The footnotes provides background information and links to official documentation that validate claims made in the RSOL Introduction and Statement. See the Topical Index for a guide to all the content in the footnotes. Several notes also link to related reports at the website, Sex Offender Laws Research (SOLR), supplementing those notes with more detailed information. Please send comments or new information to research at SOLresearch dot org.

 
Contents

•	Changes Based on Validation Research
•	Changes for Clarification

 

After first posting the RSOL website, an exhaustinve research project was launched to check and validate every claim made in the Introduction and Statement. This resulted in the addition of 76 footnotes to those pages, which back up those claims with credible documentation.

As important as the validity of one’s information is one’s willingness to make corrections when one finds out that some information is wrong. In the course of the validation research, a number of details in the Introduction and Statement were found to lack evidence to back them up. Fullfilling a commitment to accuracy of its information, RSOL made the changes indicated below in January 2009.

Changes to the Introduction
Footnote	Original Text	Changed To
None	By Paul Shannon, June 29, 2007	By Paul Shannon, June 29, 2007, updated January 28, 2009
Note I-3	… most registered sex offenders have never committed sexual offenses against minors.	… a great many registered sex offenders have never committed sexual offenses against minors.
Note I-4	[In] the American legal [system] … [for cases of sex offenses or terrorism] most of the rights of the accused have vanished.	…, many rights of the accused have vanished.
Note I-15	Some states now allow the death penalty for some sex offenses against minors when murder or even physical violence is not alleged.	Until overruled by the Supreme Court, six states had attempted to institute the death penalty for sex offenses involving children when murder or even physical violence was not alleged.
None	In some states, accused persons may be held for long periods in isolation and without specific charges.	Deleted. This claim was removed because no cases were found to back it up. The closest found were cases with long pre-trial detentions: USA (Colorado): The arrest and pre-trial detention of Raoul W., Amnesty International, October 28, 1999 Ed Kramer Legal Defense These are problematic and may have violated (or still be violating) the defendant’s constitutional rights. However, the defendants have been charged with crimes and have not been held in isolation.
Note I-22	There are nearly 700,000 registered sex offenders	There are over 500,000 registered sex offenders in the United States
Note I-25	The youngest person now required to register is six years old …	The public registries in the US include children as young as eleven years old …
Note I-26	… and 4-year olds are being charged with sexual harassment.	…, a four-year-old has been charged with sexual harassment, and first graders have been prosecuted for sodomy as a result of innocent, mutual play with peers.
Note I-29	In eighteen states, life-time civil commitment is …	In twenty states, life-time civil commitment is …
Note I-31	By May, 2006, nearly 4,000 sex offenders were held under such statutes	By 2006, nearly 3,000 sex offenders were held under such statutes
Changes to the Statement
Footnote	Original Text	Changed To
Note S-4	There are now about two million persons --adults and children-- who are identified as sex offenders, either in prison, on parole, registered or being sought as unregistered.	There are now about 750,000 persons --adults and children-- who are identified as sex offenders, either in prison, on parole, registered or being sought as unregistered, and upwards of two million family members living with the consequences of the sex offender registries.
Note S-5	… children as young as six years old …	… children as young as eleven years old …
Note S-8	Most states and municipalities forbid sex offenders to live in certain areas near schools or day care centers, and otherwise limit the travel of sex offenders within states and across state lines.	Many states and municipalities … [“Most” may be correct, but we don’t have data to prove it at this time, so we’ll leave it at “many” for now.]
Note S-11	Mandatory chips for similar surveillance may be implanted in the bodies of offenders in some jurisdictions.	Some jurisdictions have considered mandatory implantation of electronic chips into the bodies of offenders for similar surveillance.
Note S-17	… only a small percentage of sex offenders were convicted of crimes against minors (and an even smaller percentage against young children)	… a great many sex offenders were never convicted of crimes that had anything to do with children or older juveniles
Note S-19	Recidivism rates for sex offenders with children …	Recidivism rates for sex offenders against children …
Note S-21	… non-sexual violence against children is at least as pervasive as sexual violence.	… non-sexual violence against children is much more prevalent than sexual violence against them.
Note S-29	Four states have mandated the death penalty for some sex offenses [not involving death], and other states are considering the death penalty for a second sex offense.	Six states attempted to institute the death penalty for nonviolent sex offenses involving children, until it was struck down by the Supreme Court.
Note S-31	One wonders why all this doesn’t raise red flags at least among human rights advocates, since this is so similar in nature to previous panics aimed at other groups.	Red flags raised about all this by human rights advocates attract little attention. Unfortunately, this is quite similar in nature to previous panics aimed at other groups.
None	5. Abolish all laws that provide the death penalty … for sex offenders.	5. Abolish all laws that provide the death penalty* … for sex offenders. * The first part of Action 5 was accomplished in June 2008 when the US Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment for crimes against individuals could only be used in cases of murder. (See Note S-43.)

 

In January 2010, two additional changes were made to the Statement in order to reduce misunderstanding that has occassionally happened about RSOL’s position. These changes are as follows:

Original:

Sexual harm to children must be combatted, but we must also fight other severe forms of harm to children. Focusing on "saving" children from sexual molestation by strangers distracts us from far more serious forms of violence against children and young people. Most child abuse has nothing to do with sex.20 It is important to speak out against sexual harm, which has often remained hidden and denied within families and communities. However, non-sexual violence against children is much more prevalent than sexual violence against them.21 Poverty, malnutrition, ethnic discrimination, poor education, and inadequate health care are all forms of abuse that today threaten millions of young people in our affluent nation. Yet there is little national commitment to halt these deadly and more pervasive forms of harm to children. Instead, our attention is riveted by any case involving sex. The hysteria in the United States has thus broadened from an already misguided panic about sex with children, to embrace an almost totalitarian approach to all sex offenders.

Changed to:

Sexual harm to children must be combatted, but we must also fight other severe forms of harm to children. While sexual violence is monopolizing our attention, we often forget about other very serious forms of harm to children and young people.20 It is important to speak out against sexual harm, which has often remained hidden and denied within families and communities. However, non-sexual violence within families is also extremely prevalent,21 poses a serious threat to many children and is often ignored. Poverty, malnutrition, ethnic discrimination, poor education, and inadequate health care traumatize millions of young people in our affluent nation. Yet there is little national commitment to halt these sometimes deadly and pervasive forms of harm to children. Instead, our attention is riveted by any case involving sex, while other forms of harm are largely disregarded.

Original:

6. Support broad sex education for children, and empower them to make their own decisions and stand up for their rights.

Changed to:

6. Support broad sex education to promote a healthy society.

The footnotes provides background information and links to official documentation that validate claims made in the RSOL Introduction and Statement. See the Topical Index for a guide to all the content in the footnotes. Several notes also link to related reports at the website, Sex Offender Laws Research (SOLR), supplementing those notes with more detailed information. Please send comments or new information to research at SOLresearch dot org.

 
This page posted on January 28, 2009.