The following is the opinion and analysis of the writer:
Meet Ryan, who, as a young man, had a caring and consensual relationship with his high school sweetheart. After months of dating, just before her 15th birthday and shortly after his 18th, their relationship became sexual. These young people were in love, hoping to build a life together, but because of their slight age difference, Ryan will spend the rest of his life on Arizona’s sexual offense registry and will carry the label of “child sexual predator” forever.
Ryan is hardly the monster we imagine when we think of a someone on a sexual offense registry, but his case represents a common scenario wherein normal teen sexual behavior is criminalized. Studies show that your child is more likely to be placed on the sexual offense registry than to be harmed by someone on it. The highest rate of sexual assault offenders are 14-year-olds. One third of all sex crimes against a minor are committed by another minor, and 23% of those prosecuted for contact sexual offense are juveniles themselves.
Ok, before it got sexual where was his parents telling him not to hang around and or anything with that girl? This isn’t the 90’s. There sex offender sh!t everywhere. That’s what I don’t get. I climate we live in today, with the sex offender registry, some people getting post cards sent to their neighbors. Sex offended this, sex offender that. How are allowing them get put in these situations?
We can demand it all from the elected officials, but until they give it, they only thing they will give is not giving a damn about it. Her points are valid and well articulated that will be read but dismissed due to those without a spine to do anything about it.
Yeah the same exact thing happened to me, had A consensual relationship with high school girlfriend, shortly after my 18 birthday was placed on calendar by riverside District attorney “Dena Bennett” she dragged the case out for 2 years. where I eventually took a plea deal and signed my whole youth away.
It didn’t matter we were only 4 years apart they still put me on the registry with Child molesters, Rapist and SVP’s
Its been 24 years now and I’m still out here fighting for my life, my petition for removal was denied on 12/16/22 because of 2 FTR charges i caught along the way, one misdemeanor and the other one A felony, they both added four years to my mandatory minimum registration time period and now I only have 12 more months left, I feel like Al Pacino in that movie Carlitos Way, at the very end when he’s trying to get out of New York.
Every few months we see articles like this, that speak the truth. Unfortunately there’s still too many people out there, that are carrying their pitchforks, that want to see public executions of sex offenders. But you compare the amount of people being busted today compared to when I was busted 9 years ago. Eventually all the people that want us killed, will eventually have a family member or a close friend on the list. The amount of people being busted for CSAM has gone through the roof! And the amount of people being busted, teachers, police, priests has grown exponentially. At what point, does the registry become useless? 2 million? 5 million? 10 million? At what point do people realize that everyone knows somebody on the registry and realizes the registry is just a useless piece of crap. Every month I see teachers getting busted, every month I see 19-year-olds being busted with their 17 year old girlfriend. Every month I hear about kids in middle school sending around naked pictures of each other. Sometimes I feel like I’m beating my head against the wall trying to get out the truth.
How many lawmakers, judges, holier than thou Christians, and others experimented with their sexuality as pre-teen or teenager? Americans have a strange view on sex and nudity, while being the biggest consumer/producers of porn. How many would be labeled registrants if today’s laws were on the books when they had raging hormones.
Major problem here in AZ is the FACT that Registration is for life! With no avenue to petition to get off. I am in the process of writing a petition to try and get relief from the registry based on the other States’ registry being declared Unconstitutional but stating that I don’t want to challenge Arizona’s being Unconstitutional even though it is. It would drag it out for years.
I have been on the registry since 2001 with no further legal issues and am off paper trying to live my life with my family.