The statistics today are about the same as in 1991 - only about one-quarter of all reported rapes in California result in an arrest, and there are very few convictions. One indication of the need for a new approach is how little has changed since Dugard was abducted. There also is less money for rape-investigation units, evidence testing and other tools that could help apprehend rapists who never reach the status of convicted offender. So pouring scarce resources into monitoring all convicted offenders means less money for programs to prevent sexual violence and to counsel victims. The systems monitor those who pose little risk to the community the same as high-risk offenders, like Garrido, whose crimes escaped detection even though he checked in as required.įurthermore, an estimated 87 percent of sex crimes each year are committed by individuals without a prior sex-crime conviction. ![]() The public nature of the registry makes it nearly impossible for convicted sex offenders to re-enter the community with the kind of support system they need to reduce the likelihood of their committing another offense. Placing all convicted sex offenders on a registry for life could do more harm than good. We have to consider the possibility that our policies on sexual violence do not protect us, have not increased the number of offenders brought to justice and waste precious resources in the fight against rape and sexual assault.įocusing so many resources on registration and community notification ignores the reality of sexual violence in the United States.įirst, there is the problem of the registries themselves. Lawmakers have poured a tremendous amount of resources into these programs with strong public support.īut the fact that Jaycee Dugard's captivity in Antioch was never detected, even though her abductor, Phillip Craig Garrido, was on California's sex-offender registry, raises serious questions about these systems. It was every parent's worst nightmare.ĭuring the 18 years Jaycee was missing, in the aftermath of a series of horrendous crimes against children, California legislators and their counterparts across the nation addressed the problem of sexual violence primarily by establishing and expanding registration and community notification requirements for convicted sex offenders.Ĭourts, policymakers and the public operated on the assumption that sex-offender laws worked and were worth the money, even if they meant diverting resources from prevention efforts. In 1991, her stepfather watched helplessly as 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard was abducted while walking to her school bus stop near their home in Northern California.
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