Friday, January 24, 2014

The Collateral Effects of Evolving Sex Laws on Sexual Circumstances -Too Often- Result in Deaths of Innocent People

The report below has direct links back into the "Other Deaths" blog where articles are held. Over time, as we post more articles to that blog, the blog may show higher numbers than this report shows, simply due to more cases of Other Deaths.
February 2011:

This is the second of my trilogy of reports examining deaths related to the effects of sex laws and incidents of sexual circumstances over the past ten years. The sex laws that are purposed to prevent future sex abuses (i.e., no more victims), but as this report shows, they have a down side effect, other victims. This report is about the "Other Deaths," deaths lawmakers seemingly ignore, past a fleeting headline! This report as of February 2011 covers 98 cases 133 deaths; none of them are former sex offenders.

These are the "Hidden Victims" whose deaths are somehow related to a sex crime, an sexual accusation or simple beliefs of a crime or who the person may be, or a former offender. The victims here are the innocent victims that no government report recognizes as being tied to sex abuse policies; innocent folks who died. The most recent "Other Deaths" tragedy resulted in the deaths of three police officers in Florida and a fetal death!

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS:
  • 25% of the 133 other deaths were children;
  • 22% of the 98 cases had multiple deaths;
  • 47% of the cases originated in 6 states (Arizona, California, Texas, Michigan, Florida and Washington);
  • 83% of the cases occurred from 2006 on, which happens to be when the Adam Walsh Act was enacted;
  • 2 cases involved murders of children of former sex offenders, and 5 cases involved deaths of law enforcement officers;
  • Guns were used in 51 of the 98 cases;
  • Underlying suicides accounted for 28% of all other deaths cases;
  • Children in close proximity to persons newly accused of a sex crime people who have no history of a prior sex crime, but who committed suicide, were MOST likely to be killed by the person accused. However, when a former sex offender committed suicide, children were LEAST likely to be killed by them. i.e., 15 to 3.
Our Topic Blog tracks "Other Deaths" as national Journalists report the stories. These deaths are folks who were, in some way, associated with someone who: A) has previously committed a sex offense; -or- B) someone newly accused of a sex offense who has no history of sex offenses; -or- C) has been mistakenly thought to have committed a sex offense or be an offender; -or- D) sadly, a number of strange circumstances.
Every case stems from incidents of sexual circumstances, or a former sex offender's case. Stories will shock your being, a newborn buried in concrete to hide a crime, likewise a mother killing her child to cover-up the fact she had relations with a minor. A child of a former sex offender, opens the front door of his home and is shot in the face, a man whose stepdaughter just accused him of sexual abuse, takes his family for a ride and commits suicide by driving into an oncoming truck killing five. A woman taunts an former offender about his status as an offender, is killed by that former offender. A man erroneously believes his neighbor has molested his child, breaks into the neighbor's home and stabs him to death while he slept. Ninety-eight stories, ninety-eight sets of circumstances resulting in 133 deaths!
The entire topic of sex abuse has far-reaching effects. Often, years after the -specific or alleged- sex crime has occurred. Even people in the community have caused deaths when fueled by accusations and false beliefs. Remember, if an incident involved a former offender, and some do, the death of the former offender is not counted in these statistics.

The Statistics:

Table-1: Distribution of Cases/Deaths

76 Caseswhere 1 person died = 76 deaths (See Deaths 1)
13 Caseswhere 2 people died = 26 deaths (See Deaths 2)
5 Caseswhere 3 people died = 15 deaths (See Deaths 3)
4 Caseswhere 4 people died = 16 deaths (See Deaths 4)
98 Cases 
22% of the cases had multiple deaths, and represented 43% of all other deaths

Table-2: Gender/Sex of Victims

1 Fetal Death(See Fetus)
32 Children Died(See Sum of: Child (22); Child of FSO (2); Child1 (6); Child2 (2)
42 Women died(See Sum of: Women (36); Women1 (5); Women2 (1)
58 Men died(See Sum of: Men (55); Men1 (3);
133 Deaths 
25% of the 133 other deaths were children and,
5 cases where Law Enforcement Officers died.

Table-3: Years When Deaths Occurred

OlderCases:1989(1)1993(1)1996 (1)
2001 (1)2003(3)2004 (5)2005 (5)2006 (15)
2007 (9)2008 (12)2009 (25)2010 (17)2011 (3)
83% of the cases occurred from 2006 on, which happens to be when the Adam Walsh Act was enacted

Table-4: States Where Deaths Occurred

Alabama (2)
Arizona (6)
California (11)
Colorado (2)
Connecticut (4)
Delaware (1)Florida (8)Georgia (2)Hawaii (2)Idaho (1)
Illinois (3)Indiana (3).Kansas (1)Kentucky (1)Maine (1)
Maryland (1)Massachusetts (2)Michigan (7)Missouri (3)Montana (1)
Nevada (1)New Jersey (1)New York (4)North Carolina (1)Ohio (2)
Oklahoma (2)Pennsylvania (4)South Carolina (1)Tennessee (3)Texas (8)
Virginia (1)Washington (6)Wisconsin (2)  
47% of the cases originated in 6 states (Arizona, California, Texas, Michigan, Florida and Washington)

