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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Hey ! Where’s my comment? There was nothing wrong with it. I told it like it is. Either you deleted it or it didn’t go through but I’ll say it again-
Nicki’s music is all sexual (my GF listens to her and I’ve asked her many times “How could you even?”)
and I’ve heard the ignorant, sexualized “stories” her rap songs talk about. And she knows damn well that her fan base is made up of YOUNG, IMPRESSIONABLE girls.
So, now that she’s experiencing a taste of what it’s like to be associated with someone who has to register, and that person’s offense happened when he was a minor himself, perhaps her celebrity status could help in the fight against the registry. She can help show this country how unforgiving it is for something that happened more than 25 yrs ago AND when the guy was a teenager AND that the alleged victim tried to recant.
How is my comment not on track with this topic? FAC should get in contact with her agent (it’s not that difficult) just to pass on the information about what your organization as well as NARSOL is doing regarding situations like her fiancé.
No he shouldn’t be on registery anymore the registery is being used just to as duval ada said going to make a example out of the person half or most don’t even have victims no contact at all now days parents leave theirc14 girls date plus some even let the boyfriend in registery was made for certain thing government doesn’t care they are so concern on fighting among them self
No, and UNTIL the registry is completely abolished ( which is what we all hope and pray for ) no one should be on the registry after 10 years of being offense free.
He should not be charged with this stupid infraction nor be required to register. It’s over!
A sideline in this story is that the girl tried to recant her story but was threatened by a judge if she did so. This past year I have been involved with a girl who recanted her accusations, too. She was very strong and determined in her denial of her original allegations in the months that followed, including her time in front of a judge. The events that led up to her original accusation made me suspicious to begin with. The judge would not accept it, and the guy still has 6 more years in prison and will then be deported. Seven percent of all sexual allegations are false, but some judges do not want to hear it.
Per Michael Seto, in 2013-14 more than 10% of those convicted of internet $ex offences are innocent of their charges. Imagine that!!
This is what is ridiculous about the whole thing.
Want to know if a felon of other crimes (DUI’s, murder, grand theft, drug distributor, manslaughter, etc) with higher recidivism rates live near you? Nope! Just that damn Sex Offender who hasn’t committed another offense in 25 years with a <1% recidivism rate.
BUT, if he gets off just because he is a celeb, then I will call BS. I feel for him but he is no better or worse than the rest of us. Regardless if you are a homeless person or a politician, the law should be enacted the same way. But we know that is not always the case.
Also, celebs tend to have way more money for a defense than we may have had. I know if I had, had the funds to continue on to trial, I would at the very least gotten a shorter sentence and have been done before the registry came out.
On a side note, yes, like you stated, every time someone on the registry farts it has to make news. And also agree that it is ironic the murder was never mentioned but a sex crime a lifetime ago was.
I actually cannot stand reporters even worse than prosecutors. With the courts, when your case is over, they don’t give you a 2nd thought and move onto the next case, but with the news, they thrive on the “STORY” regardless whose lives they destroy. The stories impact more than just the person registered. Their loved ones, families and even neighbors can be affected when news vans show up in their neighborhood.