The public hysteria over the issue of sex offenders is starting to get to me. Is it just me, or are things getting out of hand? An over-zealous warpath perhaps? It takes one only a few moments of searching to discover a wide range of news clips on new restrictions and regulations. Take this, and this, and this.

And here's something new: Ohio is pushing for bright neon green license plates to accompany their offenders. It kind of makes me wonder why we don't go to the mat and demand all offenders wear neon orange shirts and drive pink cars. Or even better, let's brand them -- a giant scarlet "S"  burned into their forehead. All in the name of public safety, right? 

Whoa. Let's stop a minute. While I would be the first to demand justice for the heinous crimes of many sex offenders, there comes a point where things get out of hand. These criminals have faces -- they are someone's son, father, husband, brother, etc. And they are citizens with certain rights. Where do the offender's families fall in this mess? This interesting article about offenders' wives offers an interesting perspective to that picture. Shouldn't they have a voice, too?

I don't mean to downplay the crime of sexual offense, but let's step back and ponder what better ways this type of crime could be handled.

Perhaps what concerns me the most are the untold stories of sex offenders who really aren't offenders at all. At least not the dangerous pedophiles that we are afraid of. This article paints one particular instance. However, the story which sticks the most in my mind isn't on the Internet.

I received a phone call a few weeks ago from a frantic mother that nearly broke my heart. Her 10-year-old son had been been playing with a friend of his, when the two boys, both the same age, became curious and began fondling one another. The friend later told his mother what they had been doing, and the mother filed charges against the other 10-year-old boy. Long story short, this mother's child had been labeled a sex offender due to the nature of the complaint. 10 YEARS OLD! He now bore a label he would carry for the rest of his life. In tears his mother pleaded with me over what they could do, partially because with her son's new label, their whole family, by law, would be forced to move since they were within 2000 feet of a school.

It begs the question: what should we do? We can't keep slapping both dangerous and non-threatening individuals alike with expansive dos and don'ts. Society needs to stop running away screaming and start stepping up to the plate to find methods that work,  protecting both society at large and the branded offender. Where's the happy medium?

(For more information about sex offenders in society and the work of criminal justice reform, click here, or here.)

Comments

[A former SO]

You have a point this needs to stop. I cant have a normal life myself and FYI I am not a pedophile or a repeat offender. It has been over 7 years since my "crime"
and while I wont excuse it nor do I ask others too. The simple truth is I lost my mind (I have A lonnng mental health history) and unfortunently I went in the direction of an SO and not say cuting myself or seing little green men. I spent over 3 years in the prison system
(raped and assulted) and I spent almost 3 in a State Hospital in an Sexoffender Treatment program,passed with flying colors.Did I meantion I was a juvinile offender? What I am saying is this is a VERY grey subject despite what people want to make of it. The persecution needs to stop! What about a black SO who is legaly segragated aginst because of the no SO in 1000 ft BS,because that is what it is. Or with this OHIO stuff,not to far till they make us wear little yellow six-pointed stars everywhere.Sound Familler? Don't think that won't happen in the US, Hello puritan Scarlet letters, or try telling that to the 100000s of Japenese-Americans and others rounded up and put in interment camps in the U.S. during WWII. Bottom line be warned this can and will happen to you too. The laws with SOs set the legal presedent.
For your readers cheak out this website
for some enlightenment on this subject.
http://www.geocities.com/eadvocate/issues/index.html
like SOs national repeat offence rate 3.5% for Child Molesters
as per the 2003 Deparment of Justice report.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!

[Dan Gill]

This and other laws are an attempt to generate an appearance of being tough on crime. They really don't do anything to protect us, and they cast a huge shadow over those who have committed a sex crime and have served their time.

This has come home to me lately, especially the effect on wives and children. I have a friend who is currently serving a 12 year federal sentence for child porn possession. He is serving alongside men with two and three year sentences who actually raped and molested children. It's common, of course, for offenders to downplay their crimes, but his sentence is all out of proportion to what he was convicted of. Add to that the shame, financial problems, and hurt for his family, and we have a situation that just doesn't make sense. To add to this family's troubles with laws such as the neon license plate makes even less sense.

[BJ]

I agree that the sex offender laws are too broad and make no distinction between true sexual predators and a sex offender who is low or no risk after having made a very poor decision. However, having worked with sex offenders and victims of sexual assault, rape, molestation, and the various other forms of sex offenses, there are plenty of reasons why sex offenses are treated harshly by the system. A large number of sex offenders are not in prison because it was their first offense. There are child molesters and rapists who commit numerous crimes before anything is reported to local police. As for child pornography, I have little sympathy for the person that trades in the exploitation of children to satisfy their own personal urges. Just because the person didn't take the pictures does not mean that they should not be held responsible for the exploitation of the children whose images they view. Add to that nearly 100% of molesters regularly view child pornography, and the man mentioned in the previous post was going down a very dangerous path. Certainly the laws need to change to treat people fairly, but lets not forget that there are innocent victims in this argument as well whose voices need to be heard and considered when designing the laws that affect offenders.

[ZamDad]

I am a probation officer/parole officer who spent five years supervising a sex offender caseload. The model of supervision our program uses is for the PO to co-facilitate out- patient sex offender treatment. During the time I was supervising this caseload, I got an education on what true discipleship is and how a sexually saturated culture that promotes tolerance as a virtue above all other virtues is very intolerant of anyone convicted of a sex crime. It seems that we want to believe there are monsters out there and that we can have the monsters we want by placing them on a sex offender registry. We get this false sense of security that we are protecting ourselves and our families by restricting the movement of people on the registry.

It seems that sex offender registries were a good idea when first introduced. But, like so many other good things, there are unintended consequences. Anyone convicted of a sex crime is compelled to register. The 19 year old kid who is having sex with his 15 year old girlfriend with her parents permission until they decide they don’t like him anymore is on the same list as the middle age man who has molested countless kids. Both are labeled on the list as predatory offenders. There has to be a way of distinguishing who should register as a predatory offender from those who are not predators. Also, if a person is deemed to be a predator, why are we more concerned about protecting their civil liberties than public safety? If we are going to be letting predators live in our communities, they should be required to be monitored by a person such as a probation/parole officer for life as opposed to telling them they have to fill out a piece of paper whenever they change address, employment, appearance, buy a new vehicle, etc. The current system has no immediate way of monitoring compliance. The current system is not aware of a violation until a registrant either fails to respond to mail or gets picked up on another crime in some other location.

The offenders I’ve worked with over the years have spoken in detail about the scarlet letter they feel they have branded onto their foreheads. They talk about coming out of incarceration feeling as if they have a neon sign hovering above their heads pointing them out as a societal outcast, as if they should be walking around the community yelling “Unclean, unclean!” They find the difficulty of assimilating into the community even more onerous as employers are afraid to hire them for fear of driving away customers. Finding housing is difficult as no one wants a sex offender living near them and landlords are reluctant to rent to someone on the registry.

While assimilation is difficult, we citizens have to be on guard for the cunningness and manipulation of sexual predators. Thanks to the internet and the publication of many sex offender registries, we can find those who have already been convicted. Chances are, if we find them, we are going to build so many barriers we won’t allow them to get close enough to pose any threat of harm. Yet, we let our guard down completely when dealing with some guy or gal who makes sexually suggestive remarks that appear to be in fun only when that person is really sizing us up to probe for vulnerabilities.

We have to rethink this issue. We in corrections have to do a better job of educating the public about sex offenders. We need to hold the media accountable for the sensationalizing of sex offenders living in the community. And, we in the church, have to begin making disciples and get over our fears of the monsters we create.

[Labrialumn]

The present system is simply unjust, as previous commentators have illustrated.

In God's Law in Israel, there were those sexual sins for which the offender was put to death. There were others where the couple had to get married (like the 19 and 15 year-old mentioned above)

There was NO situation where the person was imprisoned and raped for the crime, and then let loose in society with a permanant brand. The closest thing to that was in the case of accidental homicide where the causor could flee to one of several cities of refuge to be kept safe from vengance-minded relatives.

Our legal system has no value for marriage, or the marriage bed, so they assume sexual immorality and thus build a standard based upon age differences among biological adults on the basis of presumed experience.

Not a Biblical standard.

There is also the matter of people getting so branded for life on the basis of mere accusations without anything approaching a decent, let alone Biblical, standard of proof.

So what sort of -just- alternative to the current political and unChristian mess can we counter propose and work towards, just as PF is trying to get sentencing reformed in other area with repayments for non-violent crimes, and so forth?

[Michael Snow]

"Whoa. Let's stop a minute. While I would be the first to demand justice for the heinous crimes of many sex offenders, there comes a point where things get out of hand....."

You mean out of hand like the example given by the parole officer (above)? "The 19 year old kid who is having sex with his 15 year old girlfriend..." He is on our sex offender list??? For the rest of his life? (LIke the young man thrown out of his church...see the S thread above this one)

And where are the Christian citizens in this? Are we seeking just laws or are we part of the law-and-order-at-any-cost crowd?

