You always hear about how people who were arrested for urinating behind a dumpster or skinny dipping in some remote lake are now registered sex offenders. Ditto for a minor possessing nude photos of themself or their lover, or even minors having sex with other minors. It seems its some kind of game authorities are playing to see who can dilute the meaning of sex offender more or get as many names on the list as possible.
At a basic level, the stats look good. The cynical say it’s all about conviction rates. DAs are less interested in “finding the real perp” like a bad cop mystery; they want to find someone who looks guilty, pin it on them, and Add to their conviction stats.
Having the evidence to convict but not laying charges is likely to become a Willie Horton type career limiting move in the hands of an election opponent. Being able to tell the electorate “we put 156 sex offenders behind bars or on the list” sound good. No need for details…
Every time an “error” gets made, everyone blames everyone else. The cops and judges blame the lawmakers for passing “vague” laws. Judges say they have to enforce the laws as written to ensure fairness. And you get the idea the list goes on.
I doubt anyone sets out to ruin people, though some people are probably trying to make a point. Bottom line, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
There is currently a moral panic about sex offences. As with any moral panic, political leaders get into a law’n’order auction, where each bids above the other with promises of ever harsher punishment to show how much tougher they are than the other guy on the panic of the day. And no one wants to say “hey, maybe we are going too far with some of this” because that will provide their opponent with an opportunity to accuse them of being “soft”.
There are various levels on the list. In Arkansas we have Levels 2,3,4 on the map. 4 is Sexually Violent Predator and the one thats most dangerous.
I just pulled up the map for my area. About 8 level 2’s in my neighborhood, 1 level 3 only a few blocks away and a 4 about a mile away.
I checked other areas of the city and there’s really nowhere that doesn’t have some level 2’s. That’s a good indication of how many people are registered.
I clicked on some of the level 2’s. They show offenders picture, the crime, DOB etc. Some of the level 2’s were sexual solicitation of a child. So even a 2 is dangerous.
I have a nephew that is what you might call slow. He has spent time in jail and is forever on a list because he had sex with his 17 year old girlfriend when he was 19. When he got out of jail the first time, he found a new girlfriend. Problem was, she was 17 again and he was 20 or 21, but still mentally about 14 or 15. So he went back to jail. He’s been out now for many years and he and the second girl are married with 4 kids. She’s a bit slow too.
I don’t think he is a danger to anyone and I don’t think he should be listed as a sex offender. I would like to see a system that would consider my nephew’s circumstances, but I’m not sure how feasible that is.
That is what you get when you have people making laws that are trying to appear as if they care, rather than actually giving a crap. When an 18yr has sex with a 17yr and is classified as a danger, that is crazy. Imagine these same rules 50 years ago where women married at 16.
Your grandfathers and grandmothers quite possible are all crazy sex offenders that should be locked up for life!!! Well OK not really but you get the point. Until people use their brains it will only get worse.
I don’t know that this can all be blamed on cynical politicians, I just noticeda post here in our own Pit (post #13), from a doper who is apparently skeeved out by a 17-18 year old (a ‘high-school senior’) getting “touchy-feely” with a 13 year old. I was, frankly, shocked that anyone would find this at all shocking. The new puritanism runs deep and wide. (I am estimating 30 to 50 years until the next sexual revolution, when young people “discover” sex again. Anyone making odds?)
You’re shocked that someone thinks a 17 year old doing sexual things with a 13 year old is skeevy? Really? A 13 year old is a little kid. 17 years is almost in college.
Thats 4 years age difference give or take, no way to tell maturity level of either party(or what sex they are having).
Thats not creepy on its face, but I would hope parents were looking out for both parties.
You could, in theory, both be in high school at the same time, depending on when birthdays fall. Doesn’t seem creepy, but I never did it.. easier to date girls in your classes than to try to meet them in the cafeteria or the like.
OT: The same sort of motivations also explain why we still have the death penalty, and also why defense spending is through the roof. I wonder what sort of leaders it would take to break this pattern of behavior.
You know the pendulum is reaching the far end of its swng when you not only see questions like this, and stories about people on the registry for urinating behind a dumpster; but who Hollywood makes to be the “bad guy”. In the movie Horrible Bosses last year, one of the characters is trapped in a bad job because he is on the sex offender registry for urinating in a playground next door to a bar at midnight; no other employer will touch him.
Kind of reminds me of when HMO’s suddenly became the bad guys in every Hollywood drama about 15 years ago.
OK, I’ll be the one to ask for a cite. I know everyone has a favorite anecdote about the guy peeing at a playground at 3 am, or the 19 year old and his 17 year old girlfriend, but in terms of actual numbers, do these people significantly affect the number of registered sex offenders? I have no idea and I would love to see a cite, but my guess is that they’re a drop in the bucket compared to the number of actual pervs on the list.
In this case, the only valid source of data is the government, and they are the ones who have every reason to shade the truth.
Why would you think that? Consensual gay sex used to be plenty to land someone in prison, and the fact that it harmed no one didn’t keep the government from jailing huge numbers.
I only know one convicted sex offender. He was collateral damage in the government’s effort to wipe out Usenet. He, like the vast majority of males, enjoyed porn, so he downloaded pictures from a Usenet binaries accumulator. There are a huge number of pictures newsgroups, but the vast majority are legal pictures posted by porn web sites to attract visitors. But scattered among them are images that are either very old, from countries that don’t have the same age of consent as the US or are deliberately put up there as a “honeypot”. We’re not talking about images of children, but about 17 year olds.
So, for the crime of visiting the wrong web site - a general interest porn web site, NOT anything related to child porn - his career was totally destroyed, his family destroyed and he has been imprisoned for five years. And for the rest of his life, unlike any other crime, he will remain on a type of parole that convicted murderers are not subject to.