I am aware that the answers to the following will differ hugely by country/state but would like to hear them for any jursitriciton anyone knows about.
[ol]
[li]What did the typical sex offender do? [/li][li]Or if that is a daft question - how many did nasty shit and how many had a piss in public or fucked their girlfried two days younger than them or whatever[/li][li]Or if those stats are not clear enough - tell me about the range of sex offenders[/li][li]How easily do sex offenders get re employed?[/li][li]How many sex offenders offend again?[/li][li]How just are the sex offender registries generally seen as being?[/li][li]Tell me about sex offenders you have known or have heard of[/li][/ol]
There is no “general” sex offender. There are some who committed forced sodomy on small children; there are others who, at age 16, snapped a nude picture of their self and texted it to their boyfriend.
2-3. WAY beyond my google-fu at this time of the morning.
It’s almost impossible for a convicted felon, much less a registered sex offender, to get employed in this country.
See 2-3.
Many in this country see sex-offender registries as unduly burdensome on those who commit “minor” sex crimes such as underage sexting; even for those who commit despicable, violent acts with young victims, these registries do little more than force them to live in homeless shelters. Of course, there are just as many in this country who say “Fuck them, that’s what they deserve.” Politicians are afraid to touch the subject, for fear that they would appear soft on crime.
The only sex offender I’ve known personally is my dad’s youngest brother. From pretty much Day 1 of his life if it was obvious that he was… different. I’ll spare you the details, but he committed crimes against me when I was a small child; he may have committed crimes against one or more of my other cousins, but my cousins and I aren’t close and besides, that’s not something you talk about. About 15 years ago he committed forced sodomy against his stepdaughters; he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
I don’t think there is a typical. My WAG is that most registered sex offenders are probably there on pornography related matters.
Or if that is a daft question - how many did nasty shit and how many had a piss in public or fucked their girlfried two days younger than them or whatever
Another WAG with no cite but I’d say most are related to pornography (pictures of themselves or a minor they are dating, or legitimate child pornography)
Or if those stats are not clear enough - tell me about the range of sex offenders
Probably as young as 16, up through 92?
[li]How easily do sex offenders get re employed?[/li]
Not very easily as I understand it. You can get some of the grunt jobs though, like going through hoards and cleaning them out when people die and such.
How many sex offenders offend again?
Not sure of this one. I think it’s a lot, probably a majority.
How just are the sex offender registries generally seen as being?
I don’t know what you mean here. I think most people like them and check them if they have children.
Tell me about sex offenders you have known or have heard of
I don’t think I’ve known any personally.
Also, why wasn’t your third item in the list Hi, Opal!?
Anecdote : When I looked up my neighborhood on a Megan’s Law website, by far the most offenders were for sexual contact with a minor, one or two counts. No more details than that for most cases. Outer Sunset, San Francisco.
As far as employment goes, I had the displeasure of working with three at pretty decent non-factory jobs.
Two at the job I have now, where I worked in college. They were both entry level employees but still earned a decent wage of almost $40,000 a year with overtime. The first was a guy who was on the list for statutory rape, and I knew the story, just got his gf who was a few years younger than him pregnant and her own floosie mother got pissed at him and pressed charges.
The second one disgusted me. I was always perusing the sex offender registry website. I found this guy who was in his late 30’s and had raped an 8 year old girl. I made sure I told everyone about that. He was also one of the dumbest people I’d ever met. He ended up getting hurt really bad on the job and they kept him around for a short period while he healed up and then fired him.
For awhile after college, I worked at a different place, and there was this dude who was just top-dog around there. Hardest working SOB on the planet. Did some stuff with the National Guard or Marines or something like that and also ran a catering business on the side. He was probably earning $45,000 plus a year and had a wife and kids. I personally wasn’t doing to good when I took that job, and I screwed up a few times working there. He hated my guts, I knew it. Lots of dirty looks and some weird stuff happening around him.
He raped a 14 year old when he was 26. I was thinking of posting his profile next to the time clock on my last day there but I never did that. Not sure how many people knew about it. Wanted to call him out sometime when he was giving him the stink eye. “Hey Tom, I might be a POS worker, but at least I’ve never had sex with someone that didn’t wanna have sex with me.”
The first two dudes got hired because that job did not require a background check. I got rehired there and work there now. They started running background checks surprisingly enough they still hire convicted felons (multiple DUI’s and aggravated assault), but I’m thinking they started with the background checks to weed out the real sickos.
