Written by: Susan Estrich
Date: June 18, 2006
Publisher: FoxNews
"The criminal law is the will of the majority."
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"Schools struggle with teacher sex cases"
Written by: Kim Smith
Date: September 20, 2002
Publisher: Las Vegas Sun
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"Reporting the Unthinkable: Sex Between Teachers and Students"
Written By: George A. Clowes
Date: February 1, 1999
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
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"Megan's Law registries all over the map in N.J."
Written by: Tom Troncone
Date: Dec 27, 2006
Published by: North Jersey Media Group (The Record and Herald News)
"Statewide, 23 percent of registered sex offenders are included in the Internet database." In some counties in New Jersey, it is as little as 8%.
Mediaskeptic: "The reason, according to a Monmouth County judge who oversees the Megan's Law judges in every county, lies with individual prosecutors' offices. "(That's a distortion of the process. See pages 8-9 of the report linked below for a view of how the judge makes the final decision, and the prosecutor AND the registrant get an input into the decision.) "
The article was based on data from the state's annual Megan's Law implementation report.
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"Sexual Misconduct by School Employees"
Written by: Brad Goorian
Date: December 1999
Published In: Clearinghouse on Educational Policy and Management, Digest 134
Summary: "Sexual misconduct in schools is a problem that can devastate students, parents, school districts, and entire communities. Acknowledging the problem, educating for it, and following common-sense policies can go a long way to ridding our schools of sexual misconduct."
Mediaskeptic: My problem with academics who use the term "sexual misconduct" is that the term is morally neutral and ignores the fact that the conduct, when criminal, should be called more properly "sexual abuse." It is the same problem that makes Charol Shakeshaft's paper for DoE so ineffective. Insisting on referring to such conduct in morally neutral terms is to deny victims a sense of outrage and to absolve the perpetrators from guilt. This is, primarily, because academics have a vested interest in inclusion of "sexual harassment" in their studies in order to include what people are beginning to understand is purely a [politically motivated] gender or gender equity issue into the larger issue of sexual abuse in schools.
The effect is to equate sexual harassment with child molestation to further a political agenda.
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"Sex offender's life in limbo
Written by: Lisa Grzyboski
Date: December 27, 2006
Published In: Courier Post
Sexual offender prevented from living where he wants to because the township council unanimously approved an ordinance that bans sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet -- the length of more than eight football fields -- of any school, park, playground, public library or day-care center. Law is being contested.
Mediaskeptic: Another in a line of sob stories in a media campaign to restrict communities from enacting laws prohibiting sexual predators or sexual offenders from living in proximity to likely victims. In other words, laws designed to reduce the temptation for the perpetrator and the danger to children. This is a "have pity" story for a person who was a repeat offender.
A factor that may be impelling communites to act is that New Jersey has a problem with effective online sex registry in order to warn the public, with some counties posting as few of 8% of those eligible on their web sites. See Megan's Law -- New Jersey article.
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"Dealing with Sex Offenders"
Written by: Unsigned
Date: Undated (guessing November 2005 from the url)
Published In: The Ohio State Principal's Office
Someone's done their homework in researching Ohio's legal definitions of sexual predator, sexual offender and their classifications as well as state laws, and the state sex registry, complete with links.
This is an online site, a partnership with Ohio State University's P-12 Project, the Interprofessional Commission of Ohio, and four Central Ohio school districts, to educate and inform principals.
Mediaskeptic: Well-written, concise and informative. If you live in Ohio, you should check out. All states should have such ready references for their educators and parents.
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"Prosecutions toughen up"
CHILD PORN CASES Law enforcement authorities are using more aggressive tools
Written by: Mark Morris
Date: Dec 26, 2006
Published In: Kansas City Star
Prosecutions here have mushroomed in the last five in child exploitation prosecutions. Charges include child pornography counts, enticing minors for illegal sex, distributing obscenity to minors and sexual abuse of children. Also fueling prosecution interest is a growing body of academic research finding links between child porn and pedophilia. One disturbing study of federal inmates suggests they “acted out” their sexual fantasies on far more children than authorities first imagined.
Mediaskeptic: Note the unpublished FBI study and the suggestion by three Canadian researchers that was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology that child porn offenses are a valid diagnostic indicator of pedophilia, defined as “a persistent sexual interest in prepubescent children.”
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"Adult-child sex is wrong – always"
Written by: Kathleen Parker
Date: December 16, 2005
Published by: Orlando Sentinel
The problem, to be clear, is one of trust and power – even in consenting relationships. An adult, especially one in a position of authority such as a teacher, counselor or priest, is always in a superior position with a minor player. ... They may be adult-like physically, but they’re minors otherwise – still dependents, still living at home, and still reliant upon adults to be mentors, not sex partners.". . . adults attracted to minors might do the grownup thing and seek psychological help. Kids will find ways enough to complicate their lives without the help of adults lost in their own narcissism."
Mediaskeptic: In this day and age that we have to re-state to adults that we normally don't consider sexual predators or pedophiles the idea that adult-child sex is wrong is, I think, a reflection of the moral obtuseness and academic vanity found in universities, textbooks, seminars, and writings of so-called experts in various fields of study. That civilization successfully lived without these blinkered experts without moral compasses for hundreds of years and still called ourselves decent and civilized doesn't say much about their contribution to mankind.
What it does scream is that, untempered by criticism and bereft of practical commonsense and, yes, decency, their writings should be viewed with supreme skepticism.
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"Betrayal of Trust"
Written by: Marisa Schultz
Date: April 24, 2005
Published In: Detroit News
A special Report. Well-written and researched, the Detroit News found
• Thousands of state teachers never had criminal background checks until recently.
• Communication lapses between prosecutors, courts and the state mean some teachers convicted of sexual misconduct remain certified.
• State officials sometimes learn about convicted educators through the media.
• The criminal background database the state is now relying on covers only Michigan and has gaps.
