RSOL: The Statement Explained

Reform Sex Offender Laws (RSOL) has 2 broad purposes:

1. To call on our society to come to its senses in the way it deals with the very real problem of sexual violation of children. We advocate reason and justice rather than moral panic
2. To abolish the punitive sex offender registry, residency restriction, and civil commitment laws that endanger our society as they stigmatize, shame and unfairly ruin the lives of registered children and adults and their families.

RSOL seeks to detach illegal sexual behavior - including the devastating forms it sometimes takes - from the hysteria now rampant in the country so that it can be dealt with effectively and fairly. Any society that carries out a witch hunt to deal with any major social problem casts justice and rationality to the winds, guarantees large numbers of false accusations and false convictions, substitutes false beliefs for science, and devours itself and its children.

There could be no better example of how an hysteria works than the way our country dealt with the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Here was a major crisis. Instead of solving it we whipped ourselves into a frenzy and engaged in the lunacy advocated by top officials in the media and government by going to war against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and posed no threat whatever to the United States. Present and future generations have just begun to bear the human and financial costs of this trillion dollar debacle. And yet, we continue to view a number of our major problems through the lens of panic, hysteria and demonization.

In the case of sexual violation of children, it is the atmosphere of fear and panic and the proliferation of laws based on this hysteria that pose serious danger to the well-being of our society and to young people themselves. This assertion is true for young people whose lives and whose family's lives are destroyed by being labeled a sex offender, for children whose parent is demonized and denied employment or housing after serving his sentence, and for all children for whom the irrational fear of all men is held up as a positive virtue.

The policies called for by RSOL are best expressed in its "Statement" signed by 900 people across the country. Signatories are not sex offenders. They are people from all walks of life who see the need to call attention to the dangers posed by sex offender registries and related laws and who call for radical reform of these laws. Paraphrasing from this Statement, RSOL advocates the following:

• Abolish sex offender registries for those who have completed their sentences and abolish registries that publicly shame offenders on probation or parole. (In cases of coercive sex crimes, especially against children, and with a specific finding of likelihood to re-offend despite having completed one's sentence, registration tailored to the specific circumstances may be required. But there would be no postings on the internet). Rather, support carefully limited laws that target harmful acts, not whole classes of people, and which rehabilitate rather than vindictively punish and shame people.
• Abolish life-time civil commitment for sex offenders who have completed their sentences (Again, in cases of violent offenses and specific findings of a likelihood to re-offend, carefully constructed court hearing with medical advice and full due process should determine if the person may be further incarcerated for a short time with regular review. The ultimate goal must be an offender's return to the community when they are not likely to offend, rather than lifetime commitment)
• Stop public vilification and demonization of sex offenders in media and public discourse, particularly by the mis-use of the term "pedophile". In addition, hysteria about defending children from a violent rapist has broadened to a wider hysteria about all sex offenders even though the vast majority of sex offenders pose no danger to children. But demonization is destructive even when applied to truly violent offenders.
• Help sex offenders re-enter society by abolishing universal residency restrictions and measures that make it virtually impossible to find a job. Encourage support groups and provide help with finding housing, employment and effective treatment before their release and afterward
• Implement measures that protect society and its children from the dangers of sexual harm. But children need to be protected as well from other forms of abuse that traumatize millions of kids every day but are usually ignored in the sex abuse crusade: homelessness, malnutrition, poverty, inadequate health care and discrimination.
• De-criminalize all consensual sexual activities among teenagers.
• Stop all required sex offender registration for minors.
• Abolish any laws that provide the death penalty or life in prison without parole for sex offenders.
• Provide accurate information and support valid research about sex offender characteristics and recidivism rates in order to effectively protect children and respect due process.