When the Victim Is a Registrant, Justice Gets Discounted
There are stories that make you shake your head. And then there are stories that should make everyone reading this furious. This is one of them.
According to a recent report by Perk Valley Now, an inmate at the State Correctional Institution – Phoenix brutally killed his cellmate. The victim? A man labeled a “sex offender.” The outcome? A plea deal for third-degree murder with a sentence of just 8 to 16 years.
Not life. Not decades upon decades. Not the kind of punishment society claims to impose for taking a life. Eight to sixteen years is all the state is seeking! If the victim had been anyone else would the prosecution be satisfied with a sentence of less than a decade? You get more time for a technical registration violation! Is this what justice looks like when the victim carries a label society has decided makes them disposable?
The message this sends to the public is that some lives are worth less. That the state will look the other way when it’s someone on the registry that if you assault or even kill a registrant… well it’s not so bad.
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The people who enjoy publicly shaming those of us on the registry and promoting vigilantism need to have their own backgrounds checked and even any rumors about them posted online along with their full names and addresses…with the disclaimer of course that no repercussions should be taken on them…wink, nod. After all, that’s what they do to us. I live in the Northeast and I see someone who goes by Gator Boy who searches the registry and likes to post everyone in my State on FB and tell everyone what a bad person they are and that they don’t deserve to live anywhere peacefully or be able to work anywhere. This “Gator Boy” is nothing more than a fear mongering coward who knows what he’s doing is wrong. Otherwise, why hide? Show us how proud you are of what you’re doing and tell us your real name and where you live.
There is a pattern with many of these so-called “Predator Hunters” (sic) and “vigilantes” (also sic).
1. Many have been arrested, if not convicted, of various offenses. Of course, most got a slap on the wrist.
2. Many are involved in online political conspiricies like QAnon and often promote these online conspiracies on their own websites and social media pages.
3. Speaking of social media, so many of them are on Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. YouTube to a lesser extent because they often get banned or demonitized there.
Anonymous
Somewhere in the registry rules, it states that the registry cannot be used to abuse or harass anyone. And yet there are tons and tons of people doing just that. Same with the “predator hunters” and other groups who go after us even though they were not our victim nor do they even know us. And I am sure none of them know our victim from how many decades ago.
I could understand if I molested their daughter, the father wanting justice, but these are people who do not know us, and we have never bothered them, yet they want to kill us. FAC has posted numerous stories of registered people being randomly attacked or even murdered, “Just because”.
And sadly, as felons, we cannot possess most weapons that we could use to protect ourselves.
James
It is proven with data (And even F.A.C agrees) that ex-sex offenders have some of the lowest recidivism. And yet, there are people out there committing the same crimes over and over again, soon after release and are on the plan of ” Revolving door” and keep getting arrested and released to do it again.
And we, some like me, who have not had a crime in over 35 years, are on for life on a registry that is worse than probation, in my opinion. (I am not alone in that last statement) Can I get an Amen!
They’ll just ignore this. There’s nothing we can do…
It doesn’t surprise me, the US jas become a total joke of a country, and I don’t suspect things are going to get better anytime soon.
The Disparity in Criminal Justice and Societal Treatment
It is not merely that some lives are considered “worth less”—it is that certain lives are treated as effectively erasable worthless.
Murder stands as the most definitive and irreversible of crimes. The victim is permanently gone, with no opportunity for last goodbyes, no chance for recovery or redemption, and no possibility of overcoming the harm. The act is final and resolute.
Yet the legal and societal response often reveals a striking inconsistency. Many cases involving consensual or statutory sexual offenses result in prison sentences longer than those for murder. Murderers are sometimes even portrayed as heroes when their violence targets individuals labeled as Registered Sex Offenders (RSOs). There is no Murderer Registry, no marriage bans, no travel restrictions, no prohibitions on where murderers may live or work, and no equivalent measures such as civil confinement, chemical castration, or sustained media-driven public outrage.
In contrast, if a young man commits any act that violates RSO statutes—no matter how minor—his life can become permanently altered. He faces lifetime registration, housing and employment restrictions, travel bans, marriage limitations, civil confinement, ongoing medical and social controls, and ever-evolving additional penalties that grow increasingly restrictive and dehumanizing.
Society sends a clear message: violent crimes such as murder, arson, terrorism, assault, burglary, robbery, and drug dealing are often treated as forgivable or redeemable, even possibly heroic or romantic even. Sexual offenses, however? Yea, those are not. Those who cross that line are marked for permanent destruction.Slow, meticulous , drawn out suffering, humiliation then destruction. The implicit advice is grim—if you must err, avoid anything sexual; and if you do cross that line, you may want to end your own life rather than be caught, though even suicide carries its own legal and moral complications and is definitely illegal for you..
This framework reveals a profound imbalance in how different crimes—and the people who commit them—are valued , perceived and punished doled. It’s not rumor it’s fact .. often people don’t want to hear it and are afraid to say it for fear of “offending someone by telling the truth” but it’s long past time the truth gets some sunlight.
It is starting to look like we are the ones who should be the vigilantes.
Amen!
I have long considered my response if ever incarcerated again. I’m thinking that it might not go very well for the first thug I run into. What deterant do they have that’s worse than life on the registry. I might as well make an example of a thug, I mean what are they gonna do, put me on another registry?
They know they have a broken system and that they condone these violent acts against registrants.