Columbus NBC television affiliate, WCMH, reported on “Twice-registered sex offender in central Ohio guilty a third time of exploiting child”. The story included details from a Southern District of Ohio Press Release on the case. While the content of the article is factual, it leaves out hidden facts and leaves important questions for the community unanswered.
Included Facts:
1) 3-year-old child victim was victimized between November 2022 and August 2023.
2) Federal investigation started in 2022.
3) The offender uploaded over 100 child pornography images, including those of the victim, to a dark web site over the course of the investigation.
4) The perpetrator of the crime had a child victim in 2000 then another child victim in 2010.
Let’s consider what was left unsaid or unanswered:
Table of Contents
The registry doesn’t prevent criminal behavior.
This person was on the Ohio registry for 10 years (out of the required 15) as a Tier 1 registrant when they committed another offense involving a child victim. Fifteen years later, the repeat offender abused another child. How did the registry allow for two more victims?
Public shaming, the intent of Ohio’s sex offender registry, doesn’t stop criminal behavior. Criminal behavior is reduced when individuals actively recognize, confront, and modify their flawed thought processes. Cognitive behavior therapies in both group and individual setting have proved to reduce the likeness of criminal behavior. The registry fails because it doesn’t address behavior.
Law enforcement knows a criminal background without the registry.
The repeat offender had an outstanding warrant for his arrest in Highland County, Ohio. Obviously, law enforcement was aware of the telecommunications harassment of the victim’s family and alleged attempts to contact the child. Why was the warrant for the re-offenders arrest not carried out?
Even without a registry, law enforcement can see this individual’s criminal history against children with a simple background check. Could executing the arrest warrant had prevented further abuse? Unfortunately, we’ll never know, but we believe it could have.
Why didn’t the re-offender receive therapy?
Ohio politicians could have prevented the second and third crimes if they instituted a risk-based tier assignment. Instead, Ohio’s tiers are based entirely on the crime committed. It completely ignores applying a criminogenic analyst of an individual’s risk to re-offend.
The victimization of two more children in Ohio could have been avoided if the Ohio Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had implemented thorough assessments and comprehensive rehabilitation programs, including therapy and community support.
Why did law enforcement take so long to stop the proliferation of child pornography?
Federal law enforcement agents started their investigation in 2022. The 3-year-old victim was abused between November 2022 and August 2023. Why didn’t law enforcement pull the plug on the site or arrest the person faster? All it takes is one photo to break the law. This individual repeatedly broke the law over 100 times while under the watch of law enforcement.
Harm is harm and when a child is involved, it’s critical that law enforcement responds faster. The news article doesn’t dig deeper into why this individual wasn’t apprehended faster. Perhaps there’s a shortage of investigators and resources to deal effectively with this kind of crime. On the other hand, law enforcement would have immediately intervened if this person were using a weapon to cause harm.
This person does not represent Ohioans who are required to register.
One person’s criminal behavior does not reflect the nearly 20,000 Ohio citizens impacted by the registry. 95% of Ohio citizens on the registry will never commit another sex crime. Yet, news outlets continue to make an example of those five percent whose criminal behaviors have been left unchanged because Ohio lawmakers refuse to take risk into account when placing an individual on the registry.
There are a lot of unanswered questions, but one fact remains; the Ohio sex offender registry does not prevent crimes.
Ohio RSOL advocates for:
- Ohio politicians must adopt a risk-based tier classification that measures both high-risk behaviors and psychological strengths.
- Classification should be based on criminogenic needs, like those used in the Ohio Risk Assessment Survey (ORAS), to aid in determining a person’s risk to re-offend. Tools like this measure education level, employment history, housing status, social constructs (peer/family dynamics) and criminal history.
- Ohio will have safer communities when those individuals who are likely to re-offend based on risk are provided the appropriate therapy and community support.
- Law enforcement must proactively protect children by shutting down operators of child pornography sites. In addition, fines imposed on data center hosts and operators should support therapy for both survivors and offenders of sexual assault.
© Ohio RSOL and ohrsol.com, 2025. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Ohio RSOL and ohrsol.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. – Thank you.