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NJ VOICES
Po Box 1354
Fair Lawn, NJ 07410-8354
(201) 289-5812
info@njvoices.org
Facebook: NJ VOICES
Twitter: @njvoices/njrsol
Place a moratorium on states from placing residency restrictions on registered sex offenders who've finished their time!!
Welcome to NJVoices.org
NJ Voices is an organization that seeks to reform some of our criminal justice policy with focus on laws targeting a specific group of ex-offenders. We believe that sentencing and punishment should fit the crime; they should be individualized and sufficient but not greater than necessary to impose just punishment, secure public safety and support successful rehabilitation and reentry. The costly implementation of most of the laws is unjustifiable and is not even proven effective and efficient.
The laws imposed on people who committed sex offense do not just affect them but their families as well. The emotional, physical, mental, spiritual and financial burdens inflicted on them are so serious to a point of destruction. It is time to let the public be aware of reality and let them understand the rudiments of existing laws, punishments and implications to this specific group of people.
We believe many aspects of the current approach to sex offenders seriously undermine justice and make our society less compatible with the welfare of young people. We support carefully limited laws that target harmful acts, not whole classes of people, and which rehabilitate rather than vindictively punish and shame offenders. We assert that only by supporting justice for all people can we maintain a safe society.
Featured Blog
- New Jersey, as a whole, has experienced a consistent downward trend of sexual offense rates with a significant change in the trend in 1994.
- In all but two counties, sexual offense rates were highest prior to 1994 and were lowest after 1995.
- County trends exhibit substantial variation and do not reflect the statewide trend, suggesting that the statewide change point in 1994 is an artifact of aggregation.significant differences between cohorts (i.e., those released prior to and after Megan’s Law was implemented).
- In the offender release sample, there is a consistent downward trend in re-arrests, reconvictions and re-incarcerations over time similar to that observed in the trend study, except in 1995 when all measures spiked to a high for that period.
- Re-arrests for violent crime (whether sexual or not) also declined steadily over the same period, resulting in a significant difference between cohorts (i.e., those released prior to and after Megan’s Law was implemented).
- Megan’s Law has no effect on community tenure (i.e., time to first re-arrest).
- Megan’s Law showed no demonstrable effect in reducing sexual re-offenses.
- Megan’s Law has no effect on the type of sexual re-offense or first time sexual offense (still largely child molestation/incest).
- Megan’s Law has no effect on reducing the number of victims involved in sexual offenses.
- Sentences received prior to Megan’s Law were nearly twice as long as those received after Megan’s Law was passed, but time served was approximately the same.
- Significantly fewer sexual offenders have been paroled after the implementation of Megan’s Law than before (this is largely due to changes in sentencing).
- Costs associated with the initial implementation as well as ongoing expenditures continue to grow over time. Start up costs totaled $555,565 and current costs (in 2007) totaled approximately 3.9 million dollars for the responding counties.
- Given the lack of demonstrated effect of Megan’s Law on sexual offenses, the growing costs may not be justifiable.
Authors: Kristen Zgoba, Ph.D.; Philip Witt, Ph.D.; Melissa Dalessandro, M.S.W.; Bonita Veysey, Ph.D.
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