At the same time, one is troubled by the proliferation of "notification laws" across the country. ("Case Shows Limits of Sex Offender Alert Programs") You know, those laws that require paroled sex offenders to register with law-enforcement officials wherever they settle and that actively or passively alert the neighborhoods to the danger in their midst. One can hardly blame states and localities from passing such laws. Indeed, we ourselves would want to know if such a person were to move into our neighborhood. (All right, to be fair, the Solipsist just assumes that anybody within shooting distance is probably out to get him anyway, so it wouldn't make THAT much difference, but you get the point.) Still, there's something fundamentally unfair about the concept that a person who commits a crime, pays a penalty (i.e., jail time), and is then released after serving the time, must be forever branded with the scarlet letter of criminal tendency. It's hard enough for ex-convicts to rejoin society, get jobs, get on with their lives--if society has essentially given up on the notion that these people can safely rejoin society, how are they ever to prove that they can be trusted?
Maybe they can't be. But if that's the case, then are we not, as a society, being at best hypocritical by releasing them from prison at all? Look, if citizens truly feel sexual predators are the worst of the worst--and you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody who would disagree with that statement--then why don't we act accordingly? Life sentences for child molesters, rapists, et al. And if you think such sentences too harsh, then do away with the Megan's Laws across the country. You can't have it both ways.
Well, maybe you could. We could just designate a state to which all released sex offenders can be relocated, and then put a big fence around it. Is anyone really using Wyoming? Just wondering.
First: As everyone knows, there is NO Wyoming. When the early mapmakers first drew North America, they inadvertently left a gap. Rather than redraw the whole thing, they just closed the gap! (Want proof? Have YOU,PERSONALLY ever met anyone from Wyoming? No, it's always someone ELSE who claims to have)
ReplyDeleteBut seriously: The whole "sex-offender" thing is WAY out of hand: A sizable number are kids who had consebtual sex with their, technically, underage girl friends; others are guys who got drunk and exposed themselves by urinating in the stree. There was a case recently of a man trying to get his "sex offender" status removed since he had earned it when he was nineteen and was caught having sex with his under-age (16) girlfriend. The couple have now been MARRIED for 10 years and have 2 children, and he is still required to register! Having said that; there ARE those depraved animals who DO prey on children, etc. Who SHOULD be put away for life. This, by the way IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED to the monster who kidnapped the 11 year old. Then, some demented board, IN ORDER TO SAVE MONEY, let himout (while, one wonders, holding on to how manykids busted for having an ounce of pot?) The fact of the matter is, as with almost everything else, the problem lies, not with our laws, but with the stupidity of those who enact/enforce them!
And it's not like the notifications help much. Look at that poor little girl who was locked in the backyard for years while a parole officer visited regularly. Bummer Australia's already taken.
ReplyDeleteYou present an interesting question. What do we do with these convicted sex offenders? When I studied Psychology in college, we briefly touched the topic of psychological disorders in convicted sex offenders. Most of the time, their urge to molest and/or rape stemmed from some disorder or another. While I can empathize with someone suffering mentally, I cannot be comfortable with these predators walking around free amongst children.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity I checked one of those websites a few months ago that gives you the name, photo and address of every registered sex offender within a ten-mile radius of your home. I put in the local elementary school's address, and there were seventeen within FIVE miles. My question is this: if you just got out of prison for such a charge, why would you choose to live in such close proximity to an elementary school? I know in some places it's nearly impossible to find a place not near a school, but where I live it's entirely possible.
As a parent, the idea of Bob the child molester living next door frightens and angers me. I don't want these people to even LOOK at my children, for fear that they might start to fantasize about hurting them. I say leave them in jail, or at the very least, an institution. I know I'm biased, but I'm fine with that. Once you hurt a child or someone else in that manner, the opportunity should not be presented for you to do it again. Ever.