Tier 1: The Crimes Of Sex Offenders

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.

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.

“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.

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

Lees, M., & Tewksbury, R. (2006, February). Understanding Policy and Progmmatic Issues Regarding Sex Offender Registries. Trade Journals , 68(1), 54,56-57.

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 most common myth the sex offender registry office receives daily is, “An offender was on the registry yesterday, why are they not on there now?”

Sex offenders come in all status, all colors, creed, and background. But, they still have certain unalienable rights. All persons have the right to be tried in civil or criminal courts and proven guilty. This takes us to the uniformity act in our judicial system. I agree that if a person is young or old, rich or poor, black or white, the law should be enacted and due process enforced. I will repeat again; our system is not perfect. Our last act of criminal law stated is the penal sanction. This law states that all violators will receive just punishment or at least exposed to disciplinary action by the state. I believe the Megan Law can be a characteristic of all five criminal laws listed. The Megan Law states that any person convicted of a sex offense must be listed with the state. "In each state, laws require sex offenders to register with police or some other government agency when they leave prison" (Johnson, 1999, p.1). The key word is convicted. I live in the state of Tennessee. The TN law says a sex offender 's information is not private. I have the right to ask questions about suspected offenders. The Megan Kanka Law is a good law because our children are our prize

Megan’s Law was enacted under the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act of 1994, which required sex offenders to register their offender status with law enforcement agencies (Tewksbury, 2005). Both laws converged to create what is now referred to as “Megan’s Laws” which operates on a state level and requires both the registration of sex offenders and notification to the public. The states themselves decide what information will be posted for the public to see, but typically includes their full name, date of birth, nature of offense, and current photograph of the offender. The law enforcement agency that is in the jurisdiction of where the offender resides is responsible for the distribution of the information to the public. Some agencies prefer to use the old-fashioned method and distribute flyers, pamphlets, or newspapers, while others may take a more technological approach and make Facebook posts as means to notify the public. On a federal level, the offenders are required to notify their local law enforcement agency if they decide to chance places of residence or employment. The amount of time that the offender is required to update law enforcement depends on what tier offender they were classified as when they were

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.

n 1984, Leroy Hendricks was convicted of having indecent liberties with two 13-year old boys. As punishment for his action, Mr. Hendricks was remanded to the penal institutional system to serve his prison sentence. After serving ten years in prison, Mr. Hendricks was going to be stepped down to a halfway house. In the state of Kansas, they implemented the Sexually Violent Predator Act in 1994. This act “establishes procedures for the civil commitment of persons who, due to a mental abnormality or a personality disorder, are likely to engage in predatory acts of sexual violence (Brody & Acker, 2010, p.4). Due to the extensive sexually offensive history against minors that Mr. Hendricks had, he was deemed to continue to pose a threat to those in society. It was his past history of performing sexual acts against children and his own admission that he could not control his urges, that inclined the District Attorney’s ofice to file a motion to have Leroy Hendricks civilly committed under the Sexually Violent Predator Act. Mr. Hendricks attorney requested that his client be evaluated to determine if he could be labeled as a sexually violent offender. Based on Mr. Hendricks testimony

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.

America has a strict law, which protects our citizens from predators; sex offender registries are exemplifications. In the article “Protect Yourself, Family From Sex Offenders,” Rick Schneider argues that sex offender’s name should not be taken off even after they had served their time. Many can argue that registries are a good way for the government authorities to keep track, and to protect the community from any violence caused by sex offenders. For example, many people may believe the registry protects people from predators because it allows others to know where the predators are and how likely they are to strike again. On the other hand, some people consider that it is “horribly unfair” to release the names and addresses of offenders that