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Talia Milgrom-Elcott's column appears on alternate Saturdays...
Unless Ms. Milgrom-Elcott wants to argue that criminal records should themselves be abolished as a threat to the right of privacy, her point is both legally moot and historically incorrect. Given the existence of criminal records in the public domain, sexual offender registration laws are hardly the historic break with the "sacred values of our society" that Ms. Milgrom-Elcott claims they...
Further, Ms. Milgrom-Elcott criticizes the registration law's emphasis on the "supposed capacity for danger" rather than "actual danger." First of all, laws of punishment and incarceration have a probabilistic character. For example, while it is not certain that Charles Manson will kill again if released, his past actions give us strong reason to consider the possibility that he might do so, and as a result we keep him locked up for that reason, in addition to retribution and deterrence. Also, the recidivism rates of sexual offenders are very high, and unlike most other criminals, sexual offenders remain active...
Also, Ms. Milgrom-Elcott's comparison of sexual offender registration laws to laws in the past which have abridged free speech is ludicrous. First of all, freedom of speech is a long standing fundamental right, and secrecy about one's criminal past has, as I pointed out, never been one. Also, while many of the old laws restricting speech under the guise of national emergency were merely thinly veiled methods of suppressing political dissent, sexual offender registration laws have no such hidden motive, unless one wishes to argue that keeping secret from one's neighbors that one has kidnapped...
Despite Ms. Milgrom-Elcott's assertions to the contrary, the cause is not vague and the enemy is not ourselves. The target of these laws is the possible repeat rapist and the goal is prevention and minimization of violence against women and minors. --Mark R. Yzaguirre Harvard Law School...