A review by chrishudsonjr
Protecting Our Kids?: How Sex Offender Laws Are Failing Us by Emily Horowitz

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

A difficult subject to write about objectively. The format of the book may not be for everyone, but the material is incredibly important and well-argued. The author switches between rational critiques of modern sex offender laws and attitudes, and personal accounts of individuals convinced of sex offenses or their loved ones. Despite popular opinion, our current responses to sex crimes aren’t evidence-based, they’re based on sex panic / stranger danger hysteria, and tough on crime fear mongering. There’s good data on what actually reduces sex crimes against children and adults, but instead we waste resources on useless methods like public registries with zero pushback from even people who claim to care about criminal justice reform. Combatting our injustice system requires us not only to deal with low hanging fruit, but to also reckon with unsympathetic people who’ve actually caused harm.