[Shelley]

Things have definitely gotten out of hand. As the girlfriend of a registered sex offender, everytime I open my Yahoo Alerts, I cringe to see what new idiotic law has been proposed to control sex offenders. It is certainly true that not all sex offenders are alike, and the original intent of Megan's List was to keep track of repeat child molesters and repeat rapists and pedophiles who pose serious risk to children. It has degenerated into a free for all in which such offenses as mooning, serving alcohol to minors, having consensual sex outdoors with your spouse and prostitutes are now branded as sex offenders who must be listed on a public registry, told where they can live and work, require special license plates, etc.

In my own particular case, his offense was 21 years ago, a false rape accusation made by a vindictive woman. He pled guilty without a trial or private attorney because his public defendor didn't work much on his case and the best he could get was 60 years if he went to trial and lost. He did four years.

All I can make of this is that people are fearful due to our War on Terror and they are easily manipulated by a ratings-hungry mediMF And politicians, despite access to research and experts, continue to exploit this issue to boost their political careers.

I also agree with Michael Snow - where are the Christian citizens who would condemn Romeo and Juliet romancers?

[Rosemary Moen]

Real overhaul of the SO registery is needed. Let me give one example, I looked up the "List" in the county I live in. There were 21 names on the list.
I took the time to look at each one and found that of the 21 men, 18 had committed the crime before his 21st birthday and it constituted statutory rape. I may not condone premarital sex but in no way did these guys deserve to be on this list for the rest of thier lives. A litle tidbit of info, in South Carolina we do not have the crime of rape. It's criminal sexual conduct, this means that with a broad brush, anyone who does anything with any sexual overtones can be found guilty under the right circumstances

[Tina]

As a Society...we must separate those who prey on the weakness of others, especially our Future generation.
From those who experiment.
The rippling effect on one child, molested can have huge impact 4 generations...
destroying many....
As a nation we don't keep the repeat offenders, or dangerous individuals....
put away...All of Society pays 4 that....
Daily....
As a nation we could benefit...from Healing instead of Harming....
Many times people come out of the System....
BROKEN and angry....
We need 2 separate those who make a mistake...From the predators....
Who Prey on the gift GOD...loaned us....
Our Future Generation...
Let's All...Imagine...COMPASSION....4 the Survivors 2...

[Ada]

The main train of thought is let's monitor and harrass people that are affecting our future generations. They are obviously the sex offenders. But wait...maybe the drug dealers affect our future generations. Where is the monitoring of them? How about drunk drivers? Surely they've killed a few underage people. Maybe the arsonists? Haven't they burned down the houses that children lived in? Are these children scarred too? We'd better monitor the burglers and the people committing fraud. Surely a child has gone without a meal because of them. Are these offenses as devastating as a sex crime? Maybe.....maybe not. But they can't be something that children view as positive experiences in their lives. I just wonder since we adults are responsible for the sex saturated culture that we live in, why don't we take a little responsibility for some of this and try to rehabilitate those who are able to be helped instead of picking the easiest target to take out our frustrations on.

[Sue]

We are persecuting 1,000's of honest citizens each year by lumping them into the SO category, forever crippling their chance to maintain a normal lifestyle. Their residence, work, past-times, and relationships are all seriously curtailed. Add to this that 100's of these actually committed no moral or legal wrong, but have been entrapped by an unjust legal system that most people are blind to.

Thanks God for true prison misistries and volunteers who can help the true "victims" of many sex abuse cases - the accused who are not even allowed to present all the eidence to effectively defend themselves.

If you know anyone who bears the dreaded "SO" label, please don't judge them by the label. Let them prove themselves to you before you decide they are a "menace to society". The offender you befriend may be someone in your own family someday, because no one is exempt from being falsely accused - and those accused are immediately treated as guilty.

I am a convicted sex offender and I am inraged. I was convicted of csc 3rd when my exgirlfriend realised I wasnt going to marry her I fought and I lost ok spilled beans, but I have been trying to get my life together ever since and its impossible. My case doesnt even involve a minor or a violent rape. However I'm treated as if I'm some threat. I resently got a job that has me leaving the state and finding a home for my wife and kids has been impossible. What can be done about this havent we served our time? Can we have a life? How about a descent job? I was blessed and didnt give up, but it took alot not to turn to a life of crime in order to take care of my family. They dont want us working or living in descent homes. Im taking a $60,000 a year job and cant find a home for my family. How much more can we take?