Should Nicki Minaj’s husband still be registered?
Last year, when rapper Nicki Minaj married Kenneth Petty, the big news was not the nuptials, but the fact that he is on the registry. The world questioned her judgment – as if it is outrageous to marry somebody on the registry. This past week, Petty was arrested for failure to register in California. Again, headlines and more judgment and shaming of Minaj.
Perhaps I’m more sensitive to the issue than most because I’m involved in an organization that advocates for registry reform and on a daily basis, multiple times per day actually, I hear from spouses, parents and children of registrants whose lives are impacted by the registry and whose judgment is continuously put in question as if they too were a suspect in a never-ending investigation.
If you consider what Kenneth Petty was accused of, it’s unquestionably a terrible crime… attempted rape of a 16 year old. But if you dig deeper, you will learn that the crime took place in 1994 – more than 25 years ago! Dig a bit deeper and you’ll learn that he was also only 16 at the time! Dig even deeper and you’ll learn that when his accuser tried to write a letter to the judge to recant her story, she was told that she would go to jail for 90 days if she recanted!
Not to call out Petty, but he happens to have another crime in his history… manslaughter. Completely unrelated to his sex offense and later in life, he was convicted of shooting and killing someone. I’m not judging, but you’d think that killing someone might be more alarming, but that tidbit of information never made the headlines.
While we can’t go back in time, we can certainly live in the present. Today, twenty-five years have passed since the alleged sexual offense and Petty is facing 10 years in prison for failure to register. That’s a lot of time – especially considering it’s more than 3 times as long as his sentence for the underlying offense in 1994. He’s recently married to a successful woman and they had planned to start a family. Plans that could be derailed if Petty is sentenced to prison.
Now I know the research… the risk of serious and persistent sexual crime decreases substantially the longer someone has been sex-offense free in the community. This pattern was particularly evident for high risk sexual offenders, whose yearly recidivism rates declined from approximately 7% during the first calendar year, to less than 1% per year when they have been offense-free for 10 years or more.(1) I also know that the recidivism rates of juveniles is very low, adolescent brains are not as developed as adults and youth who have committed a sex offense are no more likely to commit a future sex offense than other delinquent youth. (2)
So that begs the question; it’s been 25 years, should Petty still be registered?
(1) Hanson, R. K., Harris, J. R., Helmus, L., & Thornton, D. High risk offenders may not be high risk forever. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.2013
(2) https://www.atsa.com/pdfs/Conf2015/T-27.pdf
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Not to sound like a brain surgeon compared to the American justice system but if they are not registering people for murder I would think every crime falls short of that. the entire thing is Neo Elizabethan era draconian drama and sexual paranoia…there should never be a registry in the 1st place. contrary to the lies the supreme court toilet tells itself so it can sleep at night the registry is against the constitution and there for illegal..but the supremecourt toilet also accepted the crow laws as legal as well..
Since he is on the public register, maybe FAC, NARSOL and other such organizations can get his addresses (published on the registry) and mail letters alerting them about all the litigation we support to reform these draconian laws. Who knows, they may be interested in supporting our cause.
BOB
you have something there!
Derrick mention a few celebs who as well registered and dont care maybe it is time FAC and other entities send letters to these celebs and explain our causes and the fact they as well cant travel.etc.etc etc.
it may lite a fire under some of them to stop and think for a while on all that is going on in there lives as well as others, How say thee FAC? is is a possibility?
We are short on volunteers. If we add more tasks things fall off our plates.
Why could you not write them? If there were only a way to get their (current) addresses….
My answer to that question is that there should be no Registry at all let alone Kenneth staying on one.
The Registry is a social experiment gone wrong but couldn’t openly admit it because it is a cottage industry that makes money for many people and keeps politicians elected. The public doesn’t benefit from it in any way because new sexual assaults are overwhelmingly committed by people not on the Registry. The public has shown that they are not to be trusted with Registrants’ information because of vigilantism or other criminal behaviors committed upon Registrants.
All around a public Registry that constantly expands new offenses to increase the Registrant population along with harsher measures is bad all around.
Iv been registered for half my life for a crime committed when I was 16. Very similar to his same case. So I’m going to say No. What his rich wife may wanna do is out some money into Narsol, FAC and any other organization fighting for our rights to be free from this unnecessary burden. The fact that a technical violation carries more time than the actual crime just makes me wanna say a lot of bad words..
“…it’s been 25 years, should Petty still be registered?”
Of course not.
NOBODY should be registered!!
He should not be registered. The worst of the worst should be registered, but only for law enforcement eyes, and only for a specific time.
You mean like by a system called probation or parole? Other than that, there should be no Registries. We’ve seen that these criminal regimes are immoral and can’t have a Registry toy.
Will, the states seal up that loophole with lifetime parole or probation for any sex offense. Try being on lifetime parole where you’re not allowed to even kiss a lady or allow her to touch you without involving the parole office and getting their “consent”. And if you don’t and you fail a poly, then back to the house you go. That is downright torture and has to stop. It is the EXACT definition of cruel and unusual punishment. But hey, we’re not fighting that, that’s all fine… Carry on