Although it is often said, I don’t think there is any state where a person can end up on the sex offender registry for public exposure, or having a slightly younger girlfriend. In NY state, for example, the registerable offenses are all pretty serious.
With regards to what’s typically called “statutory rape,” in most states that simply doesn’t apply to similarly aged teenagers fooling around. In New York it’s defined as someone over 18 having sex with someone 14 or younger, or someone over 21 having sex with someone 16 or younger. (IAMNAL, this is not legal advice.)
All of the sex offenders I’ve covered as a reporter did heinous stuff. For most, getting employment is a condition of their release. Last one I spoke to worked at a fast food joint.
When I was a public defender, the majority of sex cases I saw were child sexual abuse (usually young child, under 12), usually of a relative or a girlfriend’s kid. Something like that. There were a few (very few) statutory rape cases where someone was having “consensual” sex with a girl too young. And I saw one or two stranger rape cases, but those were the most rare. I don’t recall any “date rape” cases, but I imagine that’s just a failure of my memory.
I track the sex offenders in my town. They have to register with me and have periodic re-registering to verify their information. My answers are for my jurisdiction only.
I knew one sex offender. (Not well, but I had been in the same school as him years earlier.)
He was arrested for flashing young girls. He pleaded guilty in the pre-registry days, and got probation, but then had to register once the laws were passed. He lost his job as a programmer, but found another one and seems to be working these days. (Also, his wife and kids were ostracized in their neighborhood, but that’s another story.)
His offender registry says he “stalked his victims before assaulting them”. My understanding, as above, is that he only flashed them, and that this technically counts as an “assault”. But perhaps someone more knowlegable can confirm or refute this.
[li]How many sex offenders offend again? [/li][/QUOTE]
According to a French NGO involved in sexual crimes against minors I recently watched a documentary about and read the website of (*), pedophiles would have the lowest rate of recidivism of all criminals. Don’t know about other sex offenders.
[QUOTE]
[li]How just are the sex offender registries generally seen as being?[/li][/QUOTE]
There is no such thing in France.
(*) Something weird I heard/read : this NGO is in particular interested in prevention, and according to it, it’s extremely lacking (almost no psychiatrist accepting potential -or even actual- offenders, no call center, etc…). They gave the example of a guy who was interviewed.
One time, randomly meeting a boy, he felt a strong urge to rape. He called his psychiatrist, who refused to see him without an appointment. He then went to a police station where he was told they could do nothing for him since he hadn’t committed any crime yet. He finally went to a psychiatric hospital that agreed to take him in for the night, gave him a sleeping pill and sent him on his merry way the next morning since he had no obvious serious mental health issue (apart from having urges to rape kids, I mean :rolleyes:)
I’m talking about three different guys in my post. The first one was indeed statch. The other to were bona fide child molesters/rapists.
Last time I checked the guy I worked with who got hurt at my college job and fired is living in a homeless shelter. He was on unemployment for a long time and I saw him riding around town on a bike (wearing a fishnet shirt :eek:) collecting pop cans.
When it comes to age of consent the laws vary widely from state to state. As has been discussed here many many times. In New Jersey the AoC is 16. If under 16 there has to be more than a four year age difference. YMMV but I can not see any circumstance where a 20 year old should be with a 15 year old. The exception to the AoC is when the older person is in a position of authority or family member of the younger. Then it is 18. We have one guy who is on our list who had sex with a 16 year old. He was in his 30s and in loco parentis with the victim.
I know one. He downloaded images from a Usenet newsgroup devoted to young-looking women. The vast majority of the images in the group are of 18 year old women with small breasts, dressed to look younger. He had the misfortune of downloading a handful that were not.
He spent five years in prison. He has never harmed a child. He presumably will spend the rest of his life on the sex offender’s list.
In Colorado (and possibly other jurisdictions), if a 14 yo kills someone, and is NOT tried as an adult, they will be released from jail when they turn 21 (or possibly 18). The record that they were a convicted felon is sealed and no information can be found about them (except by law enforcement personnel). So on a records search for a job, for instance, nothing will turn up in a background search.
If, however, if a 14 yo has sex with a 13yo, and is caught and convicted of statutory rape (also a felony), and is not tried as an adult, that 14 yo, when released is required to register as a sex offender. The actual records are sealed so that a prospective employer, doing a background check, only knows that the person is a sex offender. Sex offense registration is for life.
As mentioned, above, sex offenders can get only the most basic of employment, if that.