In addition to facilitating constant surveillance, then, GPS tracking conspicuously marks anyone who wears it as someone to be shunned, feared, despised, and perhaps worse. That mark of shame compounds the stigma associated with registration as a sex offender, which also entails restrictions on where people can live, work, or "loiter." But according to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, the public shaming is incidental to the main purpose of GPS tracking, which is regulatory rather than punitive. "In light of the 'frightening and high' rate of recidivism for sex offenders," the court says, "the relatively minimal intrusion of lifetime GPS tracking...is not excessive in relation to protecting the public."
That "frightening and high" quote comes from a 2002 opinion by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who asserted that "the rate of recidivism of untreated offenders has been estimated to be as high as 80%." Kennedy seems to have gotten that number from Solicitor General Ted Olson, who cited a DOJ manual that in turn relied on an unreferenced 1986 estimate in Psychology Today. That estimate has been debunked repeatedly and repudiated by its original source. It nevertheless lives on in the decisions of courts across America, justifying all manner of restrictions on sex offenders.
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