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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-us-sex-registry-romeo,0,5045599.story
Here's a perfect example of my problem with the sex offender laws.
This guy, when he was 18, had a romantic relationship with a 14 year old girl. OK, not the smartest thing in the world, but not the worst either. It was a "consensual" relationship, except that the age of consent in his area was 16.
So a teacher saw picture with his hand on her boob once and she called the cops.
And he got convicted as a sex offender.
The judge recognized this for what it was and gave him a light punishment. He got convicted of 3rd degree attempted criminal sexual conduct that was erased from his record after he completed his probation a year later.
Except that he qualifies for the mandatory registration on the sex offender's list for life.
That's right, he had a picture taken of him with his hand on his girlfriend's boob and he is now branded for life as a sex offender. He has lost 3 jobs when the bosses looked him up on the internet sex offender registry and has had to resort to collecting food stamps to survive.
Oh, and the girlfriend? He married her. And had a kid with her.
This, moms and dads of the country, is what your paranoid, knee-jerk reactions has done. You've ruined this kid's life, and how his wife and child, because he had the gall to fall in love with a girl 4 years younger than himself and try to create a family. As I said, not the brightest move ever made, but hardly a lifetime criminal deserving of continued punishment and forced poverty living conditions.
The best this poor kid could get was the ability to remove his name from the registry after 10 years. TEN FUCKING YEARS. In the meantime, he has a wife and a kid to support by taking government handouts and not being allowed to live close to the school that his kid will attend.
There is a HUGE difference between a rapist or a child molester, and a teenager who makes dumb choices with other consenting teenagers. They should not be punished equally.
I am continually grateful that my mother was unable to follow through with her threat to prosecute the guy I lost my virginity to. I was 15, he was 19. I chose him very carefully as a partner. I set out to lose my virginity, and I set out to do it with someone who would not be around afterwards. I chose someone who was leaving for the military only a few days later, so that necessarily made him over the age of consent. I very deliberately made this choice. I was not a victim, I was not taken advantage of, I was not seduced, I was not coerced. I carefully and deliberately thought it through and made this choice, and to this day I do not regret it. He should not be punished for something that was not, effectively, a crime.
And nor should this other poor kid who stupidly fell in love with a freshman. Fortunately, in the state of Michigan, they have revised some of their policies to accommodate this type of situation. There is now a "program" that people under 21 can complete that will keep them off the registry. So, like the previous post I just made, lawmakers are finally starting to take a look at what happens when you let overly-emotional people make majority rule on things that removes or inhibits civil liberties. Laws should be very carefully worded to make sure that the greatest good is being served by them, and they are not decided on by popular vote.
Here's a perfect example of my problem with the sex offender laws.
This guy, when he was 18, had a romantic relationship with a 14 year old girl. OK, not the smartest thing in the world, but not the worst either. It was a "consensual" relationship, except that the age of consent in his area was 16.
So a teacher saw picture with his hand on her boob once and she called the cops.
And he got convicted as a sex offender.
The judge recognized this for what it was and gave him a light punishment. He got convicted of 3rd degree attempted criminal sexual conduct that was erased from his record after he completed his probation a year later.
Except that he qualifies for the mandatory registration on the sex offender's list for life.
That's right, he had a picture taken of him with his hand on his girlfriend's boob and he is now branded for life as a sex offender. He has lost 3 jobs when the bosses looked him up on the internet sex offender registry and has had to resort to collecting food stamps to survive.
Oh, and the girlfriend? He married her. And had a kid with her.
This, moms and dads of the country, is what your paranoid, knee-jerk reactions has done. You've ruined this kid's life, and how his wife and child, because he had the gall to fall in love with a girl 4 years younger than himself and try to create a family. As I said, not the brightest move ever made, but hardly a lifetime criminal deserving of continued punishment and forced poverty living conditions.
The best this poor kid could get was the ability to remove his name from the registry after 10 years. TEN FUCKING YEARS. In the meantime, he has a wife and a kid to support by taking government handouts and not being allowed to live close to the school that his kid will attend.
There is a HUGE difference between a rapist or a child molester, and a teenager who makes dumb choices with other consenting teenagers. They should not be punished equally.
I am continually grateful that my mother was unable to follow through with her threat to prosecute the guy I lost my virginity to. I was 15, he was 19. I chose him very carefully as a partner. I set out to lose my virginity, and I set out to do it with someone who would not be around afterwards. I chose someone who was leaving for the military only a few days later, so that necessarily made him over the age of consent. I very deliberately made this choice. I was not a victim, I was not taken advantage of, I was not seduced, I was not coerced. I carefully and deliberately thought it through and made this choice, and to this day I do not regret it. He should not be punished for something that was not, effectively, a crime.
And nor should this other poor kid who stupidly fell in love with a freshman. Fortunately, in the state of Michigan, they have revised some of their policies to accommodate this type of situation. There is now a "program" that people under 21 can complete that will keep them off the registry. So, like the previous post I just made, lawmakers are finally starting to take a look at what happens when you let overly-emotional people make majority rule on things that removes or inhibits civil liberties. Laws should be very carefully worded to make sure that the greatest good is being served by them, and they are not decided on by popular vote.
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no subject
Date: 11/5/09 04:42 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 11/5/09 05:03 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 11/6/09 10:42 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)no subject
Date: 11/8/09 01:47 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 11/10/09 02:54 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 11/10/09 03:31 am (UTC)From:The recidivism rate among most adults who have sexual contact with people who haven't reached puberty is actually significantly lower than most other criminals (http://www.ipce.info/newsletters/e_18/myths_facts_recidivism.htm). Now, whether or not you can class most of those people as 'pedophiles' or not is an interesting question.
Most of them are relatives of the children they have contact with. And many don't have a strong sexual attraction to other children. So I wouldn't really call them pedophiles exactly.
I think the laws are based on the less than 0.01% of sex offenders who do something really horrendous, and those laws do nothing to hinder those people.
no subject
Date: 11/10/09 03:37 am (UTC)From:You know well how I feel about this
Date: 11/10/09 03:42 am (UTC)From:In many jurisdictions you can also be branded a sex offender for either being or visiting a prostitute.
I think that the registry laws, by creating a special class, also have the effect of encouraging the passing of new laws that add more people to this class. In much the same way as stop-light cameras encourage municipalities to shorten the length of yellow lights. States like having power, and branding someone a criminal is one way to get it.