Should Sex Offenders Be Public

Mr. James Kimball, at 23 years old, was a school bus driver who pursued a 15 year old student he’d known for two years. Eventually their “flirtatious” relationship escalated to a “single-sexual encounter” on or about October 3, 1991. The relationship was brought to light by the parents of the child henceforth urging Mr. Kimball to plead guilty to one count of statutory rape in 1992, where the judge then imposed a withheld judgment with a three year probation. After that, Mr. Kimball was accordingly put on the Sex Offender Registry. Due to the essence of the given facts and case report, the disparity in time from the crime to the present, and the technicality of the psychosexual evaluator’s report, I would not have aired the story on Mr.James Kimball.

Sexual violence, particularly against children, is a significant issue all around the world. In the early 1990’s in the United States, there were multiple well-publicized cases of sexual violence against children. From kidnappings, to rapes, and everything in between, violence was being committed against children and something needed to be done about it. In 1996, Megan’s Law was passed in response to the sexual assault and death of Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old from New Jersey (Corrigan, 2006). This law is still in effect. By looking at the historical context, goals, and results of Megan’s Law, one can see that Megan’s Law has had mixed outcomes.

John Edward Walsh, Jr. is an American television personality, criminal investigator, human and victim’s right advocate, the creator and host of America’s Most Wanted, and The Hunt television shows. Born in 1945 in Auburn, New York he was raised in a strict and supportive catholic home. After becoming a hotel marketing executive in Hollywood, Florida John Walsh met his wife Reve’ Walsh and settled down to raise a family. (http://www.biography.com/people/john-walsh-9542164) In 1981, a seemingly normal day, John Walsh kissed his wife and young son Adam good bye as he left for work. John received a phone call mid-day whilst at work on July 27, 1981, stating that tragedy had struck when Walsh’s six year old son, Adam had been abducted from a Sear’s

The Utah Sex Offender Registry has many purposes and has been around for quite some time. Unfortunately, every state is different and often times the entertainment industry portrays the registry in a false light. The Utah Department of Corrections wants to deflate some of the major myths surrounding the sex offender registry.

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.

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.

The question is to research the Megan Law based on the ideal characteristics of criminal law. Is Megan Law a good law? In my opinion, no law is perfect, but our laws are made to protect the people, for instance, politicality is the infringement of our state rules and is considered a good law. This law makes it mandatory in almost every state that sex offenders register. The law of specificity provides a strict definition of certain acts. Chapter four refers to specificity "as the scope of criminal law" (Bohm & Haley, 2014, p.97). These acts can be ruled not criminal if certain information is not proven to have been present when the crime was committed. The state rules for sex offenders that have been convicted of this crime be persecuted and their information made public. This reminds

Megan Kanka was seven-years-old when she was brutally raped and murdered by a neighbor Jesse Timmendequas on December 7, 1986. Prior to killing Megan Kanke, Jesse Timmendequas was convicted of sexually assaulting two young girls and sentenced to prison (Glaberson, 1996). Upon his release from prison, Jesse moved into the neighborhood where Megan lived with her family, Jesse lured Megan to his home where he brutally raped and murdered her (Glaberson, 1996). This horrific case is what lead to the enactment of Megan’s Law which was first signed into law in 1996. Megan’s Law was an amendment to the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act of 1994 (National Alert Registry, n.d.). The Jacob Wetterling Act is what initially implemented the sex offender registry and requires convicted sex offenders to

Chapter Eight of the book Flawed Criminal Justice Policies, authors take the closer look at the laws and faulty policy regarding the sex offenders. According to the book policy makers started the myriad laws to protect the public from the sex offenders with increased prison sentences, and restricting the residences to the violators. Today we have very similar situation when it comes to treatment of sexual offenders. The process starts with the sex offender being committed to the prison sentence, and lastly to being registered as a sex offender on many public websites, so that the people could distinguish who the sex offender is and where he/she lives.

For my argument project I was asked to do a paper about a problem or situation in my community. I was looking for some ideas and came a across and article about a sex offender moving to our community. I thought that would be an amazing topic to write about.

Megan’s Law was created in 1994 in honor of Megan Kanka a seven-year-old who lived in Township, New Jersey that was coaxed into a known pedophile's house while outside her home riding her bike with the promise of seeing a new puppy. (Schapiro, 2014) Therefore, she was raped and murdered by this known pedophile who lived in her community named Jesse Timmendequas. Megan Kanka’s body was discovered in Mercer County Park. (Schapiro, 2014) Jesse Timmendequas lived across the street from Megan Kanka and had two prior convictions for sexual assault in which he had been released after serving a maximum sentence. (Schapiro, 2014) Megan's Law is the common term for state and federal laws that require the whereabouts of high-risk sex offenders through

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.

The life and murder of Jessica Lunsford, was a very senseless crime that never should have happened in the first place. This 9yr old little girl granted didn’t have a very good childhood but to some kids it was better that she could ever get, I feel for this kid! Her mom and separated and cannot get alone even if they tried too.

“America’s Unjust Sex Laws” is an editorial published in the Economist that argues that America’s laws for sex offenders is too stringent. The author makes tenacious arguments that gets the reader thinking, however most of the arguments that were made I contest with.