The Economist argues that sex offender laws — specifically, sex offender registries — are too harsh. It’s mainly concerned with statutory rapists, some of whom were only two or three years older than the person they were arrested for having sex with.
There are three main arguments for reform. First, it is unfair to impose harsh penalties for small offences. Perhaps a third of American teenagers have sex before they are legally allowed to, and a staggering number have shared revealing photographs with each other. This is unwise, but hardly a reason for the law to ruin their lives. Second, America’s sex laws often punish not only the offender, but also his family. If a man who once slept with his 15-year-old girlfriend is barred for ever from taking his own children to a playground, those children suffer.
Third, harsh laws often do little to protect the innocent. The police complain that having so many petty sex offenders on registries makes it hard to keep track of the truly dangerous ones. Cash that might be spent on treating sex offenders—which sometimes works—is spent on huge indiscriminate registries. Public registers drive serious offenders underground, which makes them harder to track and more likely to reoffend. And registers give parents a false sense of security: most sex offenders are never even reported, let alone convicted.
It would not be hard to redesign America’s sex laws. Instead of lumping all sex offenders together on the same list for life, states should assess each person individually and include only real threats. Instead of posting everything on the internet, names could be held by the police, who would share them only with those, such as a school, who need to know. Laws that bar sex offenders from living in so many places should be repealed, because there is no evidence that they protect anyone: a predator can always travel. The money that a repeal saves could help pay for monitoring compulsive molesters more intrusively—through ankle bracelets and the like.
I agree with pretty much all of this. (Via.)
I keep getting these notices in the mail with the face of someone to watch out for, and I don’t know what the heck I’m supposed to do–turn and head for home any time I see someone who looks like that? Carry the notice, wave it around, and point at anyone who seems to match? Or just spend my time keeping track of them, time that could be better spent surfing the web? It doesn’t help that I’m not real good on faces.
I think this author made some good points. Better than I could, anyway. Thanks.
I SO agree.
While buying a house, we keep being informed during the process that we can look up the local sex offenders. And I’m just like, can we decline that? Sigh.
What the article doesn’t mention, at least not in the excerpt, is that there are a fair number of women who have been labeled as sex offenders, too, for consensual teenage sex.
One of the major problems with all the registry laws is they have the unintended consequence of turning sex offenders into transients, making it much more difficult for law enforcement to track the truly dangerous offenders. If a person cannot find a legal place to live, that person is going to go underground. It also makes it much more difficult for people who recognize they have problems and who want therapy or counseling to obtain that help.
The sex offender registry laws are yet another example of politicians pandering to public hysteria and going for a one size fits all solution to a highly complex problem.
Illinois has a distinction in it’s statutory rape laws based on age differential apparently:
So, if you’re 18 and your partner is 16 it’s a Class A misdemeanor, but if you’re 21 and your partner is 16 it’s a Class 2 felony.
I printed the entire first paragraph because it leads me to an interesting question. I read it as saying that if both people involved in a sexual relationship are 16, then an act of Criminal Sexual Abuse has been committed. Given the way it’s worded, can only a male be convicted of this offense in such a case? Even though there’s apparently no question of consent?
Full disclosure: I have been trained and volunteered as a legal advocate and crisis hotline counselor for rape and domestic violence victim/survivors.
I think it’s such a complex subject. Our laws both overpunish and underpunish sex offenders (edited; changed from rapists). Part of the reason the registry exists is because violent rapists who are deemed likely to re-offend (or have already re-offended) are nonetheless given 1-2 year sentences (or less) and re-released*. Of course the public feels safer with these things but they wouldn’t be needed if we took re-offense more seriously.
As for “only statutory rape”, it’s important not to forget that often, that is the ONLY charge that can get a prosecution. The rape may have involved alcohol, drugs, force, or other coercion as well, but often the jury will only convict on statutory OR that will be the only charge brought because the DA decides it’s the only one that can get a conviction. The perp will then turn around and claim it was consensual, because he can; the law has empowered him to do so. I’m not saying that the boyfriend/girlfriend consensual sex involving an 18 year old and a 16 year old thing never happens (although in many states the age difference must be at least 4 years for the law to apply-should an 18 year old be able to have sex with a 14 year old?). But those cases are such a miniscule part of statutory cases; the AVERAGE difference in age between perp and victim/survivor is 7 years. The average perp in statutory cases is over 20 years old. Furthermore, about 1:20 of violent attackers of children have been previously convicted of statutory rape. The scenerio used in the quoted is the biggest rape myth/lie involving statutory rape. So it’s not as cut and dried as portrayed. As with everything else, it is much more complex.
