Do Children Belong on Sex Offender Registries?

The Council of the American Law Institute will meet to vote on revisions to the Model Penal Code, which include recommendations that will make it all but impossible to register children for sexual offenses, reports Slate. In the United States, up to 70 percent of sexual offenses against children are perpetrated by other children, typically a slightly older relative or playmate who offends in the context of ignorance, impulsivity, and convenience, not predation.

The proposed revision recommends limiting the convictions that trigger registration to the most serious sex crimes. Crucially, the revised code recommends ending the practice of placing children on registries, except in rare cases of youth convicted in adult court of violent sex crimes committed at age 16 or older. Research by the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse found that, relative to children with sexual offenses who are not registered, kids on the registry were four times more likely to have attempted suicide, five times more likely to have been approached by adults for sex, and twice as likely to have been sexually assaulted. The Jacob Wetterling Act, the first federal law requiring states to register people convicted of serious sex crimes,  was originally designed as a tool to help law enforcement keep track of dangerous adults, but the goal posts changed and the Wetterling Act was expanded to include community notification and the registration of children.