Words have Power.

It’s time for a fact check. All advocates need to get on the same page. Our information is misleading and many times incorrect. For example of the new sex crimes that are committed those that are done by first-time offenders, that is people who have their first conviction in a sex crime, is according to the Department of Justice statistics is 99.973% ,not 95%, of the new sex crimes that are committed by first-time offenders (see graph) ( /wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/1994-97-Graph.jpg ). Also the re-offense rate for people on the registry is not 5.3%  REARREST or even 3.5% RECONVICTED it is in fact less than 1%. The data is out there advocates need to start pushing the fact that people on the registry

1. Have a reconviction rate of less than 1% and

2. Of the new sex crimes they are involved in less than 1%.

Even the latest Department of Justice study when actually looking at the hard numbers shows a Yearly re-offense rate of less than 1% /blog/2019/06/07/a-limited-study-done-by-the-department-of-justice-still-proves-that-registrants-have-the-lowest-re-offense-rate.html

This is not a new phenomena studies going back to pre-registry and pretreatment programs show a super low re-offense rate even back then. The Jack study done in 1962 tracked over 4000 offenders for over 15 years and showed a yearly re-offense rate of 2/10 of 1%

As the title indicates words do have power, recently advocates have been looking for proper terminology to describe the movement such as moving away from the term sex offender and changing it to Register Citizens. It is time we stop using the term re-offense rate and started using the correct term reconviction rate, after all in this country a person is not considered guilty until they have been convicted. It also throws into a stark light the difference between studies that use rearrest rates and those that use reconviction rates. If there is not a reconviction then the study violates the constitutional principles of innocent until proven guilty. This is the type of information that needs to be spread throughout the advocate community and especially passed along to attorneys who are involved in trying to restore our constitutional rights. 

Advocates need to point out that most of the studies are limited in nature by the types of crimes that are studied and the group that is involved. The only true study of re-convictions is if entire group that is made up by all people on the registry is studied not subcategories.

The media has found over the years that implying guilt because of an arrest can be very costly in several lawsuits.

That is why they are very careful about how they describe somebody who has been arrested of a crime. Why should that not be true for studies that imply because someone has been arrested that they are guilty of the crime.

As I’ve stated time and again one of the things that all attorneys in all court cases should be prepared for is to prove that there is no high reconviction rate or high recidivism. they should do this by presenting studies that show reconviction rate of less than 3% which is easy to do. they should also be prepared to  debunk any studies that show higher re-offense rate that the state tries to use to show high re-offense rates.

the interesting thing about this is that this can also be carried over into the legislatures by simply pointing out to the legislators that any study that they attempt to use to justify punitive laws had better meet the scientific method laid out in “Daubert” because if they don’t follow those strict guidelines then the  laws will be overturned in the courts making them look like the total idiots that some of them are.

Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical s, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), is a United States Supreme Court case determining the standard for admitting expert testimony in federal courts. The Daubert Court held that the enactment of the Federal Rules of Evidence implicitly overturned the Frye standard; the standard that the Court articulated is referred to as the Daubert standard.

After Daubert, it was expected that the range of scientific opinion evidence used in court would be expanded. However, courts have strictly applied the standards in Daubert, and it has generally been successful in excluding “junk science” or “pseudoscience”, as well as new or experimental techniques and research that the decision might have been expected to deem admissible.

Discerning between science and “pseudoscience” was the theme of a book by Karl Popper whose summary was quoted in Daubert: “the criterion of the scientific status of a theory is its falsifiability, or refutability, or testability.” The book, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (5th ed. 1989), pp. 34–57, explains how psychology is more like astrology than astronomy because it does not make predictions about an individual which are falsifiable. He wrote that “the impressive thing about” Einstein’s predictions “is the risk involved…If observation shows that the predicted effect is definitely absent, then the theory is simply refuted.” But “it was impossible to describe a human behaviour” which would be accepted as proving psychology false.



5 comments for “Words have Power.

