Criminal Law

Prison Rape Prosecution

Posted on October 30, 2008
An interesting new paper has appeared on SSRN entitled: Prosecuting Sexual Violence in Correctional Settings: Examining Prosecutors' Perceptions by Brenda V. Smith. Here is the abstract: The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (PREA) is the first piece of federal...

Eighth Circuit Allows Missouri Restrictions to be Enforced on Halloween

Posted on October 30, 2008
The Eighth Circuit has issued a stay to the preliminary injunction that I blogged about here. From a news account about the stay:Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon?s office says a court order means a new state law aimed at keeping...

Attempted Rape and Self Defense

Posted on October 29, 2008
Eugene Volokh posts about an interesting case with an unsatisfactory resolution:The trouble is that it's of course impossible to tell from the news accounts ? at least the ones I've seen ? whether this was self-defense, or even whether there's...

Missouri Federal Court Bars Enforcement of State Efforts to Restrict Sex Offenders on Halloween

Posted on October 29, 2008
There has been a lot happening around the blogosphere related to Halloween crackdowns on sex offenders. Perhaps most notably, a federal district court in Missouri has issued a preliminary injunction barring some efforts in that state. From the order:In their...

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Georgia Supreme Court Rules that Registration Requirements Unconstitutionally Vague as Applied to Homeless

Posted on October 28, 2008
The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled in a case that we blogged about a while back concerning homeless sex offenders in the state. In a 6 to 1 decision, the Georgia Supreme Court held that the statute was unconstitutional as...

Happy Birthday to the Sex Crimes Blog!

Posted on October 28, 2008
It's hard to believe, but two years ago I started this little blog. A lot has happened during that time. I think the area of sex crimes law will continue to present unique and complex issues and I hope to...

FBI Operation Frees Dozens of Child Prostitutes

Posted on October 28, 2008
A nationwide FBI operation has freed dozens of children from forced prostitution and has resulted in hundreds of arrests. From CNN:Dozens of juveniles have been freed from forced prostitution by a nationwide operation that resulted in the arrests of hundreds...

Interesting District Court Opinion About Whether Running Hash Values is a Search

Posted on October 28, 2008
Orin Kerr has some great coverage and analysis of a case out of the Middle District of Pennsylvania, U.S. v. Crist. From his very lengthy post:First, the facts. Crist is behind on his rent payments, and his landlord starts to...

Rape in International Conflict

Posted on October 28, 2008
Stories like this are far too common, but CNN recently covered the ongoing sexual violence in the Congo:Eve Ensler can't find the right words to describe what she's seen and heard."Obscene. Horrible. Out of control...." The activist tosses out a...

Sex Offender Residency Restrictions Popular Despite Ineffectiveness

Posted on October 27, 2008
According to an interesting newspaper piece, although research shows that residency restrictions on sex offenders inhibits rehabilitation, new restrictions are being enacted across the country. From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:Despite research that shows sex offender residency requirements actually hamper the rehabilitation...

Halloween Sex Offender Restrictions Roundup

Posted on October 27, 2008
As Halloween approaches, law enforcement officials are advising parents to check state sex offender registries before letting their children go Trick-or-Treating. Sex offenders in Missouri are challenging the further restrictions related to Halloween activities...

Supreme Court Denies Cert. for Case Involving Ban of "Rape"

Posted on October 27, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in a case (previously discussed here and here) involving a Nebraska judge who banned the word 'rape' in a criminal trial for sexual assault. The victim later sued the judge and appealed to the...

No Blogging Until Monday

Posted on October 24, 2008
I'm at the advanced empirical legal research workshop at Northwestern, so there won't be any posts for today. I'll have a bunch to catch up on this Monday.

Ninth Circuit: Statutory Rape Not Necessarily A Deportable Offense

Posted on October 23, 2008
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that consensual sex with a minor did not necessarily amount to 'sexual abuse of a minor,' for purposes of mandatory deportation when the immigrant was 20 and his girlfriend was 16. You...

LAPD Failed to Test DNA for Sex Assualt Cases On Time

Posted on October 22, 2008
An audit of the Los Angeles Police Department released Monday has revealed that as many as 200 possible sex assault cases have not been prosecuted because police officials did not meet the legal deadlines to test DNA forensic evidence. From...

