As long as the list includes people that are not sex offenders except on paper, inclusion in a sex offender registry is meaningless and needlessly cruel.
A few years ago someone at my office was upset. Police had been by her house with print-outs of a a sex offender moving into the area. My coworker said she afraid and wanted to get the offender to move elsewhere.
I explained to her how easy it is for false-positives to get on the list. There is a big difference between a rapist and someone who crossed the line of consent with their steady girlfriend 15 years ago when they were both in high school, but both get listed.
To her credit, my coworkers listened, changed her mind, and stopped being so afraid.
Lenore Skenazy of Free-Range Kids fame wrote about a Maine woman who had two sons end up on the list by overzealous law enforcement. The first worked at a carnival and a child accused him of touching her bottom while buckling her in for a ride:
The police come over and ask, "Is that true?" Your son replies, "Maybe. I have to lock the bar around their waists and between their legs. They squirm. It could have happened."The second son didn't even get a job around children:
The next day the police take him in for questioning. They ask him the same thing, this time with the videotape running. He gives them the same answer.
It is considered his confession. He is convicted of "Indecent Assault and Battery on a Child." He goes to jail for nine months. He is put on the Sex Offender Registry -- for life.
He's at the urinal in the school bathroom during a weekend service project. A girl too young to read bursts in and he yells, "Out out out! Get out!" She starts crying and leaves. Her mom is concerned. The police are called. Was he in the men's room with a girl?Skenazy makes a strong point about how terrible their placement on that list really is:
Well, yes. Since everyone agrees the girl was not touched, he is convicted of "Visual Sexual Aggression Against a Child" -- the crime of having a child see his genitals. He does six months in jail. He's placed on the Sex Offender Registry for the next 10 years.
Let us remember this when we look up our local sex offender maps and see two convicts: One who ostensibly exposes himself to children and one who ostensibly assaults them.This isn't justice. It's fear mongering and it's condemning innocent people to a lifetime of dirty looks and tight-fisted barriers. As horrible as sex crimes are, they should not overrule the American idea of innocent until proven guilty.
Every legitimate statistical study and body of research regarding this subject has come to the same conclusions, the current registry and its residency/work place restrictions do not work. They: 1) Are completely ineffective 2) Cost hundreds of millions of dollars and are inefficient 3) Actually create a greater risk to children and the vulnerable. 4) Have not once been proven to prevent a crime, yet there are numerous accounts where they have increased crime 5) Encourage public misconception; Well over 90% of those asked assumed all the people on the registry were child molesters. 6) Have created a sub class of vigilantes, in Texas alone 16-20% of the families (and their children) of someone on the registry report some form of harassment. Most go unreported. 7) Have proven the only registry should be restricted to Law Enforcement. They are the ones charged with keeping the peace, and they can ascertain who the truly dangerous ones are, (assuming we don’t keep trying to help them find the needle in a haystack by increasing the size of the hay stack.) So far, facts prove the registry has only been useful for catching, or eliminating offenders after a crime has occurred. 8) Do not address the real situation; 95% of sexual offences occur in the home, by immediate family, relatives, close friends or trusted acquaintances. Less than 1/10th of 1% of sexual offences are committed by someone on the registry. That is why when it does happen, it makes all the headlines. The Media understands “Sex Sells”!
ReplyDeleteWhile the desire and goal to save “even one child” from harm is most laudable, to do so by recklessly and needlessly endangering the safety and lives of thousands of children, their families, friends, neighbors and co-workers is not the way to go about it. That is neither a reasonable, logical, nor viable solution...at least not to me.
This nation is quickly abandoning nobility and embracing retribution, exchanging freedom for a tenuous and false sense of security. God fearing, honest, and sincere people are being lead blindly by politicians pandering to the hysterical and misinformed through the sensationalist media, just to get elected or increase ratings share. Sex Sells! Intriguing, especially since Jesus said: “But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the Day of Judgment than for you.”
I will leave you folks with just two simple quotes:
“The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation. ” From “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler
"Those who are willing to sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither freedom nor security, and will loose both." Benjamin Franklin.
Every legitimate statistical study and body of research regarding this subject has come to the same conclusions, the current registry and its residency/work place restrictions do not work. They: 1) Are completely ineffective 2) Cost hundreds of millions of dollars and are inefficient 3) Actually create a greater risk to children and the vulnerable. 4) Have not once been proven to prevent a crime, yet there are numerous accounts where they have increased crime 5) Encourage public misconception; Well over 90% of those asked assumed all the people on the registry were child molesters. 6) Have created a sub class of vigilantes, in Texas alone 16-20% of the families (and their children) of someone on the registry report some form of harassment. Most go unreported. 7) Have proven the only registry should be restricted to Law Enforcement. They are the ones charged with keeping the peace, and they can ascertain who the truly dangerous ones are, (assuming we don’t keep trying to help them find the needle in a haystack by increasing the size of the hay stack.) So far, facts prove the registry has only been useful for catching, or eliminating offenders after a crime has occurred. 8) Do not address the real situation; 95% of sexual offences occur in the home, by immediate family, relatives, close friends or trusted acquaintances. Less than 1/10th of 1% of sexual offences are committed by someone on the registry. That is why when it does happen, it makes all the headlines. The Media understands “Sex Sells”!
ReplyDeleteWhile the desire and goal to save “even one child” from harm is most laudable, to do so by recklessly and needlessly endangering the safety and lives of thousands of children, their families, friends, neighbors and co-workers is not the way to go about it. That is neither a reasonable, logical, nor viable solution...at least not to me.
ReplyDeleteThis nation is quickly abandoning nobility and embracing retribution, exchanging freedom for a tenuous and false sense of security. God fearing, honest, and sincere people are being lead blindly by politicians pandering to the hysterical and misinformed through the sensationalist media, just to get elected or increase ratings share. Sex Sells! Intriguing, especially since Jesus said: “But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the Day of Judgment than for you.”
I will leave you folks with just two simple quotes:
“The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation. ” From “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler
"Those who are willing to sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither freedom nor security, and will loose both." Benjamin Franklin.
http://www.oncefallen.com/ for sex offender facts.
ReplyDeleteRegistries promote nothing but fear and stupidity. Stephen Marshall killed two people in Maine in 2006 using registry info. One of his victims was a 19 year old who had consensual relations with his girlfriend when she was 3 weeks shy of turning 16.
Check out this blog post of kids on the registries being ruined before their lives even start.
ReplyDeletehttp://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/2007/12/child-sex-offenders.html
Wow! You finally did a post that I agree with!!
ReplyDeleteI have a friend who is in fact a registered sex offender. He had sex with his girlfriend who was 17 and he was 19. However, she was finishing high school at the time and in the summer, he worked maintenance for the school. Thus, he was convicted of Unlawful sexual contact. The statute reads as follows:
"Intentionally subjects another person to any sexual contact and the other person, not the actor's spouse, has not in fact attained the age of 18 years and is a student enrolled in a private or public elementary, secondary or special education school, facility or institution and the actor is a teacher, employee or other official having instructional, supervisory or disciplinary authority over the student.
It was not statutory rape as they were only 2 years apart in age. However, it has ruined his life to be labeled that way. He would never hurt a soul and had no idea that working maintenance in the summer at the school had any bearing on him and his girlfriend.
While I personally would like to know if a true child molester or rapist moved into my neighborhood, I feel that the list, as is, it not only ineffectual, but detrimental. Alas, I have no ideas/suggestions on how to fix it.