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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yeah the registry makes me depressed all the tim e i caught a attemted statutary rape cahrge in 2012e i was fuked up at a party and supposebly asked a 15 yr old to come bathroom and have sex took a plea misdemenor 1129 all suspended six months in jail now i gotta register once a yr for ten yrs over bullshit never F***** a girl touched or nothing sad life think suicide alot stigma
I picked up my charge in South Florida back in 2007.It was a non-violent/non-contact offense. After serving 7 years of an 8 year sentence I was released to go home to Illinois here I was born and raised. The laws there are similar to other states but since I’m on LIFETIME supervision and LIFETIME registration, that also means a lifetime requirement for “treatment” and polygraph examinations, which even if one passes, the tests continue as “maintenance”. Group is 30 dollars a pop and the polygraph tests are 360 a pop. I have to live on 13,000 a year combined social security and small VA pension. I told them finally “This “Treatment”is what’s insane! I’m outa here!” The Central ILLinois Probation Dept selling this “government slave” south back to Florida over this even though I’ve complied with all other restrictions laid upon me. Now I hear that once back there, I will have to replace my Illinois driver’s license with a Florida one that is stamped with some sort of giant “SO” identifying me as a registrant. It would seen to me that the sum total of all the liberty infringements, bills of attainder type punishment and all the other restrictions on residence, travel, prohibitions about where and when we are not supposed to be seen or heard place us in the position of Dred Scott back in 1857. We seem to have no rights that ANYBODY is bound to respect.
By all means,lets fight back. Pull no punches. They won’t !
All in the name of Destruction of the Constitution, in the establishment of The Police State
Unfortunately a felon with a conviction of Child Abuse is basically dead meat in America today no matter where they live.
The focus needs to be on the decriminalization of juveniles and non violent offenders on life long registries.
States such as Florida waste time and valuable LEA funding for useless punishments after the courts have spoken.
Rehabilitation focused on families is important but a rehabilitated offender is more!
I think laws should focus on rehabilitation. In many cases the victim does not hate the perpetrator but just wants the abuse to stop. I know several men who abused their own children and as much as society wants to hate this evil monster, the victim doesn’t want him to have his life ruined. They want the perpetrator to stop doing those things and in many cases would give anything to be part of the perpetrator’s life. Media never talked about what the victim wants if the victim doesn’t want to hate the person who committed the crime. And in fact what I’ve noticed the media only reports on the ones that they can paint as horrible monsters. If the victim said she/he doesn’t want the perpetrator to get a lot of time in prison and he gets a fairly soft sentence, the media’s agenda is to get people mad about the light sentence and won’t even mention that is what the victim wanted.
I agree with the last lines.
Time for us all to unite and push back.
However, my idea of pushing back and your idea of pushing back differ as night and day.
Jay, there are almost a million registered sex offenders in the US. most I’ve talked to don’t want to push because they don’t want to bring more attention. I feel that if offenders United, found a Congressman that plays well with others, some good changes could happen. It would require some research though. To know which Senators apposed some of the current laws would be a good place to start.
Tom. you have the right idea about pushing back. It would help us immensely as well if NARSOL would publish a roster of all Congressional legislators who DID vote for these laws so we can know who to target for primaries when their terms come up for it and then lobby like hell for someone to challenge them with assurances of not only registrant support, but that of registrant families and relatives. This approach would work especially well in national elections.
Push back? Yeah, I have a few ideas of how to “PUSH BACK” push those idiots Ron and Lauren Book out of a moving car. THEY ARE THE MAIN CAUSE OF THESE HATEFUL, FEAR BASED LAWS…I didn’t do anything, yet but I’m planning on a PUBLIC display of retribution, since my name and details are PUBLIC so will their punishment be PUBLIC. I was falsely accused of sexual battery against a mentally challenged woman. lying asses…now im screwed for 10-15 years. Luckily I live in OHIO not FLORIDA, ground zero for naming and shaming.