(Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Most of the people listed on New Jersey\u2019s sex offender registry are there for crimes too terrible to imagine.<\/span><\/p>\n They\u2019ve molested preschoolers or even babies, made and traded child pornography, raped victims at knifepoint. Many are considered repetitive, compulsive offenders, so likely to reoffend that the state warns the public about them.<\/span><\/p>\n Then there\u2019s J.<\/span><\/p>\n The North Jersey man, who asked that his name be withheld because of the stigma sex offenders endure, was 14 when he says a hangout with a younger friend in a treehouse turned sexual. The other boy\u2019s parents found out and reported him to police.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI denied it because I was embarrassed by it,\u201d J said. \u201cAnd then, you know, it just kind of snowballed from there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Wanting to put it behind him, J pleaded guilty and was sentenced to counseling and six months of probation.<\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s where it should have ended.<\/span><\/p>\n But because of a shoplifting incident months later, a judge ordered J to lifelong registration as a sex offender.<\/span><\/p>\n Cases like J\u2019s have prompted calls for reform from juvenile justice advocates who say children don\u2019t deserve that label for life \u2014 or even at all.<\/span><\/p>\n New Jersey is one of 42 states that allow juveniles to be placed on sex offender registries, according to the Juvenile Law Center, even though\u00a0<\/span>research<\/span><\/a>\u00a0shows only 5% of juvenile sex offenders commit new sex crimes.<\/span><\/p>\n State laws on sex offender registries vary widely in everything from what offenses require registration, how old someone must be to land on the list, and how long they must remain on it.<\/span><\/p>\n But in New Jersey, children 14 or older who get adjudicated in Family Court for a sex-related offense fall under the same mandatory registration requirements adults do \u2014 and judges have no power to keep them off the list.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn deciding to take that approach, New Jersey is among the most restrictive, draconian states in the nation,\u201d said Laura Cohen, director of the Criminal and Youth Justice Clinic at Rutgers University.<\/span><\/p>\n Juvenile justice has trended toward leniency in recent years, with\u00a0<\/span>research<\/span><\/a>\u00a0into adolescent brain development spurring the U.S. Supreme Court to exempt juveniles from the death penalty and lifetime imprisonment without the possibility of parole.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the Megan\u2019s Law context, we haven\u2019t caught up to that recognition that juveniles are less mature than adults and are more likely to rehabilitate as they as they grow and mature,\u201d said Michael Noveck, assistant deputy public defender in the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender. \u201cWe should treat people whose conduct occurs when they\u2019re juveniles a lot differently than adults.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \t<\/span><\/p>\n Sex offenders in New Jersey get \u201ctiered\u201d based on how much risk they represent to the public. Even the lowest tiered offenders, like J, are required to check in with local police at least once a year and report address changes \u2014 or risk incarceration.<\/span><\/p>\n Information about the lowest-tiered offenders is shared with law enforcement statewide, but it\u2019s not posted on an online\u00a0<\/span>registry<\/span><\/a>\u00a0where the state alerts the public of moderate- and high-risk offenders.<\/span><\/p>\n In J\u2019s case, people still found out.<\/span><\/p>\n When he was 17, a cop who attended his church learned of his sex offender status and threatened to reveal it to the congregation if the pastor didn\u2019t remove him from Sunday school.<\/span><\/p>\n Later, he lost a new job when his status came up on a background check. And a few girlfriends ended their relationship with him when he shared his history with them.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a scary situation to realize that, at any moment, the wrong person could find out and just out you to everyone that you know, and that will change how everyone views you,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n But worse was the constant fear he felt as a registered sex offender.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI got a citation because I didn\u2019t mow my lawn. But I couldn\u2019t pay it, so a police officer came knocking on my door,\u201d he remembered. \u201cI hid in my house. I didn\u2019t answer the door. I just peeked out the window, because I was like, \u2018Oh my God, what if something happened in the neighborhood, and they think I did it because I\u2019m on the registry?\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In 2017, J decided he\u2019d had enough. He petitioned to get off the list.<\/span><\/p>\n Under New Jersey law, registration as a sex offender is lifelong. Sex offenders can petition for removal from the registry if their sex crime wasn\u2019t an aggravated offense and if they don\u2019t reoffend within 15 years of their conviction \u2014 and even something as asexual and minor as shoplifting counts against them.