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Statutory Presumptions Against Child Custody for Registered Sex Offenders  


Author:  Lisa L. Sample.


Source: Volume 19, Number 05, August/September 2018 , pp.65-69(5)




Sex Offender Law Report

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Abstract: 

The extensive literature on sex offenders has covered the panoply of direct and indirect consequences of sex crime convictions, with incremental changes in policy and treatment as new information has emerged. Studies that telescope out from the individual to families and communities have provided more holistic approaches to sex offender treatments. One issue, however, has received scant attention: the effects of sex crime convictions on child custody and visitation agreements. The article below examines this topic, in which the criminal justice outcomes affect the outcomes in civil proceedings, and virtually always weigh against the offender. Specifically, the author examines a range of statutes, including laws in California, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Nebraska, and other states, which impose custody restrictions on convicted sex offenders. Her conclusion is that such laws, in spite of their good intentions, can have unforeseen outcomes—for example, in punishing women who find themselves in love with someone with prior sex offense convictions by taking away their children.

Keywords: “Best Interests” Standards; “Presumption of Dangerousness;” Mandatory Reporting Requirements

Affiliations:  1: University of Nebraska at Omaha.

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