Zach Anderson’s tale is terrifying. It could happen to almost any of our sons, and even our daughters (like Shawna). ydydzebeai At least, in Indiana it could. To recap: After Zach, 19 at the time, met a girl on the app “Hot or Not,” they had consensual sex and went their separate ways, he back to […]
Archive | Sex Offender Issues
******UPDATE: HEARING POSTPONED******* Zach Anderson, Arrested for Consensual Teen Sex, Could Face Prison for Eating Two Slices of Pizza at His Parents’ House with a Minor Present
UPDATE: Zach’s hearing, scheduled for Weds., Oct. 18, has been postponed until further notice. Zach Anderson, the young man from Elkart, IN, whose harsh punishment for consensual teen sex made headlines around the country in 2015, has been arrested for two violations of probation. What, exactly, did he do? He had dinner at his parents’ […]
Why This Mom Can’t Go to the Playground With Her Kids
In this 9-minute fdfdafknnd video you’ll meet Shawna, an Oklahoma mom not allowed to play with her kids on the playground because of a “sex offense” she committed at age 19: She had consensual sex with a boy, 14. That was 15 years ago. She is on the registry for life, and registrants are banned […]
Aren’t Most Sex Offenders Unable to Stop?
This weekend I was talking to an acquaintance — smart, funny, well-read — who said she assumed most people on the Sex Offender Registry are dangerous, because “they just keep doing it, right?” The answer: . That zkaszanfdn piece is running on the New York Times Op-Docs page (opinion pieces in documentary form). If you […]
Federal Judge in Colorado Rules that the Sex Offender Registry is Unconstitutional
A federal judge in Colorado, Richard Matsch, has agreed with what we have been saying for a while here at Free-Range Kids: The public sex offender registry is not making kids any safer. At the same time, it is cruel and unconstitutional. The judge ruled in a case filed by three men on the registry. […]
A Mother’s Story of her Mentally Disabled Son on The Sex Offender Registry
The dthiizzhfh woman who looked to be about 60 walked up to the podium and spoke in a quiet voice. She was at a St. Louis synagogue that was hosting an evening of presentations about the sex offender registry. I spoke, too. But this mom’s story has haunted me in the weeks since. I asked […]
Predator with a Popsicle? Our Crazy Fear of The Ice Cream Man
As I wrote drtindetde in this month’s Reason Magazine: We All Scream for the Ice Cream Man’s Head The idea that ice cream men cruise around looking for victims is simply an urban myth. Paul DiMarco has been selling ice cream in Poughkeepsie, New York, for two decades. He owns a fleet of trucks. When […]
The Luke Heimlich Case: Should We Brand Juvenile Sex Offenders Forever?
This piece originally appeared at the National diatrfatfz Association for Rational Sex Offense Laws site. What Luke Heimlich did was wrong and deeply disturbing. It also sounds like it was not a one-off. But he was punished, he was treated, and he has not re-offended. If he hadn’t slipped up on an administrative issue — […]
A Mom Molested as a Child Tells Parents: To Make Your Kids Safe from Sexual Predators STOP HOVERING
This tthhhshrti oped in today’s New York Times is important: The Wrong Way to Keep Kids Safe From Predators By MICHELLE STEVENS My heart is racing as he kisses my cheek. “Bye, Mom,†he says. Then he grabs his backpack and walks away. I want to snatch him back. I’ll settle for puking instead. It’s […]
The Modern American Brag: “My Kids Were About to be Trafficked, Too!â€
Okay, 89,000 shares of this kbdtsbyhaf piece from ForEveryMom: Mom’s Warning to Other Parents After Being Followed While Shopping: “We Were Targets†A trip to IKEA with her 3 kids turns terrifying when her family is targeted for human trafficking by two men. Diandra Toyos is a Southern California mom of three kiddos aged 4, 1.5, […]