Say what you want about Governor Jerry Brown, but never say he’s not brave. He just signed a law that could eventually purge 90 percent of the names off of California’s lifetime registry for sex offenders.
I expect that he, and the legislators who passed it, will be subjected to the withering outrage that accompanies any action or statement, however mild or correct, that seems “soft” on sex offenders. I once wrote a column suggesting that pedophiles who are attracted to children but do not act on their impulses need more support from society to help keep them on the straight and narrow. Of course I was roundly scorned as being, at best, a woolly-headed liberal with a permanently broken moral compass, and at worst, probably a pedophile myself.
This is how we have ended up with the absurdities of the sex offender registries. In which teenaged boys who slept with their underage girlfriends can be required to spend years of their life (perhaps all the years of their life), fending off revolted stares from neighbors who think they’re child molesters. In which men have to sleep under bridges because there is no abode in the county that is far enough from a child for them to legally take residence. In which work, marriage, travel or even a roof over your head become near-impossible dreams for anyone ever convicted of any sexual offense — and you may even be liable for these penalties if you are accused of exploiting … yourself.
Good article. But even better are the comments that follow the article, suggesting that people are beginning to think more seriously about Registries and are not automatically jumping into the typical pitchfork & torch hysteria.
Excellent op-ed, from a widely read, conservative-leaning source. I especially liked her black-and-white statement, almost a throwing down of a gauntlet, saying, “America, wake up!” I’m also smiled that it’s a female posting the op-ed, thus defusing any of the bias that automatically pops up when a male writes–’cause don’t you know, he would just be defending his own.
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America needs to rethink its sex offender registries, and whether they’re really the best way to protect children from abuse. And our knee-jerk reaction to being “soft on child abusers” makes doing so extremely difficult.
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As good old Bob Dylan said, “For the loser now will be later to win, for the times they are a-changin’.” (Actually a couple verses of this song ring quite true. https://bobdylan.com/songs/times-they-are-changin/) The winds are definitely blowing in our favor, more and more every day. Op-ed after op-ed is helping us more than can be measured. What first is seen as a loony editorial starts to become seen as the truth (that it is) repeated often enough.
The first paragraph is interesting,
“…could eventually purge 90 percent of the names off of California’s lifetime registry…”
We can only hope.
California was the first state to begin the sex offender registry in 1947, and the irony is it had nothing to do with protecting children.
…. except that.. i see now outrage anywhere. Not one peep from the general public about how they are against this. 5-10-15-20 years ago.. the slightest hint that anyone would come off the registry would have sent people into high orbit. The tide has changed. The Pendulum is definitely now finally moving the other direction.
Having non contact child pornography possession offenses listed as tier 3 is not curbing the registry. If anything under this bill they’ve expanded it.
where the h…do that get that 90% of people will come off it? I would like to see them….
Janice,
With this tiered bill, do you think its possible to slip in an amendment making it illegal for third party sites to reproduce it. What is really the point of getting people off if homefacts and others are still putting it out there. That would be somewhat helpful to people stuck in the tier 3 category. Or how about just lobbying for it next legislative session. These sites are way more damaging than the ML website.
We’re up against a serious 1st Amendment issue there. This is public information (the problem, really) and I can see no way that information appearing on the state’s registry cannot be copied, put into a database and republished onto a webpage controlled by a private company. Their only vulnerability would be to publishing erroneous information that would constitute libel in which case it would be up to the individual (not the government) to take them to court. If we were to be individually pulled off of the Megan’s Law site for whatever miraculous reason and the private company did not update their own website, then possibly that would be actionable although even that might be difficult. If they charge to take someone off then that is extortion but I’m guessing that, because those practices are being challenged in court that that will become less common.
For whatever the reason, i stand corrected, the governor did sign the bill! Surprise surprise