Table-5: Person Responsible For Deaths

by Person - Former Offender (23)by Inmates (4);
by Acquaintances (17);by Fathers (3);
by Person - Accused of Offense (13)by Mothers (1);
by Victims (10);
by Public Servants (1);
by Vigilantes (10);
by Sex Trafficker (1);
by Family Members (7);
by Bikers Against Child Abuse (1);
by Neighbors (5);
by Unknown (2);


Table-6: Manner of Death

Gunshot (51)
Dismembering (1)
Blunt Force Trauma (9)
Driving car into police car (1)
Stabbed (15)
Driving car into truck (1)
Strangulation (9)
Drowning (1)
Arson of Home (1)
Hammer (1)
Bat - All Types (2)
Throats Slashed (1)
Buried in Concrete (1)
.


WHEN THERE ARE ACCUSATIONS: This is one of the shocking discoveries of this report, 52 of the 98 cases were triggered by an accusation. Eight cases had actual charges filed, fourteen cases someone alleged abuse at some point in their life, and, twenty-three cases were triggered by someone "believing" a person was a child molester, sex offender or had committed a sex offense of some kind; a belief, and no more than a belief. The remainder were miscellaneous odd reasons. Yes, it was hard to decide where a underlying case should be grouped, but we believe these groups reflect reality.

WHEN THERE WERE UNDERLYING SUICIDES: Twenty-seven suicides: 13 persons had no history of a sex crime, and 14 were former sex offenders. The 13 suicides were all folks charged with a new sex offense, but the same was not true of the 14 former sex offenders.
Six of the former sex offender suicides were breakups of relationships formed after prison; two FSOs were suspects in new crimes (one a murder and the other a sex crime); one FSO was obsessed with a teen who he killed, one FSO was despondent and killed his girlfriend and himself in a murder-suicide, finally there are four FSO cases where there is no way to speculate what caused them to commit suicide.
Table-7: Deaths that Resulted from Underlying Suicides

 Total:Children:Adults:
13 Non Sex Offenders:251510
14 Former Sex Offenders:21318
Accordingly, these 27 cases resulted in 46 "Other Deaths," 35% of all "Other Deaths."
Possible sex offender pre-trial suicides have been recognized only in one paper by a U.S. Government Agency. New Defendants, New Responsibilities: Preventing Suicide among Alleged Sex Offenders in the Federal Pretrial System. Just recently "British researchers have discovered in a study that criminal proceedings, even when not ending in a jail sentence, leads to a high risk of suicide."

More importantly for Lawmakers to consider is, that when a person is accused of a sex crime, and that person has no prior history of a sex crime, if children are in close proximity to the daily life of the accused, those children are in danger. This report documented the deaths of 15 children under those circumstances.
Conclusion:
Accusations and suicides seem to be at the heart of this paper, but, lest anyone jump to, former sex offenders are the reason, former sex offenders were only involved in 30 of the 98 cases. So, what is causing the hypersensitivity to sexual issues, so much so, that, many are moved to commit the ultimate act which laws are purposed to prevent. Was it rhetoric that caused the circumstances in Arizona and a Congresswoman to be shot and other people murdered, including a young girl? Is rhetoric behind these accusations and suicides, is society being pressured by policy? These questions still need further examination.

A few more examples, three cases the wrong person was targeted, in 10 cases the offender alleged sexual abuses and may have done so as a defense to the murder charges. Two cases appeared to be execution styled. Eight cases were believed to be extremely violent, only 1 of them by a former sex offender and in that case, a Georgia residency law played a part in the death of a child (a former sex offender's child).

There is no doubt this paper represents complicated issues, and other than the actual statistics, some of the findings may be subjective, but one is not, that is, that 83% of the cases have occurred since the enactment of the Adam Walsh Act in 2006, which followed other similar politically and not therapeutically based policies.

This should be a wakeup call to lawmakers, today's laws may very well be generating hidden public pressures causing average people to do things they might not otherwise do. i.e., kill someone, and some before allowing the Criminal Justice System to act. Study the innocent victims here, we have documented 133 deaths of innocent people!

Finally, these are the stories Journalists have reported, how many others have fallen through cracks, lest national sex offender policy be brought into question?

© Sex Offender Research 2011, All Rights Reserved!

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Sex Offender Laws: And the harm that flows from them

December 2013:
The intent of this first ever report is simply to consolidate incident numbers that have occurred over the years, 1990 through 2013. Individually many of the incidents were horrific, and the numbers do not reflect what has occurred by the public vigilante-minded folks; only the individual stories will!

The individual news or other credible reports can be reviewed by going to the specific blogs that contain the stories: Murder Archives; Murders Current; Suicides; Vigilantism; Related Deaths.

To fully understand the blogs you will have to read each blog's "Overview" without doing that it is easy to misconstrue specific reports found in the blogs. The blogs are the result of years of documentation of news or other credible reports of the incidents.

