The Child Protection eNewsletter
 49 states (all but Rhode Island) and the District of Columbia now have sex offender registries available online. (Rhode Island does list 8 “Level III Sex offenders”) http://www.childprotectionprogram.org/sor/index.php Criminologists say it’s all too frequent that the perpetrator is a pathological sexual predator, as in the case of Jessica Lunsford’s alleged killer in Florida, John Evander Couey, and Roger Paul Bentley who Iowa police say murdered Jetseta Gage. http://www.foxnews.com Yet these two recent high profile cases vol3_iss19 and vol3_iss20 show the system has flaws. Newspaper reports in Florida show the state had lost track of at least 1,800 sex offenders out of the 30,000 they were tracking in the month before Jessica Lunsford was abducted from her home. http://www.wsvn.com The Florida legislature is now considering following Texas’ example, which would require global positioning or other electronic monitoring of people who are on probation, or some other form of conditional release, if they have been convicted of certain sex crimes. http://www.wsvn.com The Florida House Criminal Justice Committee passed the Jessica Lunsford Act unanimously and it now heads to the House floor. There are 48 other states that could desperately use a “Jessica’s Law.”
 America's Roman Catholic bishops started an online survey of clergy sex abuse victims Wednesday, asking how the church can better help them recover and protect young people in the future. http://www.boston.com Through the website, http://www.victim-outreach.com the bishops are asking victims to evaluate how diocesan officials responded to abuse claims, where church leaders failed in their reactions and how they can support victims as they heal. The survey will be conducted through May 4, with the results expected to be released in June.
 Douglas S Smith Jr., former National Director of Programs for the Boy Scouts pled guilty Wednesday to receiving images over the Internet in February of children engaging in oral sex, intercourse and other sexually explicit conduct. http://abcnews.go.com Smith headed the Boy Scout’s national task force to protect kids from sexual abuse. http://www.suntimes.com
According to the Foundation for Child Development’s Child-Well Being Index, which tracks 28 separate measures, children have been engaging in less risky behavior over the last ten years. http://www.msnbc.msn.com Birth rates have been cut almost in half from 1992 to 2004. Binge drinking among high school seniors has fallen from 36.9 percent in 1975 to about 29.2 percent in 2004. And youths aged 12 to 17 are almost three times less likely to be a crime victim than they were just ten years earlier.
The full report is available online at http://www.ffcd.org.
A government website designed to help parents talk to teens about sex http://www.4parents.gov has drawn the ire of the ACLU for giving parents advice on how to convince their children that “abstinence is the healthiest choice.” http://www.msnbc.msn.com According to the website “4Parents.gov is part of a new national public education campaign to provide parents with the information, tools and skills they need to help their teens make the healthiest choices.”
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