A Better Path to Community Safety: Sex Offender Registration in California: Tiering Background Paper

March 2014 California:

The California Sex Offender Management Board has determined that there is a better path to the goal of achieving enhanced community safety through sex offender registration and notification practices and recommends that key changes be made to the state’s laws in these areas of sex offender management.

CASOMB first recommended in its 2010 report to the Legislature that revisions to California’s registration laws are needed and recently selected the issue as one which deserves increased focus and effort. The effectiveness of sex offender registration policies and practices has also been the subject of national focus recently, with a variety of jurisdictions addressing the importance of updating registration practices to reflect new research and evidence based approaches. Modifying registration practices will, CASOMB believes, improve public safety in California by focusing effort and resources on more dangerous offenders.

THE PRIMARY CONSIDERATIONS SUPPORTING THE NEED FOR
CHANGE TO THE SEX OFFENDER REGISTRATION SYSTEM IN CALIFORNIA

• 1. The goals of sex offender registration.
• 2. The assumptions behind the sex offender registry.
• 3. The current California picture.
• 4. What is known now that wasn’t known then?
• 5. What is still not known?
• 6. The problems with California’s current registration system.
• 7. The registry’s direct financial costs and cost-benefit ratio.
• 8. Indirect costs and other considerations.
• 9. Outline of the CASOMB proposal.

...Continued... by CSOMB