<\/span><\/p>\n New Jersey has no minimum age for the registry, but juveniles under 14 who get on the list can get off it at 18, if they prove in a hearing they pose no threat to others.<\/span><\/p>\n Officially, J didn\u2019t qualify for removal. His sex offense conviction was for aggravated sexual assault because of the age gap between him and the other boy \u2014 who was 10 \u2014 and he committed a new crime at 15, when he was convicted of shoplifting Legos from a store and a judge extended his initial six-month probation indefinitely.<\/span><\/p>\n But the Office of the Public Defender took the case anyway, and in April, a judge approved J\u2019s petition and removed him from the registry. He won on the narrow ground that both his offenses predated Megan\u2019s Law, the 1994 measure meant to increase public safety by requiring convicted sex offenders to register for life with law enforcement, so the ruling doesn\u2019t have broad impact.<\/span><\/p>\n Now, the Office of the Public Defender is battling a case in Essex County they hope will be precedential. A woman who was a teenager when she was adjudicated delinquent for a sex offense and later got charged for shoplifting as an adult is fighting for removal from the registry too.<\/span><\/p>\n Noveck hopes that case will spur a change in how New Jersey handles all juvenile sex offenders.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re trying to align Megan\u2019s Law to fit the other areas of law where jurisprudence has recognized that children are different,\u201d Noveck said.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \t<\/span><\/p>\n For Riya Saha Shah, there are all sorts of reasons why children shouldn\u2019t be on sex offender registries at all.<\/span><\/p>\n Shah is managing director at the Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit whose 2014 challenge of Pennsylvania\u2019s registry requirements led the state\u2019s Supreme Court to declare lifetime registration for juveniles unconstitutional.<\/span><\/p>\n The center estimates that 200,000 people on are sex offender registries nationally for crimes they committed as children. About 1,010 of the 16,839 people on New Jersey\u2019s registry as of August 2021 were juveniles, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts. It\u2019s unclear how many adults on the registry are there for offenses they committed as juveniles.<\/p>\n In the Megan’s Law context, we haven’t caught up to that recognition that juveniles are less mature than adults and are more likely to rehabilitate as they as they grow and mature. We should treat people whose conduct occurs when they’re juveniles a lot differently than adults.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2013 Michael Noveck, assistant deputy public defender<\/b><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \t<\/span><\/p>\n When it comes to putting children on the registry, \u201cthey don\u2019t do the thing they purport to do, which is to make communities safer,\u201d Shah said. \u201cInstead, they do so much harm to children and the families of children on the registry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Children on the registry are more likely to be homeless, attempt suicide, and be approached for sex by an adult, Shah said. Black, brown, and LGBTQ children also are disproportionately represented on sex offender registries, she added.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere are very tangible, very harmful effects of putting children on sex offender registries,\u201d Shah said.<\/span><\/p>\n Mandatory registration also ignores the fact that some inappropriate sexual behavior by children is rooted in abuse, said Camille Gibson, executive director of the Texas Juvenile Crime Prevention Center at Prairieview A & M University.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOftentimes when young people are engaged in sexual behavior, it\u2019s because they have been victimized, so we want to be careful about not rushing to treat victims like offenders,\u201d Gibson said.<\/span><\/p>\n Treatment, then, is key, and in other states, judges can keep juveniles off the registry if they successfully complete therapy, Gibson said. But in New Jersey, state law gives judges no such discretion.<\/span><\/p>\n After 27 years on the registry, J still fails to see what purpose it served. He never committed any other crimes and feels like his time on the registry had no impact on public safety.<\/span><\/p>\n He\u2019s now happily married to a woman who knows his background. He\u2019s working and just completed a college program that he hopes will help him pivot to his dream career.<\/span><\/p>\n But he still guards his identity closely. He feels like he spent almost three decades \u201chiding this deep, dark secret\u201d that only became a deep, dark secret because of his bad timing with an unyielding law and the stigma sex offenders endure.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was treated like I was a prowler, like a serial rapist, like the worst of the worst,\u201d J said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to forget that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \n ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/newjerseymonitor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Laura-Cohen-217x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Living in fear<\/h4>\n
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<\/a>The harms of registration<\/h4>\n