When Henry was 18, he had sex with a 16-year-old he met on a dating app who said they were 18 too. The 16-year-old’s parents found out, summoned the cops, and Henry was charged with a sex offense. He took a plea: no jail time, and seven years on the sex offense registry.
Henry’s story is one of about 60 that appear in a new book by sociologist Emily Horowitz: From Rage to Reason: Why We Need Sex Crime Laws Based on Facts Not Fear. If you believe that our country’s sex offense registries should actually make kids safer, this book will leave you shaking with frustration.
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The registry is a mishmash of punitive rules and mandates, often including counseling, sometimes for life. While several of Horowitz’s interviewees were grateful for what their therapy helped them understand about themselves and their crimes, others got treatment that seemed suspiciously prurient.
Saw this posted on Reddit earlier. What’s very interesting is all the comments that are posted on this article are compassionate for the 18-year-old offender. What a lot of people don’t understand is the plethora of restrictions that the blanket laws have on all registrants. And the ignorant public still keeps on enacting more and more restrictive laws.
Great article! I specifically enjoyed the comment section at the end of the article. General attitudes are changing in our favor.
Apparently, it’s not enough to be deprived of employment, habitation, social support, free travel, access to public spaces, familial bonds, etc., now the american gestapo “therapists/supervisors” are literally after everyone’s lebido…arguably one of the most intimate and fundamental parts of our psyche and personal identity. Berating their “clients” for having “inappropriate *dreams*” (adolescents, no less) and forcing them to write *specific* sexual fantasies that they then have to read aloud…this country has gone completely off the deep end (and is still sinking). And the kicker…registrants are also forced to *pay* for their own psychological abuse with whatever meager income they manage to procure, including frequent, expensive polygraph *interrogations*. The very idea that it’s somehow “deviant” or “abnormal” for an 18 year old to be sexually active with, or attracted to, a 16 year old is something that I simply am unable to comprehend…at what point in human history did this collective mental breakdown happen…and what caused it…(seriously, I really would like to know.)
Ok now, the terminology being used in the headline is monumental progress. In fact it’s so dangerous to say this kind of thing you wonder if the poor journalist who wrote the article will still be employed in the future.
Why does the article title state that he went to jail for six years? Nowhere in the article does it state he served any jail time at all
I’m curious to know what state this happened in because this is ignorant. Here in Michigan 16 is the age of consent. To spend that much time in prison for something that would be legal in Michigan and probably a few other states as well makes no sense.
Unbelievable!
Two teenagers that are two years apart engaged in consensual sex, but the parents were the ones who disapproved. Well how many parents engaged in sex when they were teens or know of classmates that have and their lives weren’t ruined. Careful supporting laws because they may impact you when your teen experiments with their sexuality.
This shows exactly why the justice system is not a justice system, but a broken legal system. Judge Wapner (or Judge Judy…let’s not be discriminatory here) here had a moment of power envy to which they felt entitled to throw the book at this gent (probably a prior DA who wanted to move on up on the backs of those they tossed aside) who was doing the best to comply with his situation and follow the direction of the person they were supposed to listen to. When one can get a fake DL and birth certificate along with a SSN on the black market, no one is safe with anyone else. This proves the parents have one big way to have influence on those their minor children decide to enter relationships with, the courts and charges.
As if I did not already have enough reason to read this book, to which I did provide an interview for, this one only helps in getting it to be read sooner rather than later.
Interesting advocacy