Sex Offender Registries

There are different types of sex offenders which make recidivism complex to handle. Unfortunately, recidivism remains a difficult concept to measure, especially in the context of sex offenders. The surreptitious nature of sex crimes, the fact that few sexual offenses are reported to authorities, and variation in the ways researchers calculate recidivism rates all contribute to the problem.

“America’s Unjust Sex Laws” argues that the sex offender laws in America are too harsh. It begins by discussing “Megan’s Laws” and the Adam Walsh Act of 2006 to describe the current sex offender laws. The author then goes on to discuss how large the sex-offender registry is in order to support their first point that harsh penalties shouldn’t be imposed for minor crimes. The author argues that with so many people on the list it makes it hard to distinguish between people who are really threats on the list and those who are not. The second point the author argues is that sex-offender registries shouldn’t be made public because it causes sex offenders to be harassed and even fired from their jobs (“America’s Unjust Sex Laws” 655). The author suggest that the list should be held by the police who could then share it with people who need to know instead of the public having easy access to it (“America’s Unjust Sex Laws” 656). The author then explains how many teenagers have sex before they are legally allowed too and how this shouldn’t be reason to

102 were charged with any type of offense during the follow-up period, and of those 102, 62 were for violent offenses. The study also found that over the course of a year, the JSOAP-II significantly predicted recidivism rates in all categories. Youths that were registered sex offenders had lower rates of misdemeanor charges, which is likely due to the fact that the registered offenders were lower risk. The study found few differences between registered and unregistered juvenile sex offenders, meaning that it could not conclude that registration lowers the risk of recidivism. These findings are important because it is useful to know the effects that our policies have. The study found that “specific characteristics of a juvenile sexual offense have not proven to be reliable predictors of future offending (Caldwell, 2009).” It’s important to know this so that if current policies are not effective, we can look at new and possibly more effective ways of handling these types of things that could prove to be more effective.

The term "sex offender" means an individual who was convicted of a sex offense. Research has shown that Sex offenders that commit a crime against a person has not previously been convicted of a violent offence before. They do these crimes unders a masks of a normal relationship. Most Sexual offences committed against the person are mostly perpetrated by family members and acquaintances, and the big majority of them are unreported. Not all crimes are the same because there is such a wide spectrum of sex crimes. The punishments vary widely, between states, from fines and counseling to life in prison. Sex Offenders can be categorized into three tiers according to federal law. A Tier is a level in which a Sex Offender is categorized based on his/her sex offense.

It is debatable if sex offenders names should be public, some people believe is a invasion of there private life, “There is a real danger of vigilantism and publicizing their names (and the info required goes far beyond just their names) is an invasion of privacy of the wives, children and families of these offenders, which is an invasion of privacy no other class of criminal faces”(debate.org) . Others believe this is not even debatable, that Sex offenders name should be public, period, “Once somebody commits a sexual crime, they have given up their right to anonymity. As a parent, I want to be very aware of the sexual offenders who may be near my children. The sexual registry list is a good tool that

Sex offenders are still a threat to society and the registry is a precautionary measure that can aid in keeping communities safer. However, since it does not deter crime legislators need to find a more efficient method of reducing sexual offenses.

I attended the Texas Coast exhibit by Carol Plumb, which was held at the Learning Resource Center at TSTC on October 22, 2015.The piece of art that caught my eye was “Clouds over Laguna”. The category I believe this artwork falls under the environmental and cultural. “Clouds over Laguna” depicts the Texas Coast and displays culturally how important it is to the residents of South Texas and environmentally how it should be cared for.

In 2015, the Sex Offender Registration Act (Penal Code section 290) is a California sex offender registration statute. Section 290 was intended to promote the state interest in controlling and preventing recidivism in sex offenders. In addition, it serves an important public purpose by compelling registration of sex offenders who were violent and required public surveillance. This statute gave judges the choice to enforce registration on an adult who has non-forcible vaginal sex with a 16 year old or older. However, there is a mandatory lifetime registration for an adult who has non-forcible oral sex with a 16 year old. Thus, an equal protection issues had come into question.

“Teenager’s Jailing Brings a Call to Fix Sex Offender Registries,” is an article written by Julie Bosman, and published by the New York Times Newspaper. The article is written about a 19-year-old named Zachery Anderson who is listed on a sex offender registry for life. The cause of this was talking to an under aged female through a dating app called “Hot or Not.” Although, Zachary Anderson did not know that the girl who had lied about her being 17, was actually 14, he later plead guilty to what had happened. Reading this newspaper article had me thinking about all sorts of things, whether it was about the fact that Zachary had sex with a female who was under the age of consent in Michigan or the fact that he was put on the sex offender registry.

Sex offender laws have been passed to make citizens feel safer. The idea that sex offender registries let you know where all sex offenders are is simply unrealistic. There are many factors that contribute to the ineffectiveness of these laws and policies. One of the biggest contributing factors is the fact that many offenders do not have a home or place of residence to list. Knowing where a sex offender is gives peace of mind, however not knowing where they are because they do not have a place to stay defeats the purpose of these laws entirely. How can a community feel safe if they know there is a sex offender in the area, but they do not know where they are? Another belief society has about sex offenders that is inaccurate is that they molested someone they didn’t know, when in reality the majority of sexual offenses are committed by someone the victim knew and trusted. Sex offenders are usually a trusted relative or friend to their victims. The belief that these registries are necessary to protect the general public is also untrue. A problem with this assumption is that the registries treat all offenders the same, not taking into account their risk level, severity of their crime or how they responded to treatment. These factors are all extremely important concerning these specific offenders, yet they still are not taken into account. It is another belief

Research shows that fewer than 8 percent of the sex offenders completing the Sexual Offender Treatment Program return to prison.

offenders face ridicule because of their offense and they are the most victimized group of

The police usually keep track of all the suspects. Even though, many people think that this law is beneficial, some believe that it is not. In Norfolk Four case, Megan law served as a curse. Even though the four men were innocent, the four of them were required to register as sex offenders. However, the Frontline documentary discussed that all four suspects suffered from social stigmatization after they were released. Since Eric Wilson was released four years before the others, he explained in the documentary that he was not able to work because he was stigmatized as a predator. Evans and Cublits (2014) argued that “a criminal record makes it difficult to find and maintain housing, employment, and social relationships,” (p. 593). In addition, he and his wife also suffered from social isolation because the community had labeled Eric Wilson as a sex offender. Wilson’ wife explained that they had no friends and that when she was first in a relationship with him, people warned her that Wilson was under the sex offender registry. Evans and Cublits (2014) also explained that “ a sex offense conviction also makes it difficult for [Registered Sex Offenders] to form relationships, including friendship and romantic relationships, and many suffer disintegration of their current relationships especially with extended family members,” (p. 594). Accordingly, Wilson's wife explained that her family opposed

Recidivism in sex offenders returning to the community consistently remains a constant concern for society. Recent studies have directed in the direction of guidelines for professionals evaluating sex offenders with exclusive attention on identifying sexual recidivism as a whole. Clinicians must approach sex offender testing with caution; there is not an exact method of predicting sexually deviant behavior with 100 percent accuracy. However, multiple assessments have demonstrated the ability to identify and predict erotic deviant behavior (DeClue & Zavodny, 2014).