It’s not easy to come to the defense of nonviolent sex offenders. Any lawmaker that considers reforming the excessively-punitive registry will start out on the losing side of the public’s perception. For starters, there is an erroneous assumption that the registry entirely comprises of rapists and pedophiles. On top of that, sex offender registration has become somewhat of a throwaway issue. Who cares about anyone on the registry? They did something, and that’s their punishment.
However, our inability to think critically about sex offender registration is causing undue legal and moral repercussions upon convicted people. We should care because many offenders were convicted under consensual circumstances that any reasonable society wouldn’t penalize in this way. All states have sex offender registries, as mandated by a series of federal laws in the 1990s, but each state has different opinions on what situations amount to a sex offense. Many situations do not at all fit the pathological predator theme that the public associates with the entire registry.
For example, the Department of Justice estimates that there are at least 89,000 minors on sex offender registries. Just process that for a second. Many of these offenses are nonviolent and fairly normative. Indecent exposure and sexting are some examples of teenage behavior that has landed defendents on the sex offender registry. Note the case of a 15-year-old in Pennsylvania who was charged with manufacturing and disseminating child pornography after taking explicit pictures of herself and sharing them. Or a couple of 14-year-old boys in New Jersey who pulled down their pants and sat on two 12-year-old boys. These may be stupid decisions, sure, but do they justify these kids being registered as sex offenders? Probably not.
ACSOL posted this well written and thoughtful editorial on the website in order to attract comments from website visitors about the elimination of the registry in the U.S. at this time. Is it possible? Should it be a goal? Or should we continue our incremental approach to improve the registry? What do you think?
A very educated man, Barack Obama, signed into law an absurd bill that hurt millions. A educated governor, Jerry Brown, won’t even consider pardons for sex offenders.
If these people, with the power and position in office to make a definite change won’t do it, then You mine as well think peeing in the wind won’t get you wet, because you are truly dreamin’ to believe the registry will get anything but worse. Even a boulder rolling down hill will slow down a time or two. Just as the registry will make a few detours to allow the perception that it is easing up. But eventually it will crush you.
This is a really terrible piece that wants to further cleave registrants into camps for the purpose of attaining relief for some while denigrating and continuing to marginalize others.
It is an appeal to ignorance, i.e. ignorance of what constitutes “sexual violence” and the nature of “pedophilia.”
So no, I’m not on-board with this statement.
What is like on the ROS? Well, it’s hell. I’m a prisoner in my own home. I have no friends. I get harassed at work. I worry every day about some vigilante targeting me. I was suppose to be on the ROS for 15 years, ending in 2021. I couldn’t wait. Now our Attorney General decided if there were 2 or more counts, the ROS was for a lifetime. I’m beside myself, I can barely cope. Life as I know it has ended.
I worked hard to change my ways. I came along way, now I have no hope, nor do I care. All this experience has done is make me learn to hate.
Is this what they wanted to accomplish?
The injustice of the Registries continue:
https://www.wbtv.com/2019/11/20/two-sex-offenders-rowan-county-jailed-separate-cases
We’re it not for the Registries, these two men would not have faced arrest and would not have had their faces splashed all over the media. This is morally repugnant what we are doing to our own neighbors & fellow citizens.
I agree that we should get rid of it. Not helping anyone. It started out with good intentions but as they say, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
I believe that all forms of Sex Offender Registration should be fully abolished. This types of laws were I acted to allegedly protect the community and our children from sexual predators. But the truth of the matter, is there are mo