UK: This is what it means to live with the “sex offender” label.
In Glasgow, an angry crowd gathered outside an apartment complex after rumors spread online that two sex offenders had been moved into the property. Police ultimately allowed a small group of protesters into the residence in an effort to dispel the situation. Turns out nobody was there.
The public “sex offender” label has become an invitation for vigilantism. The risk to property, to innocent family members, and to the community is real. Combining the label with a person’s identity and location invites mob justice. Residences become targets. Families become collateral damage. Wives, husbands, children, parents, and neighbors all bear the consequences.
No other class of people is expected to live under the constant threat of a crowd outside their front door. We see it over and over, and over again. This label results in harassment, assaults, arson, murders, and countless cases of mistaken identity around the world. Public registries don’t simply “provide information”, they create targets and invite further harm.
The UK registry is not public – yet an online rumor led to this lynch mob. Here in the US, names, photos, addresses, and vehicle information are all publicly accessible.
The United States has now witnessed countless documented cases of people on the registry being harassed, assaulted, shot, beaten, set on fire, and even murdered simply because their names and addresses were made publicly available. Family members and innocent bystanders have also been threatened, harmed or killed as collateral damage..
At some point, can the government honestly continue to describe the registry as a “public safety tool”? The growing body of evidence suggests it’s a system that predictably facilitates violence. FAC suggests it’s a government-sponsored hit list.
END THE REGISTRY!
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Pedophiles are sick inviduals who only desire sex with children. They should be incarcerated for as many years as it takes to rehab their sexual desires, if that’s possible. There are many people labeled as S-O’s who are not guilty of heinous crimes, as DVC wrote in his comment. And the “slap on the wrist” for them is a joke. My relative spent almost 4 years in prison for a stupid mistake – believing a women was old enough to meet with him when she was a sex-obsessed teenager whose response to police questioning was, “I wanted to have sex with a man.” She told her mother she was raped, but the rape kit proved it a lie. Her mother called him a rapist over and over in court, with his attorney never objecting. (She became a judge a short time later.) And my relative is labeled for life, forbidden to visit many cities or countries, forbidden to buy a home in some areas, etc. All the punishments previously written about in these comments. There’s a woman in Florida politics who is trying to push yet another punishment for S-O’s and I hope to expose her and stop her. The law should be more discerning when labeling these people. Why aren’t drunk drivers who kill labeled? As Anonymous said, because it doesn’t work.
Honesty and Government? Those are two funny words when said together. Do you really believe the overwhelming violence, and collateral damage to RSO and their families isn’t pre-planned, government sanctioned, expected and tacitly approved? Come on now..yea I get it. Our government is made up of some blazing idiots, but they still smarter then the people who think they voted them in.
The crimes, murders, violence are not accidental and we all know it…It’s not an unintended side effect of, it’s the literal reason behind! The more people get fed up with the incompetence and corruption of government the more the government will feed them RSOs to sate their bloodlust … Same rules that applied during the coliseum days….It was Christians then, it’s us now….just feed the peasants peanuts and some RSOs to rage on and all is safe in politicians land…
I’m not so sure that comparing sex offender registration to Christianity is going to prove all that persuasive. I could be wrong, though.
True! —— Every society, apparently, needs to have a class or group to hate.
And the government must tacitly approve of that hatred.
The registry is government-sponsored hatred!
It WILL end
Rape, child molestation, grooming, and child trafficking have become some of the most devastating issues in today’s world. When a person is traumatized in these ways, it leaves a permanent stain on their life — a wound that never fully heals. The damage reaches deep into their identity, their confidence, and their sense of safety. Many victims fall into downward spirals, turning to prostitution, drugs, or anything that numbs the pain of what was stolen from them. Their lives were taken out of their hands because someone else chose their own sexual gratification over another human being’s future.
Victims often feel useless, broken, and deprived of the life they should have had. They carry shame that was never theirs to begin with. They struggle with the reality that their innocence, their childhood, and their sense of self were taken by force.
I do not support violence as a solution, but I understand why people feel rage toward these crimes. The harm caused by sexual violence is severe, lifelong, and deeply destructive. Communities are tired of watching people become victims of these heinous, evil acts. People want protection, accountability, and justice — because too many lives have been shattered by this kind of cruelty. Not mention a Just us system that gives these people a slap on the wrist and release them into the community to possibly repeat the same again. As a society we can’t take that risk of them reoffending.