*This happened in my home state; a man had been convicted of rape of a minor and double homicide, for which he got 6 months and 6 years, respectively (double homicide was his wife and her friend; apparently a woman’s life is only worth 3 yeears); a few years later he raped and murdered another woman now we have Katie’s law that gives a minimum 12 year for csc1. I am certain this isn’t the only example of someone who was deemed by the state highly likely to rape again, yet released anyway.
I’m quite glad to have the sex offender sites available. I use them when we sign up new Scouters. Yeah, I know, the BSA runs background checks on these folks, but I’m not going to even turn the application in if they show up on these sites.
And if my kids were still of that age I’d be checking out volunteers for my kids’ athletic teams, especially if the volunteer doesn’t have a kid on the team. I’ll grant the issue of people being convicted of consensual sodomy being on these sites, but when we get to
it seems to me that (for example) everybody with a kid needs to know if someone convicted of child molestation lives in their neighborhood.
The system in Illinois used to be like that proposal. I’d have to go down to the local police stations and ask to see the sex offender registry. They’d ask me why I wanted to know, I’d say “I’m a Scoutmaster”, and they’d let me see the books. But with all the Chicago suburbs so close together and densely populated I’ve got people from 5 different towns in my Troop. That’s a real pain in the ass to drive around to all those stations.
When I lived in GA, a few years ago now, I looked up the registry of sex offenders near me, and also found a couple men who had been convicted of consensual sodomy in states and at times when that was still a crime. And that’s about when I decided the registry did more harm than good.
Another complicating factor is the vast differences from state-to-state in both the law and in what prosecutors choose to pursue. In many states you’d be hard-pressed to find a DA willing to prosecute in a 19/16 case; in some states kids are being prosecuted for taking naked pictures of themselves.
So I agree reform is needed, but I believe it needs to be based on facts, not rape myths.
Oregon’s law has a 3-year grace period. See ORS 163.345 – but it only applies if the other party is over the age of 15.
Oregon also treats all instances of intercourse or “deviate sexual intercourse” with another party between the ages of 16 and less than 18 as a Class A or Class C misdemeanor, respectively.
Personally, I’d rather have an old sex offender nearby than a recent violence offender. So what if someone was arrested for indecent exposure for peeing in public 20 years ago – I’d rather have him next door than someone who has had convictions for assaulting neighbors in disputes.
The problem is that these things sweep up everyone indiscriminately, and give us an overbroad level of information, and do more to create paranoia than anything else. Look, I would kill anyone who laid a hand on my daughter (not because she’s “mine,” but because I love her and don’t want her hurt), but statistically speaking, the most likely person to do so is me. Next most likely are her other male relatives, followed by her female relatives. It’s exceedingly unlikely that she’s at risk for molestation from a stranger; she’s far more likely to die of a slip and fall accident in the shower, but nobody suggests putting showers on a state registry.
That doesn’t mean one should be insouciant about sex offenses; they’re among the most serious crimes for a good reason. But quite frankly, the best way to keep a sex offender from reoffending is to give him (or her, but usually him) the opportunity to build a decent life after prison. To provide adequate counseling in prison to work to lower recidivism. To provide for involuntary commitment for the truly irredemable, and to provide for it before sentencing, rather than adding it after they’re released.
But simply putting a scarlet letter on the breast of sex offenders doesn’t help. It just stigmatizes people who did something horribly wrong, but who have paid their debt to society. We needn’t forgive people for their crimes, but we also needn’t keep punishing them long after other violent offenders have been freed and allowed back into society, where they can live in anonymity.
Here’s a fun quirk of California law.
Age of consent for sex is 18, for both boys and girls, for any kind of sexual contact. No exceptions. Simple, right? (Stupid, but simple.)
As a therapist, I’m a mandated reporter. So are my students.
California law is extremely complex about what we’re mandated to report. Under 13? Reportable. 13 or 14 year old? If it’s with a 15-year-old or older. 15 and up? Depends on how much older, but the age gap can be somewhat breathtaking. Still, it at least allows that realistically speaking, teens are out there having consensual sex.
