I feel the need to post a reply to Zman on his lengthy reply to my post,"Too much freakin Nature!" I have copied a SMALL excerpt from his reply and I have copied an excerpt from my own reply to him.
I don't have the answers, but I don't think that giving rights to those who have hurt others is the answer. I DO agree that once an accusation has been made, you will lose greatly, no matter what is true or not. It is a sad reality, but not one that will be solved by eradicating the sex offender registry.
excerpt from Zman's response: Living is already almost impossible for "sex offenders", and the more and more laws that are passed daily, eventually they are going to explode, and it won't be a pretty sight. You must be realistic when making laws, these draconian laws make it impossible for anyone to live ANY type of life. Everyone is for treatment and punishing those violent offenders who are making other sex offenders lives hell, but like I said, we must be realistic.
* For all the people being charged with Child p**nography, is the law checking the computers to make sure they are not infected with a virus? Many people are ignorant when it comes to computers, and if they click on some attachment in an email, their machine can become infected with a virus, trojan, spyware, adaware program which stores child p**n on their machine. Are these so called "experts" checking this? Or ignoring this possibility?
* The issue with sex offenders Internet email addresses, IM names, etc being collected, this is another "feel good" law that will not stop crime. If someone wanted to commit a new crime, they'd create a new email address and commit the crime. This is stupid and won't work. It is just another waste of the taxpayers money.
* Think!! Come up with solutions, not "feel good" laws, which make it harder and harder for sex offenders to get on with their lives.
* "Buffer Zones" are a false sense of security!
* "Buffer Zones" are banishing people from their town, state, and possibly the country!
* "Buffer Zones" create homelessness, which costs society lost productivity, individual dignity, and creates additional problems for enforcing any accurate registry!
* "Buffer Zones" do nothing, except banish! It could be 50 miles and if someone wanted to re-offend, they'd just get in a car and drive!
* It should be MANDATORY that anyone in prison get therapy, and out of prison, if needed. Therapy does work. If you just lock them up without therapy, when they get out, they will be worse off. Therapy teaches people how to not act out and help, regardless of what the general public thinks. Just ask a therpist.
* We need to STOP this hysteria and get sex offenders the help they need.
excerpt from MY response:
I agree that more information regarding the nature of the sexual offense should be required (as in the 18 year old with his 17 yr girlfriend). But I think that those offenders are the minority rather than the majority, and although it may be EXTREMELY Unfair to lump them all together as sexual offenders, it is the only way that is being done now. And KNOWING that someone has a history is better than the way it used to be, which was blind faith that your neighbors didn't have previous criminal histories. I think it should be the offender's choice as to whether the whole story is posted or if it is paraphrased into "aggravated sexual assault aged 13-16" which, I'm sorry, is a major offense no matter HOW old the offender was at the time.
zman, I've been trying to figure out how to respond to your comments. I think I can only say that you are obviously on the opposite side of the spectrum as I am. While I feel pity for those who are wrongly accused and convicted and pity for those who are convicted of a minor offense but are lumped with the really bad guys, I feel more sorrow for the millions of children that are hurt year after year. THEY should be our focus, not the conditions within which the offenders live while they are serving their sentences.
YES they need therapy! Of course!! And so do the victims!! And their parents, and the community!! But the money isn't there!! If we want things to change, we need to approve the tax changes, donate our time and money to the causes we feel strongly about, and provide truly loving, permament care for the children of abuse. We need to change the system that is in play for the children, so that they don't continue the cycle in another generation. Stop it EARLY. So that another child doesn't suffer.
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Ok. What are YOUR thoughts?
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9 comments:
Tracey I totally agree with you. It sucks that they all get lumped together, but for now that's how it is. The rate for rehabilitating a child molester is 1%...not good! I'd rather have the list and know who to keep my kids away with. In the long run, the kids who are molested are going to suffer more than the offenders are from having their names on a list.
Counseling is wonderful, but unfourtunately, molestation is a life sentence to the victim. My son is a survivor of molestation. I'm sorry that there are statutory rape offenders on the registry, the bottom line is that a law was broken. I know that for my son and my family, one incident changed our lives forever. No amount of counseling will ever change that the five minute period spent with the molester changed my beautiful 5 year old boy into a wreck. He hid his secret for a year and a half, and he has never and will never be the same. We believe strongly that what does not kill you makes you stronger, but how unnecessary...the point of the registry is to make people aware. Awareness.
Oh, such a horrible thing to even have to THINK about. I don't know if there is any right answer, but I do have to agree with what you've said.
Steph
I agree with what you've said.
I personally think that even the wrongly accused have put themselves in a situation where they were associated with something that they shouldn't have... so leading a careful and wise life is essential. I think parents should be teaching their children about these kind of issues just like they teach their children about money, credit and savings (among other things of course).
I think anyone who has sexually abused a child should be castrated. It has been proven that once the line is crossed there is no going back. Castration is the only known "cure" and even then, sometimes they just act out in other ways. At least it would be a harsh enough sentence that freakos might really think before they act out.
Statuatory rape counts-yet another reason to "think" before you act. Sleeping with a teenage girl/boy is never a wise decision-especially if you are over 18. I'm not for castration in Stat. rape cases-but very severe punishment might curb all these accidental pregnancies, abortions and STD's.
tracey-i've been blogging for a while and never mentioned this part of my families history. back in the 80's my little brother was kidnapped by a stranger, crossed state lines, molested and returned to us approx. 26 hours later. he was 6. i don't think i need to get into the effect this has on us to this day. the man that did was caught, was sentenced to a very long prison term,which was overturned, he will now be out of prison when he is in his 50's. the part that kills me though is that he was out on bail awaiting sentencing for the same crime in another state the time he took my brother. as in already found guilty but not in prison. this is not a topic i plan to ever address on my own blog. it wasn't anything i was going to mention at all until i read your post and comments you recieved from someone who is obviously trying to screw with the system. it makes me physically sick to read someone tap dance around the topic of molestation, i'm sorry but their is no child porn on my computer..i don't go places that would cause that to happen.
i do not believe that therapy works, and being in prison is only a bandaid-it proves they haven't been around small children in a while. do i feel bad that they have a hard time establishing a life in any community-to some small extent yes, but not enough to feel we should not protect our children. don't hurt other people and your life will be easier to live is my advise. how do you go about doing that? i have no idea and frankly it's not my problem-my problem is keeping my kid safe. so good for you tracey for posting the sex offender registration site, and tough crap if people that are effected by that particular law don't like it. don't be a predator.
Ali and trulove,
I can only feel extreme sadness that your lives have been tormented by deviants.
The people who are the victims will NEVER have a second chance at a normal existence, free from pain.
But I pray that your loved ones will feel peace in their hearts...
I agree with the other commentors here. Avoid anything and everything that might give you the appearance of a sexual criminal. If your life is tough after you've commited a crime, tough cookies sweety, it's called consequences for your actions. I hope your "life of difficulty" was worth that short moment of physical pleasure. My sisters had WAY too many things happen to them while growing up because we didn't know things about our neighbors and babysitters and my parents believed in trusting "good people". I was always a very shy, suspicious child and I think that saved me from a lot of things that my sisters went through.
Protecting the children is the paramount need. However when flip flop momma said that the rate for rehabilitating a child molester is 1%, she covers a lot of ground with one broad generalization. Her information is probably true for a pedophile, i.e. a person that is sexually attracted to young children. But her information is incorrect for molesters whose victims are family members.
Those types are usually not pedophiles and treatment is usually very effective. Many such molesters can be reunited with their families and can lead very productive lives.
As for the teens convicted of statuatory rape and being labeled as a sex offender for the ramainder of their lives is something that is counter productive, to say the least.
It is the comfortable way to just lump all sex offenders into one category, but that is not helpful to society.
I don't have enough space here to go into all of the reasons and discussions over the many facets of the problem, but a one size fits all is hardly ever an effective way to deal with any problem.
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