for those who care to know who is mostly on the sex offender registry. 1.worst of all, the falsely accused, truly innocent and wrongfully imprisoned who are victims as much as victims of any other kind of crime. there are far more of these than most people realize and it's happened because of the hysteria about these type of crimes that came to have few distinctions made between the truly dangerous and non dangerous. this kind of crime is the easiest to falsely accuse someone of and get away with it and overly zealous prosecutors call it "easy win" cases and regard them as more notches in their legal gun belts. 2. if someone is 19 & has a girlfriend 15 or 16& it's consensual -if someone reports it (often malicious), 3. if someone gets drunk & urinates in a public place, 4. if someone sees a teen prostitute (even if she lied about her age, which they often do to the john and the police but this does not help anyone's case), 5. if someone streaks or moons someone, they can & do end up on the registry. 6. and the horrific sounding "child" porn-? almost all of it is teens. is there no difference in your mind bet. a man going after a 10 yr. old & someone looking at a 15 or 16 yr. old posing nude or doing something sexual on the net? distinctions don't seem to matter when it comes to sex offenses.why is that? with other crimes, it matters. no wonder they couldn't find garrido .so many on the registry that don't belong there, that bloated it. these laws are so unjust, so extreme. but the self-righteous, hateful, off with their 's fanatics want to bring back salem. i hope more rational minds will prevail. the registry may serve to unduly frighten or provide a false sense of security for many parents, may titillate those who use it for amusement but make no mistake, it is ruining people's lives who do not deserve it. right now there are so many non-dangerous people on there. some have been murdered,imprisoned or killed themselves. i guess the fanatics are happy about that. " if you care about justice, educate yourself and help us in this david-goliath fight catching and persecuting people who don't deserve it doesn't help protect our children from those who do. http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/inside-criminal-justice/2011-05-are-we-being-smart-about-sex-offenders http://ilvoices.com/media/23945d47d1a0fd37ffff810bffffe415.pdf http://www.reformsexoffenderlaws.org/ read jim and nancy petro's book "false justice" and richard wrights' "sex offender laws: failed policies, new directions" see the movie "conviction" and sean penn's "witch hunt" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0c2aqprdim

mary, john walsh, the kantra's and everyone else that has lost a child to tragedy should just mourn in private and learn when to let go and move on with their lives. there is no way in hell that they can change the world by whining to lawmakers to pass insane laws that are not only ineffectual, but are adding to the national dept and creates a bigger government. the hypocrisy is self-evident. again, these "victims" are in the minority and child abduction is a statistical anomaly. john walsh should be ashamed of himself for making the loss of his son personal. the world doesn't owe him a damn thing. does he think he's the only one that's ever suffered a tragedy? he should have just gotten over it and let it go, but he whined to lawmakers and whored out his dead son through fear mongering and lies to become rich and get a law passed that dishonors adam's memory by making it stand for civil and human rights abuse. displacing families and leaving irreparable damage in it's wake. wow, some "hero." guess what? his son is still dead and the adam walsh act hasn't prevented crime or protected anyone, much less "saved" lives (scoffs). you can't continue to castigate, vilify and demonize a group of people for what you think they "might" do. that's illegal! this is not about protecting or "safeguarding" children, it's about fear mongering and profiting from it. registration and community notification laws are ineffectual when it comes to protecting society and enhancing public safety. knowing where someone lives does not prevent crime; nor does it protect anyone, much less save lives. millions wasted on laws that amount to little more than security theater and the illusion of safety and awareness.

yes, val, the measure of a society is how it treats its people, especially its children. the large number of children on the sex offender registry in places which have complied substantially with the act, and who are most amenable to treatment, is one very good reason to oppose the adam walsh act. this act does more harm than good, encouraging innocent people to be persecuted both by accident (as having the same name as a registrant) and by relationship (as being related to the registrant). it is generally agreed that it is a lack of reintegration (such as housing or jobs) that is a primary factor in re-offense in any case of a person convicted of a felony. why would we make it even harder for a person to reintegrate into the community, when we really want to keep other children from being assaulted? because it seems like a good idea? let's make sure that the evidence says this will work as intended before enacting it in any more states.