Except that this only applies to heterosexual intercourse. “Oral or anal copulation” is mandatory to report if you’re aware of any under-18s doing it, no matter their age or the age of their partner. The first time I was taught this, I stuck my hand up. “You mean… if we’re working with gay, lesbian, or bisexual teens, and they’re basically having any sexual contact with a same sex partner, we have to report to the child abuse folks?” “Yep.”
I have followed this up with a number of California and national agencies, including the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which publishes a video about GLBT youth in foster care that includes the heartbreaking story of a 16-year-old whose social worker asked him “how do you know you’re gay?” and when he said “because I had sex with my boyfriend and liked it,” turned him in. Because the other guy was younger, he was incarcerated and tried as a sex offender.
What I’ve heard from people in SoCal is that “in practice, no one is expecting you to report queer kids” and practitioners routinely ignore this ugly loophole in the law. In NorCal, there is a climate of fear that underpins ethics training for clinicians, and the message being given out is “err on the side of keeping your license.” And maybe Child Protective Services in San Francisco County would listen to a clinician say “my 16-year-old client says he had oral sex with his 15-year-old boyfriend” and reply “that’s nice; do you have any reason to believe either of them didn’t consent?” but maybe the Contra Costa County CPS would freak out and call the cops. And when the state can say “you can’t practice your profession any more,” it’s really hard to balance the welfare of your adolescent clients and what you know to be right, against the possibility of being sanctioned by having your license pulled.
And in the meantime there’s queer kids being labeled sex offenders suffering the same life-long penalties as the baby rapists.
(I used to caution undergrads in the Alcohol Education program I taught that if they thought it was a good idea to whip it out and piss in an alley on the way home from a party, maybe they should think again because public urination could be registered as a sex offense in the state where we all resided. Disgusting? Definitely. Sex crime? No way.)
Check out http://safeatthestop.blogspot.com, a blog to help pull our nation’s head out of the sand concerning sexual predators.
Re JeffFecke @10:
Some categories of sex offenders are all but guaranteed to re-offend, such as preferential pedophiles and certain types of rapist. Treatment or counseling won’t matter because these people victimize out of preference, not because they need better lives or jobs. The intent of registration laws is to help other people be aware of those rare occasions when the helpful volunteer or friend-of-a-friend is a potential predator. All the more reason the lists shouldn’t be cluttered up with teenagers and others who aren’t predatory… or conversely, all the more reason to keep the predators tracked or confined.
“The best way to keep a sex offender from reoffending…” really, really depends on the definition of sex offender. Recidivism has more to do with the type of offender than the treatment they get. Some will never be safe, some will always be annoying but probably harmless, and some just need to age a couple of years.
Statistics indicating that some types of offenders “are all but guaranteed to reoffend” have been found to be exaggerated or the ghosts of bad science. Do you have actual science you’re referring to, rather than the myths that have been made into common sense on the subject? If so, I’d appreciate it if you could provide your substantiation so that we could analyze whether or not it’s correct.
From a related article in The Economist:
I appreciate the author and editor for bringing this injustice to light. A couple of important points were left out: one, most sex offenses aren’t from re-offenders they’re from new offenders. People that aren’t informed on how easy it is to become a sex offender. Again, thank you for bringing this to light! Secondly, you mention that 24% of offenders re-offend, although perhaps true you missed tying the extreme restrictions involved in being a sex offender to the rate and reason for the re-offenses. What constitutes a re-offense? Not registering on time? Going to your sons baseball game? Owning a house near a school and refusing to loose your home due to registering? Going on vacation for two weeks and not registering at the vacation location as a sex offender while there as required by law? As you wrote just being a good parent would be cause for re-offense. another thing, where is the line drawn for register sex offenders? My drivers license went past due yet I drove anyway for 2 weeks until I could afford to pay same tickets off. Driving without valid drivers license is a misdemeanor in California. Is that a re-offense due to my status as a sex offender? How do they gauge offenses after someone is label a sex offender?
I was watching the TV news last night, and they had a very sensationalistic report on teen sexting that stressed over and over again that sexting could put your teen on the sex offender registry for life so DON’T DO IT! And nowhere in the report did anyone suggest that maybe this is a teeny little bit fucked up and maybe we shouldn’t be prosecuting sexting among teenagers this way or maybe offenses like this don’t belong on a publicly available registry. As if sex offender registries were not our creation and as if we could not change how they work if we really wanted to.
