An Arizona Republican state senator called out Governor Katie Hobbs for her “harmful” veto of a bill mandating those found guilty of dangerous crimes against children to register on the state’s sex offender website.
Senate Bill (SB) 1583, sponsored by State Senator Sine Kerr (R-Buckeye), aimed to close a gap in state legislation that now only compels those offenders found guilty of committing sex crimes against children to list their names on the website for sex offenders if they pose a significant danger of doing so again. Level one offenders, who are the least likely to re-offend, may not have to list their names on this website.
According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, thousands of registered sex offenders don’t have their names on the sex offender website.
Last month, Hobbs vetoed the measure noting that the state already requires the department of public safety to publish the names of “the most dangerous” offenders and that they will continue to ensure this information is readily available to the public.
Kerr (pictured above) said that Hobbs’s “lack of understanding” of the seriousness of this issue is a threat to Arizona families.
“The lack of understanding from Governor Hobbs is a serious threat to the safety and well being of all Arizona families with children. My bill would have armed parents, schools, churches, and community centers with a digital tool of notification, transparency, and awareness in order to prevent these offenders currently not listed on the website from further victimizing our kids. Hobbs’ veto letter, which she erroneously wrote to the wrong Senator, shows she doesn’t have a clue what’s going on with sex offender tracking in our state,” Kerr said.
According to Kerr, the state not requiring an offender’s name on the sex offender website gives parents a false sense of security.
“Right now, if a parent signs their child up for a sports team, and that coach was convicted of committing a dangerous sex crime against a minor but is not considered likely to re-offend, that coach may not be listed on the website. When the parent searches the site and doesn’t see the coach’s name pop up, they are given a false sense of security that their child will be in good hands,” Kerr said.
The state senator criticized Hobbs’ veto, stating that preventing sexual abuse of minors in Arizona shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
“Protecting our children from sexual victimization should not be a partisan issue, yet all Democrats in the Legislature voted against the bill and our Democrat Governor vetoed it,” he said.
Kerr said she “will try again next session to fix this loophole in state law so that we stop protecting sex offenders and start protecting children.”
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star, The Star News Network, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Sine Kerr” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 3.0. Background Photo “Arizona Capitol” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Contrary to popular myths, those who have committed sexual offenses have the lowest recidivism rates of nearly any other class of crime. Study after study puts recidivism rates in the single digits. Other studies show that 95% of sexual offenses are committed by the general population, not by someone who is listed on the registry. This research demonstrates empirically that the vast majority of those on the registry never offend again. EVER. They have already paid their debt to society, have been through many years of sex offender treatment and therapy, and the ends of justice have been met.
What gives parents a false sense of security is pretending that the registry is an effective tool in combatting child sexual abuse. It isn’t. We have several decades of empirical date with these results: Approximately 96% of new sexual crime is committed by first-time offenders — meaning people with no previous sexual crime convictions and therefore not on the registry — and virtually all sexual crime against children is is committed by family members, authority figures, and peers.
Sex offender registries are simply big government. They don’t protect victims of sex crimes and actually put law-enforcement personnel to greater risk to their safety if a former sex offender uses this registry as an excuse to target police and prosecutors for revenge killings or bomb threats. This actually happened a few years ago when a former sex offender made a bomb threat against a registry before being arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat.