[IraqVetnowaMomma]

Originally Posted by bluecountry

If an 18 year old is with a 16 year old...that can be considered a sex crime.
If I go to the bathroom in public...that can be a sex crime.
Should those people suffer the embarrassment and shaming of being a sex offender?

Again, I'll repeat. It is not illegal for an 18 year old to sleep with a 16 year old in Connecticut. It is illegal for an 18 year old to be with a minor under the age of 16 and it is illegal for an adult 21and older to be with a 16-17 year old or younger.
Also, urinating in public would not get you convicted of a sex offense. You would most likely get a misdemeanor of having violated both littering and public nuisance laws.
It seems like you are making up excuses against the list without knowing facts and actual laws.

[goldenband]

Originally Posted by IraqVetnowaMomma

Also, urinating in public would not get you convicted of a sex offense. You would most likely get a misdemeanor of having violated both littering and public nuisance laws.

Are you talking about Connecticut specifically, or about the United States in general? I can't speak to CT's exact laws, but I can assure you that elsewhere in the US, people have been convicted of a sex offense for public urination. Human Rights Watch notes that "At least 13 states require registration for public urination; of those, two limit registration to those who committed the act in view of a minor":

No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the US: V. Sex Offender Registration Laws

Apparently, Connecticut is one of them, though there haven't been any convictions. Here's some point-counterpoint on the topic:

Rebuttal to Family Watchdog's Claims: by A Voice of Reason: Family Watchdog Issue 2 Claims:

A couple other related links:

US: Sex Offender Laws May Do More Harm Than Good (Human Rights Watch, 12-9-2007)

Nobody's Business: Florida Banishes Man for Public Urination

Lawmakers in at least one place took measures against the possibility:

Lawmakers: Public urination shouldn't lead to sex offender status - EagleTribune.com, North Andover, MA

So claiming that "urinating in public would not get you convicted of a sex offense" seems potentially naive to me. At best it seems very much at the discretion of the arresting officer and D.A. -- and that's not somewhere that anyone, however innocent or guilty, wants to be.

My personal belief is that most of these laws are basically "feel-good" measures designed to give people a chance to exult in righteous indignation, but that do very little to help victims or prevent offenses. Most offenses against children are committed by people they know; about a third, allegedly, are committed by relatives (by blood or marriage).

Based on my anecdotal observations, though, I'd say that it's a hell of a lot more than a third -- in the cases of most people I know who've been assaulted, it was a step-parent, uncle, parent, sibling, or some other relative, and those assaults are extremely underreported.

People find it easy to hate on some imaginary creepy guy down the street -- the Boo Radley figure in the shabby house on the corner -- because a person like that is such an easy target. They tend to be far more cowardly about facing up to reality when the person abusing their kids is their new husband or boyfriend, the guy who makes six figures and pays for all the vacations, so that it becomes awfully tempting to not ask too many questions.

Fact is, most survivors I know, whether they were kids or adults at the time, were assaulted by people who were well-respected, well-liked members of the community, people with no criminal record of any kind. No amount of legislating, however well-intentioned, will ever really address that.

Having seen several people close to me suffer through this stuff, I get pissed off whenever I see people thumping their chests about it -- not that there's too much of that in this thread, but the Internet is full of pompous windbags, and they're seldom windier than on this topic. Grandstanding doesn't do anyone any good, and most of these laws don't, either -- they certainly didn't help anyone I know. The only thing a person can do that's worth much of anything is to offer support to those who need it, but that takes a hell of a lot more effort than posting self-congratulatory prose on the Internet.

EDIT: Oh, and in case it isn't clear:

I think that -- unless there were obvious and flagrant circumstances otherwise -- the idea of convicting someone of a sex offense for public urination is a pathetic idea which manages both to insult victims of genuine sexual assaults, and to provide yet another opportunity for overzealous witch-hunting. If it's on the books, it needs to get off of 'em, pronto.

[requestdion]

Does anybody know if you will become a sexual offender for urinating in public in Albuquerque, New Mexico or what the penalties are?

[KH02]

You may want to ask that on the New Mexico board not CT.