Unnecessary Shaming: How Sex Offender Stigma Breaches the Irrelevant
Last night’s Florida Action Committee monthly member call was all about the family. Our guest, Shelley Kavanagh, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker currently working at the Centre for Offender Rehabilitation Education (CORE), is working on programs that aim to provide support for the families, and loved ones of registrants.
It’s important to acknowledge the victims of an underlying sexual offense, but there are other unintended victims that society has no problem trampling on; the family, friends and loved ones of registrants.
Like the person required to register, their family or anyone that lives with them suffer similar penalties. Their address is also a red dot on the sex offender map. Their vehicles are also registered and flagged in license plate scanners. Their associates and co-workers also shun them or question their judgment as if they’ve done something wrong.
The families, particularly the children of registrants, suffer. Their fathers (or mothers) can’t participate in their education, attend their sporting events or graduations. Visit them in hospitals. They cannot decorate for Halloween or Christmas. They cannot have parties or sleepovers.They grow up under a cloud of shame and isolation. It’s no wonder that children of registrants have such high rates of suicide.
Employers of sex offenders are also shamed. A few years ago, Miami’s ABC affiliate, Local10 news posted the employers of sex offenders. For what point? To hurt their business? To get them fired so that people who are trying to get their lives back on track are destabilized? All that does is hurt those willing to help someone reintegrate and take food out of the mouths of the families the registrant is working to support.
One hour ago, the New York Post posted an article about a man that sued Burger King. The article concludes, “[..] was convicted in 1994 of first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree sexual penetration and sentenced to about 6½ years in prison, according to Oregon Live. He was required to register as a sex offender for life. He told the site that the conviction is 25 years old and that he’s been a law-abiding citizen with no other convictions ever since.” The lawsuit that he brought has nothing to do with anything sexual. Why the NY Post and multiple other news outlets would even mention his conviction 25 years ago is completely irrelevant and unnecessary.
It’s one thing to impose the registry stigma where there’s a rational public safety interest – it’s completely different when the topic or target of the shame is irrelevant. When the line is crossed, you enter into the territory of intentionally causing emotional distress.
Let’s let 2019 be the year we start pushing back!
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You all need to visit the Women Against Registry website. Help her out and she can also answer your questions.
As a reminder, can we please not use this platform to advocate breaking the law? Even if meant as a joke, because you never know how someone might take it.
Pushing the Books out of a moving car, for example, as recently suggested below. I get that it’s a joke, but perhaps not the funniest one, and someone will wrongly interpret that post as a threat.
I also get the impulse behind planned public acts of retribution (as suggested in the same post about pushing certain ppl out of a moving car), but please, whatever your planned public act of retribution is, just be sure, if you have not done so already, that that planned public act of retribution is within the law.
Call me a humorless party-pooping buzzkill (or equivalent) if you wish. I’m just trying to manage risks to our position. Personally, were I the moderator, I would have kept the offending post unpublished, but it’s not my platform.
Being a registered sex offender also makes you automatically a target of false allegations. People often assume things against offenders. I used to not worry so much about it because my case was sex with a 17 year old when i was 26. I’m 55 now, and the last few years media has caused this fear based world. Now people look at me as if I committed the crime yesterday. New laws all of the restrict our freedom. Legislators know how to make laws that ruin your life but in a way it’s deemed constitutional. Most days, these days, I pray for death. I really dont want to live in this world. I couldn’t do it myself but sure don’t hate the idea of not waking up some morning. Sorry be such a downer but I really see no hope for offenders. No women will ever love me, no good job will ever hire me, and I have to live in a shit hole.