"But wouldn't you like to know if there's a Registered Sex Offender living in your neighborhood?"
To be honest, as a father of two young children, yes, I would. But if we put emotion aside, why do I need to? Wouldn't you like to know if there's a convicted Murderer living in your neighborhood? Why do we only have a Registered Sex Offender List? Why not a Murderer List? Or a Mugger List?
Is it because unlike convicted Murderers, Sex Offenders cannot be rehabilitated and will always pose a permanent threat to society? That then leads to the question of why release them at all?
The only positive purpose I can see that The List serves is it gives the police a place to start looking in the event that a Sex Crime is committed within that neighborhood. Note that this means it doesn't prevent those crimes from happening, it only facilitates them being solved.
So that's a good reason for the police to have access to The List, but why do we, the public, need access to it? If the Registered Sex Offenders have been rehabilitated by their time in prison and no longer pose a threat to us, why do we need to know where they live?
And if they still do pose a threat to society, why have they been released?
Finally, if they cannot be rehabilitated and do pose a permanent threat to society, why should we waste valuable resources locking them up for Life? Why not remove them from the Game of Life altogether?
It's an interesting jump to go from not liking how The List facilitates discrimination against Registered Sex Offenders and may constitute Cruel & Unusual Punishment, to advocating use of the Death Penalty.
The only positive purpose I can see that The List serves is it gives the police a place to start looking in the event that a Sex Crime is committed within that neighborhood. Note that this means it doesn't prevent those crimes from happening, it only facilitates them being solved.
So that's a good reason for the police to have access to The List, but why do we, the public, need access to it? If the Registered Sex Offenders have been rehabilitated by their time in prison and no longer pose a threat to us, why do we need to know where they live?
And if they still do pose a threat to society, why have they been released?
Finally, if they cannot be rehabilitated and do pose a permanent threat to society, why should we waste valuable resources locking them up for Life? Why not remove them from the Game of Life altogether?
It's an interesting jump to go from not liking how The List facilitates discrimination against Registered Sex Offenders and may constitute Cruel & Unusual Punishment, to advocating use of the Death Penalty.
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4 comments:
Thank you for your honesty and your remarks. Being a convicted sex offender, I have been through many years of therapy due to a bad decision I made almost 20 years ago. I am not a danger, nor would I ever hurt someone.
I want to have a normal life again, but the registry and how the media portrays all sex offenders keeps that from happening.
Remember, if your 18 year old has relations with their 16 year old girlfriend or boyfriend, they too would be considered a sex offender, and face the ridicule and hatred I deal with every day.
I will never forgive myself or forget what I did. I just want to be able to live life like a human being. A normal human being. It happened once. Only once.
Not every crime is the same, sometimes there are extenuating circumstances.
The woman charged with murder may have suffered years of abuse before killing her husband, while the guy charged with Statutory Rape may have been an 18 y/old caught having consensual sex with his 16 y/old girlfriend. The abused woman is not the same as the mugger who deliberately shoots his victim so he cannot be identified, nor is the 18 y/old the same as a 40 y/old man who abducts and molests 12 y/old girls. But while the abused woman stands a good chance of being acquitted, the 18 y/old boy may receive the same sentence as the 40 y/old child molester, including having his name added to The List.
One case of poor judgment and an 18 y/old boy's life can be ruined, forever.
In addition to Cruel & Unusual Punishment, that's another thing to keep in mind when discussing The List: not everyone on it is a "Child Molester".
If memory serves, The Scarlet Letter didn't really accomplish all that much good, either.
We have these sex offender lists for the same reason that you would be charged for sexual assault if you placed your hand on the breast pocket of a woman's shirt while she was wearing it, but she would not be charged for sexual assault if she grabbed your balls and squeezed until you vomited or even died - because these laws are only for women's benefit, and by benefit I mean it makes them feel less unhappy. It doesn't make us safer. And yes, it does seem like a violation of the rights of the convicted sex offender who has served their time and then been let out. It is a perpetual punishment, like stamping a scarlet letter 'A' on their foreheads. It's also meaningless, as Lorena Bobbitt and the hundreds of women who immitated her crime are not charged as sex offenders and thus are not on any list of sex offenders. If a man hires a hooker and gets caught, in some states he's registered as a sex offender and you will know about it if he should move in next door. But if a woman cuts off her boyfriend's genitals and sets them on fire because she's a lunatic, and she moves in next door, you won't have any way of knowing what she did or what sort of psycho she is. It is purely political. The women's groups have political power and mens groups, what few there are, do not.
They are now working to create identical lists like these for anyone (men) convicted of domestic violence. This could be anything from shouting at the woman in your house to simply sitting in your chair with the door locked and refusing to argue with her. But by placing you on this list they'll make it appear that you are some sort of Jack-the-Ripper.
Welcome to America. Sadly, most Australians who come here eventually go home again and it's usually because they want to. We are not the nation we once were.
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