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| ONCE FALLEN RECOMMENDED MULTIMEDIA LIBRARY Nov. 15, 2010 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this page is to provide recommended media for further research on sex offender issues. The media listed here have all been viewed personally by Once Fallen. A brief description and links to sites that sell the media will also be provided (List order does not imply one media is recommended over another, all media listed here are recommended). |
| BOOKS ONCE FALLEN (2009) AUTHOR: Derek Logue Description: Once Fallen is a two-part book exposing the fallacies and negative consequences of sex offender legislation. The first part follows the author's journey through seven years as a registered sex offender; the second part of the book describes and exposes the fallacies of the various sex offender laws currently on the books. Once Fallen calls for sweeping reforms of current laws and a call for prevention, treatment, and restoration. Ordering Info: You can CLICK HERE to order from Amazon or CLICK HERE to order directly from the author. COMMENTS: Once Fallen is currently being updated. The second edition is tentatively scheduled to be released in Spring 2011. All people who bought a copy directly from the author will automatically receive a copy of the Second Edition upon release. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAILURE TO PROTECT: AMERICA'S SEXUAL PREDATOR LAWS AND THE RISE OF THE PREVENTIVE STATE (2006) BY: Eric S. Janus Description: (from the publisher's website) "In this book, Eric S. Janus goes far beyond sensational headlines to expose the reality of the laws designed to prevent sexual crimes. He shows that "sexual predator" laws, which have intense public and political support, are counterproductive. Janus contends that aggressive measures such as civil commitment and Megan's law, which are designed to restrain sex offenders before they can commit another crime, are bad policy and do little to actually reduce sexual violence. Further, these new laws make use of approaches such as preventive detention and actuarial profiling that violate important principles of liberty." Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order from Cornell University Press or CLICK HERE to order from Amazon.com. COMMENTS: This book was a heavy influence in the writing of Once Fallen. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PREVENTING SEXUAL VIOLENCE: HOW SOCIETY SHOULD COPE WITH SEX OFFENDERS (2005) BY: John Q. LaFond Description: (From the APA website) Preventing Sexual Violence: How Society Should Cope With Sex Offenders systematically critiques the current treatment of sex offenders in an effort to determine how best to prevent reoffending without infringing on the rights of citizens. The book offers the latest data about sex offenders and the novel and powerful legal measures enacted to prevent sexual violence. In recent years, states have initiated programs for sex offenders involving involuntary commitment, mandatory registration, community notification, and even chemical castration. The author identifies which new strategies work, which strategies are based on false assumptions, and which should be modified or abandoned. In addition to recommending ways to improve programs, the author focuses on an effective risk management program that could be expanded and reproduced nationwide. In community protection programs that use risk management, offenders receive punishment, monitoring, and control adjusted to their level of risk for reoffending. Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order from the APA publisher's site or CLICK HERE to order from Amazon.com. COMMENTS: This is the first comprehensive book I have read on the subject. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OUT OF THE SHADOWS: UNDERSTANDING SEXUAL ADDICTION, THIRD EDITION (2001) BY: Patrick Carnes, Ph. D Description: (From Amazon.com) This breakthrough work, the first to describe sexual addiction, is still the standard for recognizing and overcoming this destructive behavior. With insight and sensitivity, Dr. Patrick Carnes outlines how to identify a sexual addict, recognize the way others may unwittingly become complicit or codependent, and change the patterns that support the addiction. Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order from Hazeldon Publishing or CLICK HERE to order from Amazon.com. Kindle version available. COMMENTS: A very good book on dealing with sexual addiction. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HANDBOOK FOR SEXUAL ABUSER ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT (2001) BY: Mark S. Carich, Ph. D., and Steven E. Mussack, Ph. D. Description: (From the Safer Society Press) Safer Society is pleased to publish this long-awaited compendium. With chapters from William Marshall, Robert McGrath, Emily Coleman, James Haaven, Alvin Lewis, Laren Bays, William Murphy, Peter Loss, Jerry Thomas, and Gary Lowe, as well as from the editors and others, this volume provides an essential basic outline of comprehensive treatment--the perfect introduction and reference volume that should be on every clinician's shelf. Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order from Safer Society Press or CLICK HERE to order from Amazon.com. No Kindle version available. COMMENTS: A collection of articles on treatment, victim empathy, evaluating and treating offenders, and other issues related to treating offenders. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HELPING VICTIMS OF SEXUAL ABUSE (2006) BY: Lynn Heitritter and Jeanette Vought Description: (From the publisher) How do we minister to victims of sexual abuse? It's a difficult problem for Christian communities. This solidly biblical and sensitive guide is packed full of helpful information that provides a valuable perspective on how abuse affects children and the family dynamics that play into its development. As well, readers will also discover practical tools that can lead adult victims into full recovery in Christ. Required reading for everyone who wants to bring meaningful ministry to those affected by sexual abuse. Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order from Bethany House or CLICK HERE to order from Amazon. com. Kindle Version Available! COMMENTS: This is a good book on helping victims of sexual abuse recover from the effects of the abuse from a Christian perspective, and it deals with many issues dealing with forgiveness and views of God following abuse. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SEX OFFENDER LAWS: FAILED POLICIES, NEW DIRECTIONS (2009) BY: Richard G. Wright Description: (From the Publisher's site) In this book, Wright critically analyzes existing policies, and assesses the most effective approaches in preventing sex offender recidivism. This provocative and timely book draws from the fields of criminal justice, law, forensic psychology, and social work to examine how current laws and policies are enacted and what to-date is known about their efficacy. The team of expert contributors includes Karen Terry, author of Sexual Offenses and Offenders, and others who bring a wealth of insight to the field of sex offense. In response to the failed policies of sex offender laws, this book presents alternative models and approaches to sex offense laws and policies. Wright also explores critical, cutting-edge topics, such as internet sexual solicitation, the death penalty, and community responses to sex offense. Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order from Springer Publishing Company, or CLICK HERE to order from Amazon.com. COMMENTS: This book is a very long and scholarly work, so it may be a hard read for some. It is a very in-depth book and contains a lot of really good info. My only complaint is because it was written by clinicians, it supports the clinical model over the restorative justice model; the clinical model supports the use of polygraphs, plethysmographs, and other junk science methods for the purpose of trickery. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AMERICA'S WAR ON SEX (2006) BY: Marty Klein Description: This book covers the movement to suppress all things sexual in America-- the censorship of sexual imagery in the media, Internet filtering software, abstinence-only programs and distortions of safe sex, the war on pornography, and the "sexual disaster" industry. There is a growing movement, mostly from the Religious Right, calling for a return to puritan values, and they are using misinformation and fear to achieve this goal. Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order directly from the author, or CLICK HERE to buy from Amazon. com. Kindle version is available. COMMENTS: This covers some of the fear mongering and the campaign of misinformation, myths, and lies that we often hear in the sex offender issue. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HARMFUL TO MINORS: THE PERILS OF PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM SEX (2002) BY: Judith S. Levine Description: (From the publisher's website) Sex is a wonderful, crucial part of growing up, and children and teens can enjoy the pleasures of the body and be safe, too. In this important and controversial book, Judith Levine makes this argument and goes further, asserting that America's attempts to protect children from sex are worse than ineffectual. It is the assumption of danger and the exclusive focus on protection—what Levine terms "the sexual politics of fear"—that are themselves harmful to minors. Through interviews with young people and their parents, stories drawn from today's headlines, visits to classrooms and clinics, and a look back at the ways sex among children and teenagers has been viewed throughout history, Judith Levine debunks some of the dominant myths of our society. She examines and challenges widespread anxieties (pedophilia, stranger kidnapping, Internet pornography) and sacred cows (abstinence-based sex education, statutory rape laws). Levine investigates the policies and practices that affect kids' sex lives-censorship, psychology, sex and AIDS education, family, criminal, and reproductive law, and the journalism that begs for "solutions" while inciting more fear. Harmful to Minors offers fresh alternatives to fear and silence, describing sex-positive approaches that are ethically based and focus on common sense. Levine provides optimistic, though realistic, prescriptions for how we might do better in guiding children toward loving well—that is, safely, pleasurably, and with respect for others and themselves. Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order from University of Minnesota Press, or CLICK HERE to order from Amazon.com. No Kindle version available. COMMENTS: This book has a very good chapter on sex offender panic. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE TRAUMA MYTH (2010) BY: Susan A. Clancy Description: (From the publisher's website) Few would argue that the experience of sexual abuse is deeply traumatic for a child. But in this explosive new book, psychologist Susan Clancy reports on years of research and contends that it is not the abuse itself that causes trauma — but rather the narrative that is later imposed on the abuse experience. Clancy demonstrates that the most common feeling victims report is not fear or panic, but confusion. Because children don't understand sexual encounters in the same ways that adults do, they normally accommodate their perpetrators — something they feel intensely ashamed about as adults. The professional assumptions about the nature of childhood trauma can harm victims by reinforcing these feelings. Survivors are thus victimized not only by their abusers but also by the industry dedicated to helping them. Path-breaking and controversial, The Trauma Myth empowers survivors to tell their own stories, and radically reshapes our understanding of abuse and its aftermath. Ordering Options: CLICK HERE to order from Amazon COMMENTS: This book questions the prevailing teaching of sexual abuse as a universally traumatic experience. Many cases of sexual abuse are not stranger-danger nor do all abuse victims adhere to the myth. Through an honest reflection of the effects can we understand treatment of abuse victims. