does the sex offender registry help?

The sex offender registry is in place to protect people from sex offenders; the assumption is that offenders are likely to offend again. If we know who they are, we can protect ourselves and our families from them. Not so fast.

REOFFENDING rates by child pornography users are far below rates for assaults, drink-driving or property damage, with fewer than one in 10 people who download sexual images of minors later convicted of the crime again....

The...study also found that intensive treatment and supervision orders for people found guilty of child pornography possession, including group counselling and mandatory listing on the sex offenders register, might actually increase the risk of reoffending....

[The] sex offenders [registry]...are potentially counterproductive in trying to reduce reoffending, he said. "All the evidence I am aware of shows it has minimal impact on the incidence and nature of sexual offending … The implication is we are making public policy decisions on the basis of emotion and impression rather than on the basis of scientific evidence."

Making public policy decisions on the basis of emotion and impression? This article is out of Australia, so maybe that happens only in Australia. Surely not here in the US! Oh, wait...