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Collateral Damage:
Family Members of Registered Sex Offenders
(Levenson/Tewksbury)
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to better understand the impact of sex offender registration
and notification laws on the family members of registered sex offenders (RSO). An online
survey was utilized to collect data from 584 family members across the U.S. Employment
problems experienced by the RSO, and subsequent financial hardships, emerged as the most
pressing issue identified by family members. The likelihood of housing disruption was correlated
with residential restriction laws; larger buffer distances led to increased frequencies of housing
crisis. Family members living with an RSO were more likely to experience threats and
harassment by neighbors. Children of RSOs reportedly experienced adverse consequences
including stigmatization and differential treatment by teachers and classmates. More than half
had experienced ridicule, teasing, depression, anxiety, fear, or anger. Unintended consequences
can impact family members’ ability to support RSOs in their efforts to avoid recidivism and
successfully reintegrate. Implications for criminal justice policy and practice are discussed.
Nearly half of the RSOs (48%) were reported to have committed an offense against a minor, 28% abused a child under age 12, 7% sexually assaulted an adult victim, 9% were convicted of a child pornography offense, 6% had an Internet-related offense other than child porn, and 4% described the registry-eligible offense as “other.” Most of the victims were unknown to the family member who answered the survey (59%), but 10% said the victim was their child or stepchild, 4% said the victim was their grandchild, and 8% described the victim as a niece, nephew, or other child in the extended family. About 16% of the victims were unrelated minors, and about 3% were described as an adult relative, friend, or acquaintance. It is important to recognize although most of the victims were unknown to the family members, they were not necessarily strangers to the RSO.
I'm not finding it easy to work up any sympathy for anyone other than the victims.
Last edited by FrugalYankee; 08-28-2012 at 11:44 AM..
Reason: line breaks
But I will say one thing first, if someone is teased or harassed because another family member is a pedophile sex offender, it proves that the pedo sex offender doesn't give a rip about his family when he commits the crime and indulges in narcissism and ego gratification when carrying out his crime.
These scumbags believe they have a right to touch and rape your child, they're the lowest of the low. We should have a nationwide mandatory death sentence for all pedos.
Quote:
Family members living with an RSO were more likely to experience threats and harassment by neighbors. Children of RSOs reportedly experienced adverse consequences including stigmatization and differential treatment by teachers and classmates. More than half had experienced ridicule, teasing, depression, anxiety, fear, or anger.
The pedo brings this upon his family and couldn't care less about what his family would endure when/if he commits the crime of molesting someone's child.
It's simple human nature to shun a sex offender. Their families are collateral damage caused by the sex offender's crime.
Short of performing brain operations to fix the sexual impulses that predators have there is really nothing society at large to protect itself from psychopaths, sociopaths, predators, murderers, rapists etc. and creating band-aid laws such as "Meghan's Law" merely proves the adage "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".
It's simple human nature to shun a sex offender. Their families are collateral damage caused by the sex offender's crime.
What constitutes a sexual offense varies extremely widely from place to place and era to era, so there's nothing to do with human nature about it--it's exclusively cultural conditioning.
The offender's crime causes other people to mistreat his family? Nice evasion of responsibility.
Short of performing brain operations to fix the sexual impulses that predators have there is really nothing society at large to protect itself from psychopaths, sociopaths, predators, murderers, rapists etc. and creating band-aid laws such as "Meghan's Law" merely proves the adage "The road to hell is paved with good intentions".
Yes, but we ought to be clear-sighted about when the proposed cure has become worse than the disease. You conservatives are supposed to be especially attuned to this point, aren't you?
Here is one example of this failure. There are many kids whose lives have been ruined by the RSO crap.
"At age 14, J.L. impregnated his girlfriend in a consensual encounter. This was bad news on several grounds, the worst being that she was 15 months younger. Convicted of rape for having sex with a 12-year-old, he will have to register as a sex offender — for the rest of his life.
Last month, the South Dakota Supreme Court upheld the verdict, while admitting that it made little sense. "Application of the first-degree rape statute to the present facts does not create an unintended absurdity," the justices concluded. The absurdity must have been deliberate."
I put the failed RSO list right up their with the failed war on drugs. People get caught up in a frenzy and forget that their seemingly good intentions might turn out disastrous for many people.
I'm not finding it easy to work up any sympathy for anyone other than the victims.
So collateral damage is OK with you?
And you have no problem with registering kids for consensual sex?
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