In a provocative essay in Counterpunch, Judith Levine and Erica Meiners argue that the laudable push to remove juveniles from sex offender registries does not go far enough. They say the registries should be abolished for everyone – adults as well as children.
We need to care about children—both those who commit harm and those who experience of harm. But we must not build movements that collude with a system that deems only some people—due to age, race, sex, gender expression, sexuality or criminal status—worth of compassion, justice, and life. For justice and for an end to violence, it’s time to abolish the sex offender registry.
Levine and Meiners also connect efforts to reform or abolish sex offender registries with the wider criminal justice reform movement.
Read the full essay here.