Okay folks, I have a problem with the registry as a whole. Why do we require sex offenders to register, but not drug dealers, or car thieves, or people who are guilty of assault and battery? I think it should be an “all or nothing” deal. These people are daily dealing iwth double jeapordy. They have paid their debt to society, but will have to pay every 90 days when they have to re-register for the rest of their lives. And before someone freaks out, my daughter was a victim of a sexual assault at age 6, and I, as a parent of a victim, still feel this way.
Marsha,
Was your daughter assaulted by someone who’d been previously convicted and who, had you known of the prior conviction, you could have kept her away from?
I work at a place that runs criminal background checks on people, including checks against the National Sex Offender Registry. I dearly, dearly hope that folks realize (but know from personal experience that they often don’t, or worse, don’t care) that there are a plethora of false positives simply because social security numbers are not part of the database. When we search it, our results are based on a name match only, and possibly a partial date of birth. This means that if you have a very common name, or happen to share a year of birth with other offenders who have similar names, you may very well find yourself a possible match.
I have gotten phone calls from people denied housing because a possible offender match turned up and the property manager did not sufficiently research the match to determine whether it was or was not their applicant. We are very clear in everything that we send that this is not a confirmation of criminal activity, only a possibility, but more and more frequently it seems that people are not willing to take a risk on even a potential match – even if, say, the match in question is to someone who is listed as “currently incarcerated.”
The offender registry is a good idea in theory, but needs a lot of work before it is viable in practice.
I am a sex offender, I was arrested at age 13 for having consentual sex with my girlfriend that was 11. (2 year 13 day difference in age) me and her and her family are still on good terms (her older bro is one of my best friends over 15 years running)… these laws ruined my life… I cant find a good job (fast food is pretty much it) ive been turned down for jobs at warehouses, and even labor sites… (all 18+ generally men). I cant join the military, become a nurse / med student work for any 500k company… I dropped out of school because its not worth the degree to just hang it on my wall to collect dust… I have nothing to look forward to, and I didn’t even know what I did was a crime at the time… the sickest part to me Is I recieved (sex ed) at school and they never even taught you the legal perspective (due to not being attorney’s ) they are not allowed to give legal info at schools… so they say hey sex is ok… when your 11 but they dont even teach you that you can be arrested… I personally am fu@#ed for life… and there is no get out of jail free card (oh ya when I got arrested I went to jail for a year missing school, and the liking)… placing me back in all classes… there needs to be a change as there are probably more than 5,000 – 15,000 people just like me… with no hopes of ever accomplishing anything with thier lives… I am almost suicidal, due to knowing there is not one thing I can do to help the situation, and knowing the rest of my life I will be classified with serious preddators, child molestors, and pedophiles for engaging in the first time with my girlfriend, (a consentful partner ) … I hate my life and have no respect for the legal system… (I follow the law) but I do not respect, what it has dealt me, I simply, wish someone, would think of a solution to help child sex offenders, as the sentence, is CRUEL, and much too harsh… sorry if you cant read this that well, after all I dropped out of school because I have to register there… and my employer and my home… Ive never even been accepted into an apartment complex, go figure, no where to work, why give me a chance to have a place to live right… accept maybe the worst parts of town…. YA, awesome… I could actually see a trend on why most sex offenders would re offend (sarcasm) because seriously, we have no means to support ourself’s. in the world outside the slammer… and seriously, every time I tell people I am a S.O. I get a shitty look, as though Im some terrible person… I never get the job, and I lose even more confidence in myself and my abilities… There honestly needs to be a change… at least for theese specific situation’s
at least five states required men to register if they were caught visiting prostitutes. At least 13 required it for urinating in public (in two of which, only if a child was present). No fewer than 29 states required registration for teenagers who had consensual sex with another teenager. And 32 states registered flashers and streakers.
At the JWCR, “Jacob Wetterling Recource Center” web sight. In the “Law Enforcement / Government” section. Click on the “FAQs on Sex Offenders” and read the Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Convicted Sex Offenders with Assigned Risk Levels. Pay attention to the 5th 6th and 7th Questions.
The people on the registry are not the ones to be concerned about,” said John Bankhead, a spokesman for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which maintains the sex offender registry. “It’s the ones who live right up under your nose. Stranger-on-stranger sex crimes do happen. But most cases involve people the victim already knows.”