We, the undersigned legal and mental health professionals, have witnessed first-hand how sexual offender laws "fail to protect" society. These laws spend billions on administrative, judicial and imprisonment costs that are bankrupting the states. While we are as concerned as anyone with the safety of women and children, we believe draconian sentences, civil commitment, lifetime registration, community notification and residency requirements are not policies based on good science but the result of politicians ratcheting up the punishments to appear tough on crime. The undersigned are of the opinion that there are more sensible ways to deal with the problem of sexual violence in our society. We hope that our colleagues participating in assisting the states implement these regressive laws will terminate such work. We ask them to join us in encouraging state legislatures to do a sweeping overhaul of sex offender laws, and to shift from a predator paradigm to a public health approach. For example, primary prevention efforts should be directed toward reducing the objectification of girls and women in our culture, reducing advertising that contributes to such objectification, and encouraging more fathers to model for their sons respectful and responsible ways of relating to girls and young women. Early intervention with sex offenders should begin when they start their initial prison sentences, eliminating the need for a disingenuous and unfair civil commitment at the end of their sentences. Half-way houses and employment opportunities will do more to rehabilitate former offenders than lifetime registration and residency requirements, which have not been found to reduce the rate of recidivism.

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