The Deaths column represents murders and killings of registered and accused sex offenders. It is important not to misrepresent what that column means. Based on the circumstances of individual incidents, some would be murders, and others killed better explain the circumstances.

Deaths, Suicides, Vigilantism and Related Deaths
Early 1990 through 2013

YearDeathsSuicidesVigilantismRelated Deaths **
20134751335/9
2012821061315/20
201161862815/21
201046763320/31
2009611045329/37
200847854712/17
20073284629/10
200639424316/23
Sub-Total:415634312121/168
 
20051926316/7
20042213296/9
2003102113/3
Sub-Total:51417115/19
 
20021380/0
20010221/1
20004330/0
Earlier1514184/4
Sub-Total:2022315/5
 
Total:486697414141/192
Chart Notes:

1) Court Actions: Publicly demonizing those forced into registries.
2003: U.S. Supreme court cases: Legalizing sex offender registries. Connecticut Dept Of Public Safety V Doe and Smith v Doe. These cases set in motion the permanent social death of registrants, even if they could get off the registry, their community still knows.

2006: The Adam Walsh Act: Immediately inciting the public and registrants! If you disagree, study the chart there is no way to dispute the number of incidents; 2003 to 2005 (U.S. Supreme court case era), and 2006 and beyond (The Adam Walsh Act era). The number of incidents more than double in later years.

2) Murders of Registrant Family Members: Within the "Related Deaths" column of incidents are these murders of registrant family members by someone outside of their family.
Tennessee 2007: Wife of Accused Sex Offender; Georgia 2007: Son of a Registered Sex Offender; Florida 2009: Son of a Registered Sex Offender; South Carolina 2013: Wife of a Registered Sex Offender.
3) Related Deaths**: Innocent folks whose lives touched on the life of a registered or accused sex offender or a sex offense, and that relationship somehow led to their deaths. We have recorded 141 incidents in which 192 persons have been killed. And some were police officers killed in the line of duty. There is no easy way to summarize any of these incidents. You would have to review the Related Deaths blog.

4) The incidents in the "Deaths" column (Years 2012 and earlier) are more fully explained in our 2012 report HERE. We have yet to consolidate similar reports for Suicides, Vigilantism or Related Deaths (UPDATE: We found a 2011 report of Related Deaths which we forgot about).

--- Vigilantism ---

How have we defined this? Well, it is far to long to include here, so we suggest folks review our definitions. Once you review that you will have a better understanding where we are coming from, and just in case you missed this, the Adam Walsh Act, a federal law, says the following:

The Adam Walsh Act:
Section 118(f) (42 USC 16918(f))

(f) WARNING.—The site (registry) shall include a warning that information on the site should not be used to unlawfully injure, harass, or commit a crime against any individual named in the registry or residing or working at any reported address. The warning shall note that any such action could result in civil or criminal penalties.
The essence of that provision is that, Congress Protects
a Registrant's Person, Residence and Place of Employment
and Commands States do likewise.

In the following chart you will see many violations of the essence of that federal law as well as many other laws which protect all citizens. So, in future years we will be focusing on the "Vigilantism" aspect of what is happening in society. Vigilantism does not include reported "Deaths" or "Suicides." So as a starting point we have redesigned our vigilantism blog. This chart reflects what public vigilante-minds have done in the past, and to who or what? Unfortunately there are no news reports of the subtle vigilantism that goes on day to day in registrants' lives.

Vigilantism: Who or What was Targeted
% of Total Incidents Person, Place or Thing
in the Community
No. of Incidents
20%Non Sex Offenders (These folks have no history of a sex offense conviction.)84
37.4%Registered Sex Offenders156
.2%Registered Sex Offender's Family1
4.6%Registered Sex Offender:
Related Businesses
19
1.4%Registered Sex Offenders' Cars6
10.6%Registered Sex Offenders' Homes44
13.9%Accused Sex Offenders58
 
% of Total IncidentsIn Jails or PrisonsNo. of Incidents
7.9%Registered Sex Offender Inmates33
3.6%Accused Sex Offender Inmates15

What is the difference between a "Non sex offender (NSO)" and an "Accused sex offender (ASO)," a subtle distinction. If it is clear from the news article that the person has never been convicted of a sex offense, and it is likely someone mistakenly chose the person, then we opted for NSO. However, if the article presents facts that cause a reasonable person to lean towards the likelihood that the accused person is guilty of the act, then we opted for ASO. Now, as we gather facts about an incident, more news reports, that distinction can flip flop, we then make the change.

In order to group incidents it takes reasonable judgment based on the news reports. And it is also possible a later news report will say, the accused really had a prior conviction for a sex offense, then the coding switches to RSO. But, most importantly is what was the perpetrator targeting, if for example it was the person's home (i.e., arson) then that is used in coding.

OK, should readers have other questions a review of the blogs should answer them. Next year this time we hope to follow with a similar report.

For now have a great day and a better tomorrow.
eAdvocate

Sex Offender Research, All Rights Reserved! © 2013
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