Sex-offender registries need to clean up their act
…it is important to understand that many registries are bloated with names that probably shouldn’t be there.
Public urination, streaking or sex between consenting teenagers can land a person on the registry. A man involved in a nasty divorce and falsely accused by an ex can find himself locked into years on a registry. Children as young as 8 have been added, sometimes for innocent contacts, like hugs or kisses. In Colorado, a 15-year-old boy identified as T.B. was found guilty of sexually exploiting children after he sent a nude selfie to two girls, aged 15 and 17, and they reciprocated. T.B. was required to register as a sex offender for at least 20 years. That law has now been changed so teenaged sexting is no longer a felony, but it’s too late for T.B. His educational and vocational life has been stunted by his foolish teenage act.
Another problem? There is no uniformity to these registries. Some states have stringent rules about where an ex-offender can live and work. A sex abuser of children, for example, will likely be prohibited from residing with a relative who has kids or living near a school or playground, or attending a church where children worship. In some states, each routine check-in is followed by officers blanketing their neighborhood with flyers showing the registrant’s photo, address, car license plate and the age of their victim. On Halloween, some states require the convicted to post a sign in their window warning children not to knock.
It is way past time for authorities to take a second look at these registries, cull the names of those who truly pose no danger to society and crack down on those obvious predators – and their slick lawyers – determined to beat the system
[FAC NOTE: Although we STRONGLY believe registries should be abolished ENTIRELY, we are sharing this article for discussion]
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here’s what I don’t get… how can you violate a registration law that is a law ONLY because your past then you get like 30 points for past offenses and 6 points new violation and they’re gonna give you 36 months punishing you for the same damn charge again not the 6 months the charge carries if that aint some shit right there. I Mean how can you even price a charge on the score sheet that couldn’t be given to anyone else as a first offence in the free world but automatically is enhanced re-punishing you for your first offense like a parole violation or something this isn’t life time probation this is life time F***ed punishing you for the first crime. WHAT?? So you get punished for violating on going rules you have to do physically and at opportunity loss do to please them then slip up it becomes criminal again is a disguised parole/probation think about it how the heck do you even provide a defense to this what you just been playing along 20 years to these unconstitutional rules now your serving time on retro active laws thats enhance automatically. A gun charge is different you’re restricted but this we actually are being moved around by force and threat todo what we don’t want.
I can see if you just registered and the court orders you to stay away from unsupervised children for life and you get caught baby sitting but you have a car your working on for a friend in your. yard a week your going to prison come on your kidding me right. A car had nothing todo with a crime, a phone had nothing todo, identifier had nothing todo with your first offense this silly shit has nothing todo with 80 percent of us and we are all following the same orders of the dragnet.
Hello,
When I was 17 years old living in Massachusetts, I was charged with statutory rape.
I was in a consensual sexual relationship with my girlfriend who was nine months younger than me.
Unfortunately we were caught in a compromising position by her mother which resulted in myself being charged with statutory rape.
I pled guilty not fully understanding understanding how it would affect my future.
Now twenty-three years later, I have moved to the state of Florida with my wife and two children and all of a sudden my information is on the Internet for the world to see. If I was still living in Massachusetts my information would not be public knowledge, and because of my crime there is only a 20 year statue for registering, so I would no longer have to register in that state.
I wish there was more I could do but unfortunately all the attorneys in this state want ridiculous amounts of money to help someone in my situation even though I am a prime candidate to get my name off the registry
Hello:
Here is what I replied to the author of the article (via email):
Hello:
Thank you for courageous article. Just one thing, though:
Ma’am, in your article you recommend to “…cull the names of those who truly pose no danger to society.”
But, I would caution that there is danger in that thinking. Many of us who could be placed in a high-risk category have addressed the underlying mental and emotional problems in our lives that facilitated our past criminal behavior, and we would never re-offend. ,
Did you know that the re-offense rate for those who have a sex offense is actually lower than for any other crime type?The myth is that sex offenders pose a unique and extremely high risk of re-offense. This is simply not the truth.
I propose that no public registry is good. They always violate the constitutional rights of those who have already paid their debts to society. They also violate the international human rights of those who have served their time and simply wish to move on with their lives.
Here is a recent, eye-opening article from Huffpost that you may find interesting.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sex-offender-laws-dont-make-children-safer-politicians-keep-passing-them-anyway_n_5d2c8571e4b02a5a5d5e96d1
I applaud your efforts to speak the truth. In my opinion, you personify journalistic integrity!
I notice Lauren Book has an Organization for children. “Lauren’s Kids” I wish some one would call her out if she for children as she claims to be Then why she destroying families with children in them whose relatives made mistakes in the past. I wish I could asked her that while she is the floor.
I guess there is certain children better than others!!
Saying “some” is a folly. The courts lack ability to determine who is dangerous and will reoffend and the assumption is ambiguous which is protected under law to go the way most favorably to the accused. (Case law on criminal and civil matters). Constitutional rights belong to all and not to be negotiated to life time custody of the Sheriffs office to prey on a group, an inept bunch of patch and medal seekers that are trained at our tax dollars with no representation to us attack our freedoms and brainwashed to believe we are less human, good for nothing While 4 percent reoffend 1 and 5 girls are sexually being assaulted by age 18 and 1 and 20 boys which given the ratios puts the general public more dangerous than sex offenders by ratio. The numbers suggest even a LEO is more likely to molest, It’s a witch hunt so they burn us all at what really is the systems fault because they should have prosecuted at the court level but they step outside their parameters and punish us using the people that are supposed to protect us. What chance do we have? They are trained to prey on us to seek technical violations that have zero criminal intent to them and disrupt free society while you could be living the most upstanding life available yet they catch you and prosecute you with vengeance and no regard to reason setting mandatory probation with monitor and no line for reason like hey this guy is a good guy he didn’t register a car cause he thought he had to own it nope just pure sadistic prosecution. The cops, state, medical profession, schools your children goto, sports, news, businesses are are guided at the direction of the law to hate and trample you with blanket discrimination. Nothing says what you are, who you are, what you really did in a lot of cases people took pleas but really didn’t do anything against humanity. Sad little lives people live to profit from the misery of others. Pathetic example of authority. Disgraceful to them millions know they are wrong but the attitude is the same among some…who cares they are SOs