The Board of the Michigan Chapter of the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers (MiATSA) applauds Attorney General Dana Nessel and authors Fadwa A. Hammoud and Ann M. Sherman for the Brief of Amicus Curiae in the case of People vs Betts filed on February 8, 2019 with the Michigan Supreme Court. Sound empirical research underlies their conclusion that Michigan’s SORA’s 2006 and 2011 amendments constitute punishment and “its onerous restrictions are not supported by evolving research and best practices related to recidivism, rehabilitation, and community safety (p7).” The Mi-ATSA Board concurs with these findings.
The Brief identifies 5 domains that support the conclusion that the amended registry is punishment.
- SORA’s geographic exclusion zones make it difficult for registrants to work, find housing, or engage in community and family life.
- SORA’s in-person reporting requirements are comparable to parole or probation and are excessive in relation to any non-punitive purpose.
- The evolving role of the Internet in society has made amendments to the SORA more burdensome for registrants and their families.
- The registry no longer effectively serves the needs of law enforcement.
- SORA’s burdens are out of touch with reasoned views about recidivism, rehabilitation, and community safety.
Read the amicus brief in its entirety: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/ag/Recd.148981_Betts_SORA_br_MSC-FINAL_marked_645819_7.pdf
Contrary to theories of “frightening and high” sexual offending recidivism from the anecdotal accounts from the 1980’s, Attorney General Nessel’s Amicus Brief is based upon the actuarial science that emerged at the very end of the 1990’s. The actuarial-based recidivism findings refute the assumed dangerousness most individuals convicted of a sexual offense pose to their communities. The Attorney General and authors rely on the two decades of science regarding the risk posed by most individuals on the Michigan Sex Offender Registry rather than faulty myths, fear and false senses of security offered by the registry as it was amended into increasingly intrusive and demanding requirements in 2006 and 2011.
Like other scientific discoveries, there is entrenched resistance to this seemingly good news of low recidivism rates. The false belief that most individuals convicted of sexual offenses pose considerable danger to their communities is now deeply entrenched in state statutes and the public’s perception. Changing those beliefs has been and will be challenging. MiATSA supports these efforts. The powerful desire for retribution in these cases no doubt comingles with the false sense of safety these registration amendments afforded. The authors cite the New York time series analysis study demonstrating that approximately 95% of all sex offense convictions in a given year are committed by people who have no prior sexual convictions and clearly are not on the registry. (Jeffrey C. Sandler, N. J Freeman, & K. M. Socia, Does a Watched Pot Boil? A Time-Series Analysis of New York State’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Law, 14 Psychology Public Policy and Law 284-302 (2008). The community notification component of registries distract the public’s efforts of prevention away from the true source of most new sexual offenses.
Concurrent with the myth of high sex offending recidivism were the profoundly tragic cases of child abduction, sexual assault and murder that brought national attention to this problem in the 1990’s. The Jacob Wetterling Act was intended to help direct law enforcement to higher risk individuals. Instead the amended registry has led Nessel, et. al. (2019) to observe “the registry no longer adequately meets the needs of law enforcement… (p7).” ATSA has long embraced the goal of “making society safer.” The registry as it now exists has shifted the public’s attention away from the sources of most of the danger – the factors that cause 95% of new criminal cases each year – at a high cost to the taxpayers, the registrants, their families and the economic contributions these individuals can offer.
The Attorney General acknowledges that there are dangerous individuals who merit increased monitoring and services and correctly clarifies that those individuals can only be identified by high quality individualized risk assessments. The current risk tier system is based on conviction and results in many “below,” or “well below average” risk individuals being misclassified as much higher risk. Conversely, prosecutors may have to accept lesser convictions because of case-specific variables, resulting in potentially under-classifying those who pose more risk. Adding to the flaw in the current system, very few prosecutors have individualized risk assessments that might shape charging and plea agreements. MiATSA supports the Attorney General’s recommendation for individualized assessments provided by qualified examiners who have trained in this specific area of specialized knowledge.
The People vs Betts amicus brief represents a turn toward objective reality and away from the fear-inducing and dangerously misleading myths about where dangers of future sexual offending lie. Those myths were the foundation for much of the current Michigan Sex Offender Registry. MiATSA support the Attorney General’s effort to set the State of Michigan on a new course that does not ensnare individuals and their families who pose very little risk and can redirect resources spent on the current registry toward prevention of the underlying factors that result in 95% of new offenses being committed each year.
Reviewed and endorsed by the Michigan Association of Treatment of Sexual Abusers Board on 3/19/2019.