Years Later, VT Sex Offender Registry Lacks Addresses

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A recent article in the Burlington Free Press provided an update on the State’s efforts to update and maintain Vermont’s Sex Offender Registry.

“Karen Tronsgard-Scott, Executive Director of the Vermont Network Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, would rather Vermont not have an online sex offender registry at all, because she says the money could be used for better purposes.

‘There is huge public desire for a sex offender registry, but it’s a false solution,’ Tronsgard-Scott said in a telephone interview. Tronsgard-Scott said that there is no evidence that sex offender registries make communities safer.

Tronsgard-Scott added that posting people’s addresses would only make them ‘social pariahs’ in a community when they may need treatment and support.

‘Think of how much money we’re spending on a sex offender registry’, she said. ‘And we’re not doing it well.’

Waterman, the spokesman for the Department of Public Safety, was unable to provide an estimate of costs for the sex offender registry because there is no dedicated line item for the registry in the department budget. Tronsgard-Scott said state money is better spent on treatment for sex offenders, which is proven to be effective.”

Read the full article at the Burlington Free Press by clicking here.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]