Over the past couple of days the story of Matt Gaetz (son of Don Gaetz who coined the “scorched earth for sex offenders” phrase) called in to a Sirius XM talk show on politics and admitted that the Florida registry might need some reform.
There are two significant events which formed the catalyst of the admission that sex offender laws might need some tweaking. The first is lifetime registration for the Indiana 19 year old who had consensual sex with a 14 year old who admittedly lied and said she was 17 and the second is lifetime registration for the couple who had consensual (adult) sex on the beach.
Both are glaring (but unfortunately not uncommon) examples of the types of “offenders” who are winding up on the registry, who are not the predatory child abductors and molesters the laws are supposed to target.
Even Rep. Gaetz said, during his call-in that he’s “not in favor of scaling back the recent changes to the sex-offender law, which focused on violent sexual predators.” Really?!? Are these examples (the couple on the beach or the kid in Indiana) the “violent sexual predators” he’s worried about? If so; 90% of the registry are not “violent sexual predators” and their focus is TOTALLY off.
The time is ripe to engage the legislature in talks about the registry and whether it’s efficient to cast such a broad net and misspend resources on people we’re not really worried about to begin with.
Please go to our resources page to find your legislator and chime in on this topic.
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