“THEY’RE PLANTING STORIES IN THE PRESS”: THE IMPACT OF MEDIA DISTORTIONS ON SEX OFFENDER LAW AND POLICY Heather Ellis Cucolo * and Michael L. Perlin † Introduction Individuals classified as sexual predators are the pariahs of the community. Sex offenders are arguably the most despised members of our society and therefore warrant our harshest condemnation. 1 Twenty individual states and the federal government have enacted laws confining individuals who have been adjudicated as “sexually violent predators” to civil commitment facilities post incarceration and/or conviction. 2 Additionally, in many jurisdictions, offenders who are returned to the community are restricted and monitored under community notification, registration and residency limitations. 3 Targeting, punishing, and ostracizing these individuals has become an obsession in society, clearly evidenced in the constant push to enact even more restrictive legislation that breaches the boundaries of constitutional protections. 4 * Adjunct Professor at New York Law School † Professor and Director, International Mental Disability Law Reform Project, and Online Mental Disability Law Program at New York Law School. 1 See generally Sarah Geraghty, Challenging the Banishment of Registered Sex Offenders from the State of Georgia: A Practitioner's Perspective, 42 HARV. C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 513, 514 (2007); see also, Bruce J. Winick, Sex Offender Law in the 1990's: A Therapeutic Jurisprudence Analysis, 4 PSYCHOL. PUB. POL'Y & L. 505, 506 (1998) (discussing that individuals who commit sex offenses against children are probably the most hated group in our society). 2 See generally Catherine L. Carpenter & Amy E. Beverlin, The Evolution of Unconstitutionality in Sex Offender Registration Laws, 63 HASTINGS L. J. 1071 (2012). 3 Id. at 1078. 4 Michele L. Earl-Hubbard, The Child Sex Offender Registration Laws: The Punishment, Liberty Deprivation, and Unintended Results Associated with the Scarlet Letter Laws of the 1990s, 90 NW. U. L. REV. 788, 853–54 (1996); David A. Singleton, Sex Offender Residency Statutes and the Culture of Fear: The Case for More Meaningful Rational Basis Review of Fear-Driven Public Safety Laws, 3 U. ST. THOMAS L. J. 600, 628 (2006); See Corey Rayburn Yung, One of These Laws Is Not Like the Others: Why the Federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act Raises New Constitutional Questions, 46 HARV. J. ON LEGIS. 369, 370–71 (2009) (contending that the federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act provisions must be amended to meet constitutional muster).