Wisconsin's sex offender registry born of twin tragedies

Nov. 28--On any given day, anyone in Wisconsin can look up the name, address, photo, age and other identifying information on sex offenders in their area who have been place on the state's sex offender registry.

Established in 1997, the registry was created with the aim of making communities safer, said Sarah Wescott, corrections services supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Wescott also manages the registry with other DOC staff.

"Our main goal is to provide the most accurate information that we can, so that people can be aware of their own safety and who is in their community," Wescott said. "It's just so that you know kind of who is out there."

Police officers use it to find suspects, victims to know where their perpetrators are, employers to do background checks, and parents to make sure their children aren't interacting with a known offender, Wescott said.

Det. Sgt. Julie Johnson, who oversees the Special Victims Unit at the Madison Police Department, said in her 23 years as a police officer, she has used the registry frequently to investigate cases of child sexual assault, child pornography and other crimes against children.

"That's the first place we can look," Johnson said.

How did it start?

The Wisconsin registry started after two crimes that drew national attention, Wescott said.

In 1989, 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted by a stranger in Minnesota. His death was confirmed many years later in 2016 when a Minnesota man admitted to molesting and murdering the boy.

At the time of the abduction, the public was frustrated that many sex offenders lived in the immediate area without their knowledge, prompting the 1994 Wetterling Act, a federal law that required states to create sex offender registries for law enforcement use.

Two years later, Congress passed Megan's Law, which required states to make the registries available to the public and notify communities when a sex offender moves into an area.

Seven-year-old Megan Kanka was raped and murdered by a neighbor who had been convicted of sexual offenses in the past. Her parents were not aware a child molester had moved in across the street from them.

After those two cases, states across the country developed their own sex offender registries and Wisconsin followed suit, creating a public registry with a notification system in 1997.

Who is on it?

More than 25,000 people are listed on Wisconsin's registry, with crimes ranging from sexual assault to child enticement to child pornography.

Of those, about 1,000 lived in Dane County as of early November. The registry includes all sex offenders who live in the state, even those who were convicted out of state.

Some of the crimes that put people on the registry are not explicitly sexual in nature, such as kidnapping, false imprisonment or burglary.

Wescott said many times these crimes had some kind of sexual element that would cause a judge order the person be added to the registry. For example, Wescott said, a burglar may have broken into a home to steal photos of a child or underwear.

Just one tool

Wescott cautioned that the registry is not the "end all, be all" for a family's way of protecting children.

She said 93% of victims know their perpetrator or are at least acquainted with them. Authorities estimate just 7% of children are victimized by strangers.

In most cases of physical abuse, the offender is a family member or someone who comes in regular contact with the child. The strangers who abuse children tend to find them over the internet on social media.

"Now the strangers are coming into the children's bedrooms through the internet," Johnson said.

Still, Johnson said some sex offenders do re-offend, underscoring the usefulness of the registry.

Wescott said parents should make sure their children know they can say no to an adult and that they don't have to do things that make them feel uncomfortable. She said parents can teach their children to get themselves out of a situation if they "get that yucky feeling in your tummy area."

She also suggests children have five people who are not in their family whom they can go to if something bad is happening.

"The registry is a tool, but there are other things you can do to make sure your family is safe," she said.

One thing the registry should never be used for, Wescott said, is to make life harder for sex offenders who may be working hard to better their communities and not reoffend.

"It's a tool for you," Wescott said. "It's not something to be used to make the registrant pay again or harass them to leave your town. That's not the intended use."

___

(c)2020 The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.)

Visit The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wis.) at www.wisconsinstatejournal.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.