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Who shouldn't be on the registry is altogether another matter.
The biggest impact, statutory rape convictions. What constitutes as a sex offender in one state, another state wouldn't prosecute because of the variations in law.
The registry consists of two parts, both defined differently with a different purpose.
When the Adam Walsh Law passed it included notification to residents where sex offenders reside with their address.
Even without the law, the information can be found though it may take more time and some research. Sex offenders, as well as any other crimes are a matter of public record.
It depends. I have a friend who had sex with a 17yr old when he was 20. She lied about her age telling him she was also 19 and he ended up doing 1 1/2 in jail and is now listed as a sex offender.
Registered sex offenders are branded for life. They cant live within a few miles of schools or day cares. Some sex offenders didnt offend anyone & those are the ones who shouldnt be marked. All someone has to do is say he or she did this or that & that person is screwed.
Almost half the states have sexuallky violent predator laws.
Quote:
Twenty states (Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia have enacted laws permitting the civil commitment of sexual offenders. http://www.atsa.com/civil-commitment-sexually violent predators
In a number of them the terms of civil commitment are indeterminate meaning they can be kept for life.
I have always had a bit of a problem with publicizing where sex offenders live by warning people they are moving into their neighborhood. Surely, some of these people are beyond help (in which case I don't understand why they're being freed), but for those who want to get on with their lives, doesn't this practice basically make that improbable?
If a person has served their time in prison, haven't they then paid their "debt to society"?
Why are sex offenders singled out? Why not drug dealers, attempted murderers, and drunk drivers?
ITA, and I've been studying the issue for many years. There is no benefit to registration laws, other than appealing to people's morbid voyeurism, and no benefit to residency laws other than making vagrants out of otherwise potentially productive citizens.
You will hear that we have to do this because there is such a high recidivism rate among sex offenders, but that is a myth--an outrageously persistent myth, but a myth. It's been known by criminal justice professionals to be false for a long time. See http://www.endsexcrime.org for details.
Sexual offenders are sick and cannot be rehabilitated...my son is a police officer and the rehabilitation capablity is less then 1%. Statistics show that child molesters have not preyed upon one or two children but from 40- 75 children, until they are caught.
Statistics made up by lunatics like Oprah Winfrey, perhaps, not real statistics.
However, I think the one-size-fits-all label really can hurt matters. For example, if a boy who celebrates his 19th birthday by having sex with his 17-year-old girlfriend who will celebrate her birthday the next day, that is considered a sex offense according to the laws of most states.
Actually, 16 is the age of consent in most states. But still, you are onto something; the laws do create many absurd outcomes.
If two 17-year-olds are legally married (not common, but it can happen) and video-record themselves having sex and transport the recording across state lines, they would be guilty of trafficking child pornography.
As a parent, and as a young woman who has been the victim of a sex crime, I absolutely agree with publicizing the locations of sex offenders. Because I should have a choice as to whether or not I live next door to one. And I wish they would be more vigilant in tracking them upon release. I also have very little if any faith at all that majority of those who commit violent sexual crimes against women and children can ever truly be fully rehabilitated. It makes me sick when they are let out only to re-offend again within three years or less (the average time for most violent sex offenders).
As an aside: Drinking to the point of not being able to behave like a grown-up is a very asinine thing to do and is no excuse for public urination or any other type of repulsive, unsanitary, and deviant behavior.
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