Is the Tide Turning Against Public Sex Offender Registries?
On June 8, the American Law Institute, arguably the most prestigious non-governmental law reform organization in the country, concluded its national meeting.
One of its agenda items was to have its thousands of elected members—top federal appeals judges among them, who enjoy lifetime appointments after being confirmed by the United States Senate—vote on a draft of the revised chapter of the Model Penal Code for sex crimes. The Model Penal Code, first codified in 1962, helps guide legislation as well as interpretative decisions by courts.
ALI’s membership voted to approve the most recent draft, which included seismic proposed changes to state sex offender registries.
Perhaps most importantly, the approved draft states that these registries should be limited to law enforcement access for law enforcement purposes, as is the case in virtually every other country besides the US.
Currently, the identifies of people registered as having committed sex crimes can be searched on public online databases, along with a slew of other data including their home addresses. The rationale for this has been that it enables parents to make informed decisions about who their children can interact with. But it also means that exile, extortion and vigilante violence are often perpetrated against people with such convictions, and even their family members.
Today, Supreme Court jurisprudence still holds that public registries of this kind are not “punishment,” though lower courts are growing more skeptical.
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As a Side Note, There are now over One Million People on The HIT LIST, of which over 93,787 are People under the Age of 18….93K-plus Children are on the HIT LIST!
Can We Say, PURE INSANITY!
‘Shoot a pedo’ stuff has nothing to do with the registry. Most registrants aren’t what these people imagine when they refer to pedophiles.
Now ‘shoot a registered sex offender’ (or even, shoot a ‘sex offender,’ the media’s favored term) I’d have more of a problem with.
‘Shoot a pedophile’ advocates barely even understand who their target is. Is it a person diagnosable for pedophilic disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual? No, that is a use of the term that is limited mostly to psychiatrists. When the public refers to ‘pedophiles’, they usually mean serial sexual abusers of children. Some make the mistake of conflating those with ‘registered sex offenders’, but we’re gradually educating them, one by one.
Even if registries disappeared tomorrow, ‘shoot a pedophile’ sentiment would remain.
NO!
Here is some more proof that the registry causes violence.
I was driving home yesterday from a relatives house about 30 minutes from my house. I was on a road the cuts through Florida. When the light changed, the last vehicle to pass through the light ended up being right in front of me.
As I caught up to traffic, the truck with dark tinted widows had a huge 6 foot sticker in the back window that read :
“Shoot your local Pedophile”. What is even more scary, as we passed a HUGE gun shop/gun range he made a U-Turn. I made a bet with myself that he would turn into the gun corral. And of course he did. So that says to me the sticker was not just for show but he was willing to make that happen.
I wanted to take a photo with my phone while stopped at the light. However paranoia took over and was worried he would see me and chase me down for daring to look at his truck. So I did the next best thing and looked that up when I got home.
I found out, There are entire websites out there that sell t-shirts, stickers, hats and more that say Shoot your local pedophile, hunt your local pedophile, Kill your local pedophile etc.
So here are my take aways. #1 Even though I am not listed as a predator, I am on the registry and as far as some are concerned, we are ALL pedophiles no matter what you did as long as you are on that registry. There are people who would be praised for killing us and in fact lie to cover up what they did by saying we tried to attack the shooter.
Stay vigilant my friends. While on the registry, we have very little if any privacy. Not saying to be paranoid but this fight is far from over. We have seen several registrants killed across the country with very little outcry from anyone but the families. No one crying “No justice no peace” for us because many think by killing us, justice WAS served.
Stay blessed, stay safe, stay aware.
I saw the same bumper sticker in Englewood when I lived in Florida. I just got what I needed and left. Funny no Florida politician has said anything about Rep. Gaetz yet if it was a nobody they would hang you.
Brandon
These are the same type of Yahoos that would have been members of the Klan back in the day. Burning people they do not even know and have no beef with, just because the color of their skin.
Back to the guy with the huge sticker. You know, on the one hand, if someone molested my daughter, I would probably want some revenge as well, I think we all would. BUT, having said that, most of the people who harass us, do not know us, have never met us and we have done NOTHING to them.
Additionally, not saying I am better than anyone else, far from it, but I did not rape some kid. But we are all made out to be John Wayne Gacyes as far as some are concerned.
Even in the Prisons, the other prisoners loved attacking people with a sex offense, because they knew nothing would be done about it. I have 5 guys jump me and almost kill me. Each of the 5 guys testified none of the others did anything. I guess my face was a bloody mess because I tripped? They all got out of the charges and I was sent to lock up on a charge of lying and lost a lot of gain time.
I appealed to the prison council and they did no respond until the day I was scheduled to be released. It said “DENIED!”.