UF research: No state completely open about convicted sex offenders

January 25, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — No state is as open as it could be in informing the public about the presence of convicted sex offenders in the neighborhood, new University of Florida research finds.

Indiana was rated the best state in providing information about sex offenders on the Internet while Hawaii, Nebraska and South Dakota were rated the least forthcoming by the Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project in UF’s College of Journalism and Communications. Florida was rated 35th.

“Parents can look at the project’s Web site and say ‘this is a state that provides more information than anyone else’ or ‘these states don’t provide information,” said Bill Chamberlin, director of the Citizen Access Project and Joseph Brechner Eminent Scholar of Freedom of Information. “We tracked distribution of sex offender information because it was the subject of a recent Supreme Court opinion and we knew it was a topic a lot of citizens are interested in.”

The UF project is the first to systematically rate state laws on the accessibility to information about sex offenders, Chamberlin said.

States were ranked on a scale of one to seven, with one being “completely closed” and seven being “completely open.” Indiana rated a five, “somewhat open.” While no state received a rating of one, the three lowest – Hawaii, Nebraska and South Dakota — scored a two and were described as “mostly closed.” Florida, where there has been several highly publicized cases involving sex offenders in recent years, rated a “four,” which is “neither more open nor more closed.”

Indiana, the state rated most open, requires sex offender information to be posted on-line with stringent language, such as “must” or “shall” instead of “may,” said Courtney Barclay, a UF doctoral student in media law who helped prepare the Web site.

Whether the data about sex offenders “had to be posted,” or was simply allowed to be posted, was one of the four subcategories making up the overall rating. States also were rated on the kind of personal information available about an offender, such as a physical description, current address and occupation; administration and procedures, which among other things specifies which government agency is responsible for developing and maintaining the Web site; and sex offender classification, the types of offenders who have their information placed online.

North Carolina, Colorado and Arizona ranked most open for the mandate to distribute sex offender information. They received a five for “somewhat open.” Indiana, Wisconsin and New Jersey placed highest in maximizing the personal information available and received a six for “mostly open.” Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky had the best scores – six and “mostly open” – for providing information about sex offenders. In the administration and procedures category, all of the states received either a four for “neither more open nor more closed,” or three for “somewhat closed.”

“All our project does is rate laws according to whether they are more open or closed,” Chamberlin said. “We don’t pretend to make a value judgment on the best or worst laws because this is a very complicated subject.

“More information about sex offenders may not be necessarily better, depending on each individual’s values,” he said. “On the one hand it certainly is a compelling argument that parents need to know when repeat sex offenders are living nearby so they can take adequate precautions, but in some states a person can be classified as a sex offender for having had a consensual intimate relationship with someone under age 30 years ago.

“Society also has a real interest in rehabilitation of sex offenders and we don’t want to drive people who make one mistake many years ago into a position where they have no way to live a new life because they can’t get beyond their past,” he said.

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that photos of convicted sex offenders could be posted online, refuting claims that such publicity was unconstitutional because it constituted a second punishment and was a form of double jeopardy.

A federal law passed in August goes beyond what many states have required to be posted on the Internet. States have three years to conform to the federal law. In the meantime, substantial differences exist in various state requirements, which are spelled out on the project’s Web site, Chamberlin said.

The Marion Brechner Citizen Access Project is funded by a grant from Marion Brechner, an Orlando broadcast executive and philanthropist. More information and individual state rankings can be found at www.citizenaccess.org.