ATSA - a selection of things I have learned

Rather than try and write up the whole conference I thought I'd list some interesting and sometimes shocking facts.

• Using polygraph tests on sexual abuse victims has been outlawed in three states.
  
• Tent cities of convicted sex offenders have sprung up in many states, because of strict laws governing where they can live (away from schools etc) and because no landlord wants them. In Georgia for instance there was until yesterday a tent city of offenders in the woods.
• Gene Abel (a big figure in sex offender treatment in the (US) has developed a screening tool for prospective employees ie one that screens for the risk of sexual offending. He calims a circa 45% success rate, compared to the standard of criminal background checks of 0.1%.
• The Chandlers, a mother and son outfit, treat 400 sex offenders in Oklahoma. They have 19 competitors, all private sector companies.
• Kenneth Dodge, of the Centre for Child and Family Polic at Duke University, says that American law on registering sex offenders means that there is a minimum registration period of 15 years - and the register includes former college students convicted after streaking, resgitered for 15 years.
• The law also allows for 'death in prison' sentences for children, so around 2,000 kids convicted under the age of sixteen will spend the rest of thier life in prison, no opportunity for parole. This is specifically outlawed by the UN convention on the rights of the child, which only America and Somalia have not signed.
• There is now an i-Phone App that allows people to track the location of sex offenders in theior area - this follows on from Megan's Law.
• Kelly Wilson of the University of Mississippi Oxford reported that a pharmaceutical company is actually pushing the use of a drug which makes your eyelashes grow, and therefore helps overcome your anxiety about having small eyelashes.
• Polygraphy, absolutely standard in the US, is coming to the UK, with two trials now starting. If successful the UK will need lots of qualified polygraphers - anyone interested?
• Restorative Justice is being developed across a range of areas, but is in its absolute infancy in relation to sexual abuse.