Emma McLean-Riggs Urges Reform of Colorado’s Sex Offender Management Board

Emma McLean-Riggs (’19), ACLU of Colorado Juvenile Justice Fellow, was quoted in The Denver Post discussing deregistration of people assigned to the sex-offender registry (“Critics Seek Reform of Colorado Sex Offender Laws They Say Can Do More Harm than Good,” Sep. 6). “Registration does not work. It does not keep us any safer. Period. The reason we continue to use registration as a tool is only about the politics of disgust. It’s a way for us to express disapproval of that behavior, and a way for us to ‘other’ and distinguish ourselves from the folks who commit sexual crimes. . . . Because I’m a survivor I care about exactly one thing: what works. That’s it. I don’t care about performing disgust, condemning people, punishment. I care about little kids, like I was.”

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