidelines, supra note 6 at 1636-37.
[136] United States Governmental Accountability Office, GAO-13-211 Report on the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act to the US House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, February 2013.
[137] Quyen Nguyen, Nicole Pittman, and Kirsten Rønholt, “Executive Report: A Snapshot of Juvenile Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws,” Pennsylvania Juvenile Defenders, July 27, 2011, http://www.pajuvdefenders.org/file/snapshot.pdf (accessed March 21, 2013), pp. 44-53.
[138] Ibid.
[139] Ibid.
[140] Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Nicholas T., August 26, 2012.
[141] Ibid.
[142] Human Rights Watch interview with Bruce W., Texas, May 1, 2012.
[143] Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Mary S., February 22, 2012.
[144] A disclaimer on the HomeFacts website states, “No representation is made that the person listed here is currently on the state’s offenders registry…. Owners of Homefacts.com assume no responsibility (and expressly disclaim responsibility) for updating this site to keep information current or to ensure the accuracy or completeness of any posted information.” HomeFacts, http://www.homefacts.com/offenders.html (accessed March 21, 2013).
[145] See HomeFacts “Terms of Use,” http://www.homefacts.com/termsofuse.html (accessed March 21, 2013).
[146] See, for example, Offendex home page, http://offenders.offendex.com/ (accessed March 21, 2013).
[147] Human Rights Watch interview with Maya R., Howell, Michigan, February 2, 2012; at the time of the offense, second-degree criminal sexual conduct was defined as indecent exposure such as public urination, public nudity (flashing breasts etc.), and lewd behavior in public and a violation of Mich. Crim. Laws § 750.520c(1)(b).
[148] Human Rights Watch interview with Maya R., March 18, 2013.
[149]Ibid.; see Katie Walmsley, “NJ Case Raises Questions About Meghan’s Laws ,” ABC News, July 27, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/US/nj-case-raises-questions-meghans-laws/story?id=14171897 (accessed March 21, 2013).
[150] Human Rights Watch interview with Maya R., March 18, 2013.
[151] Ibid.
[152] Ibid.
[153] Michigan Compiled Laws (MCL) § 28.721, et seq. describes confidentiality; exemption from disclosure of juvenile offenders.
[154]See MCL 28.728(2) and In re Ayres, 239 Mich App 8, 12 (1999).
[155] See MCL 28.728(2) and In re Ayres, 239 Mich App 8, 12 (1999).
[156] Human Rights Watch interview with Maya R., March 18, 2013.
[157] Ibid.
[158] Ibid.
[159] Ibid.
[160] Human Rights Watch interview with Maya R., March 18, 2013.