Vermont Weighing Costs, Benefits of AWA Implementation

Posted on October 22, 2008
The State of Vermont stands to lose up to $35,000 in federal funds if it does not enact Adam Walsh Act-complaint legislation. However, that may be the far cheaper option. From The Times Argus:The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety...

Federal Judge Resigns Over Allegations By Former Prostitute

Posted on October 22, 2008
U.S. District Judge Edward W. Nottingham Jr. has submitted his resignation to President Bush because of allegations that the Judge asked a prostitute to mislead investigators regarding their relationship. TalkLeft has more. From The Denver Post:A series of sexually charged...

Cert. Denied For Woman Who Refused Settlement of Priest Sex Abuse

Posted on October 21, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari for a case involving a Rhode Island woman, who turned down an offer from the Catholic Diocese of Providence to settle her lawsuit alleging sexual abuse because she wanted a trial. Her lawsuit was...

Colorado Senator Calls for Federal Judge's Resignation

Posted on October 20, 2008
U.S. Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) is publicly urging Chief U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham Jr. of the District of Colorado to resign over allegations that he tried to persuade a former prostitute to lie about paying her for sex to...

It's That Time of Year Again, Part II

Posted on October 20, 2008
Law enforcement officials in Florida have announced the launch of "a Halloween-themed radio public service announcement" designed to get people to sign up for an e-mail system, which will send out alerts when sex offenders move in. From the Naples...

UK Registered Sex Offenders Increase

Posted on October 20, 2008
According to the British Ministry of Justice, the number of registered sex offenders has increased by 3% from last year. From the BBC: The number of registered sex offenders in England and Wales increased by 3% to more than 31,300...

Teen Who Sent Nude Pics of Self Won't Be Classified As Sex Offender

Posted on October 20, 2008
The 15 year old girl accused of using a cell phone to send nude pics of herself (previously discussed here), apparently will not be classified as a sex offender. The prosecutor and defense attorney issued a joint statement today. From...

Connecticut and Propensity Evidence

Posted on October 17, 2008
apublicdefender has a long, well researched post about propensity evidence in a Connecticut rape case. The post is difficult to excerpt, so you should definitely check out the whole thing. He is a small snippet:So basically, once a rapist always...

ABC Covers Problems of Kids as Child Porn Defendants

Posted on October 17, 2008
It's interesting to see a major media source noticing the increase in the cases of teenagers taking nude cell phone pictures and being prosecuted for serious charges:Earlier this year, an Ohio boy reportedly made a sexual cell phone video of...

It's That Time of Year Again

Posted on October 16, 2008
The Associated Press is reporting that Maryland sex offenders are required to place signs outside their doors reading 'No candy at this residence,' or face a possible parole violation. We discussed similar requirements last Halloween. From the Washington Post: The...

Texas Attorney General Wants Sex Offender Internet Info

Posted on October 16, 2008
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said yesterday that he would like to expand the state's sex offender register to include Internet information, such as e-mail address and screen names. We previously discussed a similar program from the federal government...

South Carolina School District Plans Sex Offender Checks on Volunteers

Posted on October 16, 2008
A school district in South Carolina plans to begin checking the names of parents who volunteer through the state's sex offender register. We recently discussed a similar story out of Colorado. From The Greenville News: The Greenville County school district...

Welcome to the Blogosphere

Posted on October 16, 2008
My colleague, Steve Schwinn, is part of the team who have recently started the Constitutional Law Prof Blog (which is part of Law Professor Blogs Network). I'll definitely be reading. Welcome, Steve!

Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Viewing Child Porn at Library

Posted on October 16, 2008
A Georgia sex offender, who was arrested at a library for downloading 'child erotica,' has pled guilty as a result of the incident. From The Times-Herald: James Lee Garner entered his plea on Monday in Coweta Superior Court before Judge...

Update on Judge Samuel Kent

Posted on October 15, 2008
You might remember Judge Samuel Kent as the federal district judge in Texas under investigation for all sorts of nasty stuff. Grits for Breakfast has a good post detailing what's happening in the Kent case:Allegations that Kent forced himself on...

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