it is good to see that for the most part, there have been intelligent comments on this article. a person who thinks the awa is a good thing obviously has not personally been affected by the insanity of sex offender laws nor done any research on their effectiveness. unless there is some major reform of the current laws, it is only a matter of time before everyone will know someone on the sex offender registry. maybe when all our politicians have experienced this personally, we'll see some changes. but oh, that's right, politicians and their family members are usually "above the laws" and they often aren't punished in the same way that regular citizens are. the percentage of registered sex offenders who are actually violent sexual predators is very small and they should simply be locked up for life. many sex offenders will respond well to treatment which would be way more cost effective. then there are the many on the sex offender registry who are there for nothing more than a stupid one-time act such as streaking, mooning, or public urination. another large group are the romeo & juliet cases where a 19 year old boy may have had consensual sex with his 16 year old girlfriend. besides all the registrants affected by these ridiculous laws, you have their family members who suffer. i wonder just how much money is paid out by each state in food stamps and other aid to families where the husband/father can't get a job because he is on the public registry. these unconstitutional laws need to be changed now!

something i've never understood, and i don't think a lot of people realize, is that adam walsh's body was never found, and therefore there is no way to know if his kidnapping and murder was sexually motivated at all. not that it makes much of a difference at this point, but it does make me wonder how a kidnapping and murder of a young child became so exploited that it targets something unrelated to his death. it is heartening to know that most states are rejecting this bill...but we still have a long way to go in showing legislators and the public how ineffective the registry and related legislation is. percentage wise, our current laws fail the high majority of current and future sex crime victims.

i would like to know how they can pass a law like this when he was murdered. corbett signed this new bill in my state and i don't like where it is going to take this. this is a bunch of bs and i find it unconstitutional. putting thier addresses out there where it not only affects the so but thier families as well. what about murderers why are they not put at risk and have to be on a registry and they are more likely to re offend. i never wanted obama for a president anyway. and alot of these are from vindictive teenagers lying about thier age and not caring who they get in trouble.i am upset with this new bill and think it is ridiculous!!!!!!!!

"congress adopted the so-called adam walsh act in 2006 that established a national sex offender registry and required states to report the names and locations of convicted child molesters to the federal government." what a load of bs! this very quote is one of the many reasons the media is guilty of spreading paranoia and fear. many, many crimes that will get a person added to the registry have nothing to do with victimizing a child. the registry reports the names, street addresses, vehicle information, work information, internet identifiers etc. of everyone on the registry in most states. it is pretty sad that lies are being spread, ruining innocent lives, just so that a pathetic and uneducated society will hang on every word and help build the precious ratings! journalistic integrity is dead indeed!

the awa, is flawed,because the state of ohio and other states have ruled that parts of the awa are unconstitutional and violates many of our amenments, it violats the us constitution and 90% of all state constitutions. and adam walsh was killed by a murderer not a sex offender, and there is no prove he was sexually asulted becase all they found was his head so wheres the prove he was sexually asulted, there is not any. bush and john walsh are both a joke, and when the awa was signed in 2006 they both new it was unconstitutional and signed it anyway, now it is starting to bit them in the ass, cuz many states are being taken to court by both ex sex offender and current sex offenders the awa is doomed, and i am glad cuz it is a wast of our tex paying dollars.

this was flawed legislation from the start, (as is megans law) these laws were knee jerk reactions to specific incidents... if we really want to protect children, lets start with thier parents, relatives, and friends,, since 90% of all molestation is committed by this group. secondly, adam walsh was not taken by a sex offender,, he was killed by a murder, so why is this act called ada? it is time we stop punishing our teenagers for having sex or putting people on the registry for life (especially those who have had no contact with anybody) do you think it is really cost effective to put persons on the registry for viewing porn?? our tax dollars would be better spent passing laws that put real predators in jail for a long time or no parole or execution for those who kill a child

it's bad legislation. the states know that. why should they adopt it? thursday, january 05, 2012 "states struggle with national sex offender law" by maggie clark, stateline staff writer "it’s not that states are uninformed about the law; it’s that they have substantial objections to it....advocates for juveniles also complain about what would be a lifetime listing for some juvenile sex offenders, which they say goes against any commitment to rehabilitate juveniles, rather than punishing them for long periods of time. "nebraska, which became compliant with the adam walsh act in 2009, is now having second thoughts. before compliance, nebraska already maintained a three-tiered classification system for its more than 3,000 sex offenders, based on psychological evaluations and projected risks of re-offending. the names of those in the lowest tier of offenders were kept on an internal list, the second tier list was distributed to schools and other children’s centers, and the third, the list of most dangerous offenders, was made public. but when the state complied with the adam walsh act, the previous tier system was abolished and all sex offenders were placed on a public list, no matter the severity of their crime or their risk of re-offending. “ 'in retrospect, we question whether we are really protecting people with the high number of people out there who aren’t truly a risk,' nebraska state senator amanda mcgill said at an october hearing. nebraska’s legislature will likely consider a bill in the 2012 session to authorize a study of the effects of the law in the state."