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONSENSUAL CONSEQUENCES (2011) BY: Lynn Gilmore Description: (From the Publisher's Website) CONSENSUAL CONSEQUENCES is the gripping true story of how one woman fell in love with a registered sex offender. This captivating story profiles the life of an average American family who is living a not-so-average life. Lynn was an educated woman who found herself in a dead-end marriage, and after much soul searching she realized what she must do. Enter a new love, a good honest man living with the label of "registered sex offender." Why would an educated woman fall in love with someone with such a label? Could this unlikely companion be Lynn's knight in shining armor? What are the consequences of this unusual love affair? As America wages war on every sex offender in the U.S.—no matter how minor the offense—how has this family coped with this scarlet letter and the restrictions placed on them? All of these questions are answered in this powerful story of true love and heartache while living in fear of vigilantism and simultaneously battling a system that punishes their whole family endlessly. Ordering Options: CLICK HERE to order direct from the Publisher or CLICK HERE for Amazon ordering options. It is now available on Kindle. COMMENTS: There needs to be more real life stories out there. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MORAL PANIC: Changing Concepts of the Child Molester in Modern America (1996) BY; Philip Jenkins Description: (From the Publisher's Website): It is commonly acknowledged that sexual abuse of children is a grave and pervasive problem and that child molesters are predators who compulsively repeat their crimes and have little hope of cure. Yet as recently as twenty years ago many experts viewed the problem far less seriously, declaring that molestation was a very rare offense and that molesters were merely confused individuals unlikely to repeat their offenses. Over the past century, opinion has fluctuated between these radically different perspectives. This timely book traces shifting social responses to adult sexual contacts with children, whether this involves molestation by strangers or incestuous acts by family members. The book explores how and why concern about the sexual offender has fluctuated in North America since the late nineteenth century. Philip Jenkins argues that all concepts of sex offenders and offenses are subject to social, political, and ideological influences and that no particular view of offenders represents an unchanging objective reality. He examines the various groups (including mass media) who have been active in promoting particular constructions of the emerging problem, the impact of public attitudes on judicial and legislative responses to these crimes, and the ways in which demographic change, gender politics, and morality campaigns have shaped public opinion. While not minimizing sexual abuse of children, the book thus places reactions to the problem in a broad political and cultural context. Ordering Options: CLICK HERE to order from the publisher; CLICK HERE for Amazon.com. COMMENTS: A very comprehensive history of sex offender panic since the late 1800s. I'd love to see an update to add the past few years of sex offender legislation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| COMPREHENSIVE STUDIES AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD! NO EASY ANSWERS: SEX OFFENDER LAWS IN THE UNITED STATES (2007) BY: Sarah Tofte, Human Rights Watch Description: This 146-page report is the first comprehensive study of US sex offender policies, their public safety impact, and the effect they have on former offenders and their families. During two years of investigation for this report, Human Rights Watch researchers conducted over 200 interviews with victims of sexual violence and their relatives, former offenders, law enforcement and government officials, treatment providers, researchers, and child safety advocates. Download Info: CLICK HERE to download the report from Human Rights Watch. Printed copies can also be ordered for $10 from their website. COMMENTS: A very good comprehensive report on the practical effects of laws targeting former offenders, including face-to-face interviews with former offenders and families. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE PURSUIT OF SAFETY: SEX OFFENDER POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES (2008) BY: Tracy Velasquez, Vera Institute of Justice Description: While high-profile sex crimes routinely grab headlines, the question of how well current sex offense laws are working rarely has been examined. This report provides an overview of sex offense policies, identifying key trends and examining what is known about the effectiveness of different approaches at meeting their aims. Following a brief history of sex offender laws and a discussion of some of the current issues in the field, the report examines six significant trends in recent sex offender legislation: stricter sentencing, enhanced registration requirements, expanded community notification, more residency restrictions, the spread of electronic monitoring, and the growth of civil commitment of convicted sex offenders. Download Info: CLICK HERE to access the download page at the Vera Institute of Justice COMMENTS: Another great comprehensive study with a list of laws in every state as of September 2008 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| VIDEOS/ FILMS/ DOCUMENTARIES WITCH HUNT (2009) BY: New Films International Description: (From the publisher's website) Executive Producer Sean Penn proudly presents "Witch Hunt," a gripping indictment of the United States justice system told through the lens of one small town. It's John Stoll's story, but it's also the story of dozens of other men and women who found themselves ensnared in a spiral of fear, ignorance and hysteria. These people are Americans, working class moms and dads, who were rounded up with little or no evidence, charged and convicted of almost unimaginable crimes. All sexual. All crimes against children. Years, sometimes decades later, they would find freedom again, but their lives and the lives of their children would be changed forever. This film shows viewers what the real crime in this case is, not molestation, but the crime of coercion. Viewers hear from the child witnesses who were forced to lie on the witness stand as they describe scary sessions with sheriff's deputies in which they were told -- not asked -- about sexual experiences that happened to them. Their coerced testimony led to dozens of convictions. Many times their own parents were the ones they put behind bars. Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order directly from the publisher, or CLICK HERE to buy from Amazon. Proceeds of the film benefit The Innocence Project. Comments: Witch Hunt is a documentary that dissects the infamous Bakersfield Day Care Abuse scare of the late 1980s, one of the primary catalysts behind modern predator panic and triggering the scare of rampant abuse in daycares across the country. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- STEVIE (2003) BY: Lion's Gate Films Description: (From the movie site IMDb) In 1995 Director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) returned to rural Southern Illinois to reconnect with Stevie Fielding, a troubled young boy he had been an 'Advocate Big Brother' to ten years earlier... He began a film, a search, to discover not only what had happened to Stevie over the past ten years but to understand the forces that had shaped his entire life. Part way through the filming, Stevie is arrested and charged with a serious crime that tears his family apart. What was to be a modest profile turns into a intimate four and half year chronicle of Stevie, his broken family, the criminal justice system and the filmmaker himself, as they all struggle with what Stevie has done and who he has become. (See a very good review by Roger Ebert) (CLICK HERE to go to the film's website) Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order from Amazon.com COMMENTS: I bought this movie for $2 from TJ Maxx. I'm glad I did. It was very moving and sad to watch the events unfold. Like Roger Ebert states in his review, by the end of the film you wonder if anything could have been done to change his life. It illustrates the failure of a broken system. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE WOODSMAN (2004) By New Market Films Description: (From the Movie site IMDb) After twelve years in prison, Walter arrives in an unnamed city, moves into a small apartment across the street from an elementary school, gets a job at a lumberyard, and mostly keeps to himself. A quiet, guarded man, Walter finds unexpected solace from Vickie, a tough-talking woman who promises not to judge him for his history. But Walter cannot escape his past. A convicted sex offender, Walter is warily eyed by his brother-in-law, shunned by his sister, lives in fear of being discovered at work, and is hounded by a suspicious local police officer, Detective Lucas. After befriending a young girl in a neighborhood park, Walter must also grapple with the terrible prospect of his own reawakened demons. CLICK HERE to go to the official site. Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order from Amazon. COMMENTS: Even thought this is a work of fiction, it is a very good story of redemption and overcoming. Unlike the portrayals of sex offenders in most films, The Woodsman gives a mostly positive portrayal of a man struggling to adjusting to life in the free world. |
| OTHER INTERESTING MULTIMEDIA WORTH CHECKING OUT "THE OUTER EDGES" by Charles Jackson (1948) Description: This largely forgotten book (which I only discovered through reading Jenkins's "Moral Panics" book) illustrates the lives of many intertwined individuals in the days following a double rape-murder of two young girls. There is the young reporter who "lives for" these stories, the "dim-witted kid" who commits these crimes without understanding what he did was wrong, and the furor surrounding the case from the people caught up in the case directly and indirectly. Jackson takes a different approach to many writers, casting the alleged criminal in a sympathetic light. The book gives us a window into the nature of post-WWII predator panic. Ordering Info: Copies of this book are hard to find, but a few copies can be scored via Amazon or ABE Books. "The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right" by David Neiwart (2009) Description: From Publishers Weekly (as reposted on Amazon) Neiwert (Strawberry Days), founder of the political blog Orcinus, links the proliferation of radical conservative ideas in the political mainstream to the looming specter of eliminationism, an ideology rejecting dialogue and debate in favor of the pursuit of outright elimination of the opposing side, either through suppression, exile, and eviction, or extermination. Eliminationism has taken many forms in American history, from the attitudes of early settlers toward the Native Americans they displaced and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan to the establishment of Sundown Towns that banned nonwhite residents and the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII. In recent years, the eliminationist urge, articulated by conservative fringe groups associated with the Christian Patriot movement, has emerged in talk radio, news networks and national press outlets providing a platform for attacks on immigrants, Muslims, homosexuals and liberals. In these efforts, the author discerns a nascent American fascism, an argument that is by turns frightening and overwrought. Rich in historical and journalistic detail, the book offers a fine overview of the uglier strains in American politics. However, those looking for concrete solutions will find the author's call for ever-increasing vigilance somewhat less than fortifying. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Ordering Info: CLICK HERE to order on Amazon. Comments: While some may question why a political book without references to sex offender laws is listed here, this book offers a very good history of "eliminationism" in America, from the disenfrachisement of minorities to "Sundown Towns" and other discrimination to the justification of eliminationist policies, which sound exactly alike the justifications used against sex offenders. |