UNO criminology professor talks risks of sex offender registry after offender's death
Dr. Lisa Sample specializes in sex offender behavior and policies.
Dr. Lisa Sample specializes in sex offender behavior and policies.
Dr. Lisa Sample specializes in sex offender behavior and policies.
Dr. Lisa Sample is a professor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha's school of criminology and criminal justice. She specializes in sex offender behavior and policies.
"The sex offender registry is a tool, and that tool in the hands of people who aren't exactly mentally stable is kind of a recipe for disaster," she said.
Sample said cases like Saturday's homicide do occur, but are rare.
Omaha police believe 43-year-old James Fairbanks gunned down Matteio Condoluci near 43rd and Pinkney last Saturday night. Prosecutors believe he emailed a confession to KETV Newswatch 7, claiming he saw Condoluci staring at children in the neighborhood. Condoluci was on the registry for sexually assaulting a teenage girl in 2006.
Sample said Saturday's homicide is "exactly not what the sex offender registration is meant to do."
"Basically you've made them sitting ducks for the mentally unhealthy," she said.
Sample said a lot of the state's registered offenders have gone through the Department of Corrections sex offender treatment program, which she said has a "remarkable success rate."
"The longer people are on the sex offender registry and they go without a new crime, pretty much the longer they will live crime-free," she said.
Sample does not defend Fairbanks or Condoluci.
She added the sex offender registry is meant to protect all citizens, including sex offenders.
"I just don't think we want to live in a society where people are allowed to shoot and kill other people based on what they think might happen," she said.
Sample has met with members of Nebraskans Unafraid for her studies. It's a group of sex offenders who want to change the registry and prevent people from reoffending. They have dinner together every week.
"To have the tragedy of somebody murdered just because he's on the registry is a difficult thing and a little scary, especially for our community," said Ken, a registered sex offender.
