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Campus sexual assaults have dominated the news for the past couple of years. Numerous protests, high-profile cases, and botched investigations have led to numerous stories that all tell the same tale. The school failed to investigate, the victim was marginalized, and the offender was treated too lightly for the public to bear. The negative coverage may lead to overly aggressive prosecutions as investigators overcompensate. But,Continue reading

A federal appeals court overruled a lower court ruling which invalidated the Minnesota civil detention program for sex offenders. The program was challenged as unconstitutional because it held people beyond the length of their imposed prison sentence. But, the appeals court disagreed and determined that the state, Minnesota, had an important public purpose in detaining sex offenders. The danger with this ruling is that itContinue reading

An investigation conducted by the Indianapolis Star and USA Today discovered a massive and systemic abuse of young competitive gymnasts. The victims were aged 6 to 16 and primarily girls. The abuse ranged from secretly filming the girls in their changing rooms to inappropriate touching, and even sexual exploitation. This post will go over the findings from the investigation. The story is especially shocking becauseContinue reading

A police department in Oregon is experimenting with a new method to report sexual assault incidents. Survivors of sexual assault continue to face extreme barriers to reporting these crimes including cultural stigma, victim shaming and becoming re-traumatized as they report the crime. Moreover, even when the police do take the report seriously, they often fail to investigate properly or are too vigorous in their assumptionsContinue reading

The Office of Justice Programs conducted a macro-study of several initial studies to delve into rates of recidivism for online sex offenses. The researchers found that rates of recidivism for online sex offenses appear primarily to follow recidivism rates for other sex crimes. But, it is important to note that these are initial studies and more comprehensive studies are necessary. The study noted that the factors that impact recidivismContinue reading

The Bureau of Justice Statistics, a division within the Office of Justice Programs, released a study that found a 64 percent decline in sexual assault and violence against females between 1995 in 2010. Of course, this study needs to be reviewed with a skeptical eye. Sexual assaults are notoriously difficult to track because many of them are not reported to the police. This forces researchers to estimateContinue reading

In an unusual twist, a lawyer from Ohio was both disbarred and faces 12 years in prison for sexually assaulting his clients. But, rather than using drugs or some other method, he instead hypnotized his clients such that they have no clear recollection of the assault. This post will go over the risks that professional faces if he or she is faced with criminal charges.Continue reading

Pimping and pandering are two terms that are often conflated. Pimping is the receipt of benefits from the act of prostitution while pandering is the act of procuring a prostitute for sexual services. If you don’t see the fine line between the two, do not worry, it is tricky. This post will go over the differences and how you can run afoul of each charge. InContinue reading

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, pursuant to a tip, investigated and arrested an Alaskan man for allegedly traveling abroad to commit child sexual abuse. He was arrested following a months-long investigation into his actions which included recordings taken by an undercover agent. He was arrested in 2013 and sentenced in March of this year. He is facing 18 years in federal prison for attempting toContinue reading

As progress inexorably marches forward, it leaves in its wake a series of intractable problems with little or no clear way to solve them. One of these problems is sex crimes committed using the Internet. The Internet boasts anonymity, which is great to overthrow dictatorships, but also a boon for sexual predators. Every level of law enforcement is looking for the silver bullet to curb this trend,Continue reading