“Not mention a Just us system that gives these people a slap on the wrist and release them into the community to possibly repeat the same again.”
A lifetime of registration punishment for a one off offense is hardly a slap on the wrist especially since many of us have completed our court ordered sanctions. I was a young man with a young girlfriend who had no ill will or predatory behavior towards anyone. It was a dumb childish decision, I was barely out of high-school myself and now, almost 20 years later still am under this black cloud of registration requirements. So I disagree, it’s far from just a “slap on the wrist.”
I respectfully disagree with you, Mr. D.
I agree that sexual abuse of children is, indeed, a heinous and terrible crime. And those who are prosecuted should face severe consequences!
But, I also believe that you are exaggerating the trauma. I believe that you are helping to feed a public hysteria. You are creating a system of merciless retribution for what is a very human failing.
Rape, child molestation, grooming, and child trafficking have (unfortunately) been occurring for thousands (if not millions) of years of human history. But, only in the last 40 (or so) years has there been such a hysteria; such a feeling a irredemption and permanent hurt. Such an exaggerated response!
While completely agreeing with you that child molestation is a terrible crime, I respectfully disagree with your exaggerated assessment of the harms caused.
People CAN and DO heal and move on with their lives. I believe that we all must learn to heal and move on with our lives. But nursing an “unhealable” wound is not healthy; nor is it realistic or truthful.
Murder is a heinouscrime that robs life and inflicts grief on family and friends. Same with Drunk drivers, school shooters, dug overdoses….yet no registry for those. Do you know why? Because registries do not work. They do not prevent crime, they do not solve crimes, they do cause crime, they do create homelessness, and they do tear families apart. What is the point? So some emotionally unregulated members of the public can feel good about their blood lust? There is no argument, not one, that can justify a registry.
@Mr. D
Yes, unfortunately, there are some heinous acts upon children, and adults, that result in life-long stains and trauma on there lives.
However, to say that many turn to drugs, prostitution, etc., I personally want to see those facts and where you got them.
There are many people I personally encountered during my life that had been sexually abused, raped, etc. that are leading normal, healthy, happy lives.
Also, you talk as though EVERY sex offense is heinous and cruel.
There are many sex offenses were done by two people in agreement and both knew what they were doing or going to do and had no violence whatsoever and was only a matter of one being 18 and another 15.
Some were done by ‘Sexting’, etc.-not all sex crimes are of a heinous nature.
Also, for you to say these people just get a slap on the wrist is bogus and I would like to see the evidence that we just get a slap on the wrist.
Show me the money, Mr. D!!
Lastly, you said ‘ As a society we can’t take that risk of them re-offending.’
1) Fact-Only around 5% ever re-offend.
2) Fact Around 95% of all sex offenses are done by people NOT on the registry and these are doctors, teachers, gym coaches, clergy, family members, and even law enforcement.
No one walks into a police station and says “i’ve decided to become a sex offender and I want to register first before I commit my crime(s) -No one!!- Registration is an after-the-fact obligation!!
3) Fact 93%-95% of all sex offenses are done by someone the victim knows-not by a stranger.
4) Less than 1% of all child abductions are done by a stranger.
You, like others are barking up the wrong tree while the greatest majority of people( which are not on the registry) are committing sex offenses right under your noses and that is really sad!!
What are you and others doing to stop the 95+-% of sex offenses done by people NOT on the registry??
Education over punishment is being proactive over reactive. It’s incredibly rare that “these people” as you say go on to commit more sex crimes yet all get treated as if they are or will.
Your last comment, “As a society we can’t take that risk of them reoffending” is a reactive solution. A bandaid rather than an antibiotic to address the actual issue. Even with the overwhelming evidence that the vast majority do NOT go on to commit other sex crimes the current laws focus on punishment long after the fact. New laws are introduced yearly, yet how many are aimed at prevention? Education? Ever ask yourself how much of this is for political gain and/or profit? You’d think for a society that is constantly being told “even if it saves just one child” that we would benefit far more from prevention measures BEFORE instead?
Have lived in this house for 22 years, everyone here came here after I moved here. have one neighbor, been here about 10 years, that still turns his back to me every time I leave or come home??
I am just a wife of a person forced to register, living in fear of being confronted everyday. The way the neighbors look, the brief way they interact with me. It’s not right. I can’t get over this and there is nothing I can do.