Sex offender registry criticized

Some call it the scarlet letter of the modern day: registered sex offender. More than 11,000 men and women in Missouri carry the label above their names, addresses and photographs on a publicly accessible Web site. But do they all deserve to be there? [...]

Now a mother of five in her 30s, she was 20 when she had consensual sex with a 15-year-old boy she thought was 18. She pleaded guilty in 1992 but received a suspended imposition of sentence and thus has no criminal conviction. Another client, John Doe 1, made the list for improperly touching his 15-year-old girlfriend when he was 17.

source: Article 'Sex offender registry criticized' by Tony Rizzo; www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/13575048.htm; Kansas City Star; 8 January 2006