  1. February 8, 2021 at 6:38 am

    BRAVO!!!! I always enjoy your articles. I am also a civil rights activist and advocate and I thank you for these figures. I have shown cases and some of your work (along with others) to the parole office and I have actually gotten positive feedback/, one being my former parole officer whom has quit due to the abuse we suffer and they are forced to dish out. In fact, he was my “inside man” and helped even when he stopped being my po. Oh some of the stuff I know. Woo Dogie!!!! His exact words were, “oh, my God. I didn’t know. This is bull$#@!! I am so sorry.” But one thing still causes problems. I do not have the sources of this information. Could you possibly tell me where you get them? Sayin something and proving it are two totally separate things and I like showing where I get my info. Thanks.

    • Tim in WI
      February 9, 2021 at 10:36 am

      As far as your reporting here about recidivism rates you are correct, but these statistics suggest the registries are working! If sex offender registries are functioning such that recidivism is reduced then there can be no reason to abolish them. The people will never consider the effectiveness you tout as unconstitutional.

      That so many claim to reject the notion of the people’s need for a database like the sex offender registry while pointing to facts that argue against abolishing it, proves just how plain ignorant you and most sex offenders are!
      With friends like you who needs enemies! Consider Connecticut Dept of Public Safety v Doe where a guy who complained to federal court about a lack procedural process in state action when he had already signed a State waiver via standardized plea arrangement in his sex case voluntarily, knowingly and intelligently a decade before!
      He lost 9-0! Go figure!

      No reasonable person can claim the people have no duty to maintain a database of duly convicted criminals! That is not where the unconstitutionality lays in respect to reason. That is the difference between having a database versus enslavement to or the improper indenture to maintain the database without opportunity to contest. Simply put FREE MEN ARE PAID TO MAINTAIN MACHINES!

      • Will Bassler
        February 10, 2021 at 4:35 pm

        The problem with your comment is the fact that the research shows that pre-registry the re-conviction rate was even lower and since AWA a went into effect the reconviction rate has increased to what it is now. The database and the public’s access to it has actually increased the number of people Who have committed prior sexual crimes to a higher level than pre-database But it is still less than 1%, it should be noted that the registry has not decreased the number of sexual conviction of first-time offenders one tiny little bit. So the registry has not stopped people who are not on the registry from committing new sex crimes nor has it in useful in lessening the people who are on the registry from committing new sex crimes. It is an out and out failure all the way around and when you take into consideration the fact that people who have paid their penalty for their crimes are having their lives and their family lives destroyed by this registry then it becomes obvious that this is another legislative failure

      • Bubba Joe
        March 22, 2021 at 3:28 pm

        Wow, the fact that you read the article but completely missed the whole point proves you’re absolute ignorance. The studies show that the registries have 0 effects on recidivism as well as stopping new crimes. Sounds like you get your self-worth from putting others down.

  2. Will Allen
    February 11, 2021 at 11:30 am

    Agree completely. Registry Supporters/Terrorists lie all the time. The anti-terrorist side, the moral side, should not do that. We should speak the truth and be smart and reasonable. The opposite of them.

    Personally, I believe to the bottom of my soul that there aren’t any smart, informed, moral people in America who think the Hit Lists are a good idea. There just aren’t.

    Absolutely it is inaccurate, stupid, and hateful to refer to people listed on the Hit Lists as “sex offenders”. That term has a valid use but it has nothing to do with the Hit Lists. Or I guess you could say something like, “Most people who are listed on the Hit Lists were probably sex offenders at some point in their lives.” Perhaps that. Dumb though.

    I don’t like “Registered Citizen” though. Sounds way too legitimate when there is nothing legitimate about it. I prefer “Person Forced to Register” and I use “PFR” nearly all the time now, without explanation. I do like PRPRH though as well, and it is completely accurate, being “Person Registered for Punishment, Restrictions, and Harassment”. That is what the Hit Lists are for, of course. It is a list of people to harass.

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