Preventing sexual predators from attacking innocent children has been a huge dilemma for many U.S. citizens. First U.S. Citizens passed laws requiring all sex offenders convicted of a crime to register each year with the local authorizes on their where abouts. Next, citizens passed Megan 's law, which allowed authorities to post names, addresses, and pictures of those registered sex offenders online; allowing anybody to view sex offenders in their neighborhood. The state of California took it to the next level. Proposition 83, also known as Jessica 's Law, after a nine year old girl was kidnapped from her home, sexually abused and murdered by a registered sex offender, passed with seventy percent vote to ban all sex offenders to live within two thousands feet of a park, school, or mall. Jessica 's Law would also require all felony sex offenders to wear a GPS tracking device for life. This proposition that was overwhelmingly accepted by voters has its problems. Fastening GPS devices to registered sex offenders might make the public feel safer, it would cost taxpayers millions of dollars annually, and do little to protect children from such attacks.…
Megan’s Law deals with child molesters and sex offenders by requiring a public registration when they are released from incarceration. The concern with registering sex offenders has progressed to a nationalized level, with the government requiring every state to have some form of law that deals with Megan 's Law (Menendez, 251). However, is this law constitutional? In this position paper the laws of being notified of sex offenders and their registration, and their accordance with the constitution will be evaluated. It is the argument of this essay that making the offenders register and then notifying the surrounding society of their convictions is an added penalty that solely convicted sex offenders deal with and the law needs to be abolished.…
The sex offender registry is an excellent example of how civilians can use openness of society to stay out of harms way. Citizens can keep themselves, their families, and friends safe by staying informed with the help of tools like the sex offender registry. Since sex offenders are required to register and provide certain information like name, age, address, offense, etc.…
References: CSOM.org. (2009). Myths and facts about sex offenders. Retrieved September 5, 2010 from http://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.html…
The names of registered sex offenders should most definitely be published online or otherwise for the public to observe. This is mandatory for the well being and safety of all people. Society has a right to know all necessary information on sex offenders. Simply a name and address is not enough. The public should be able to know why the person was charged with sexual offense,…
Thousands of people are sexually abused every year, however not all sex offenders are ever apprehended. There really is no description as to who is a sex offender as they can seem normal and be highly intelligent. They have been known to premeditate and to use deceptive techniques to get what they want (Crosson-Tower, 2008). Many believe that sexual offenders should be monitored for the rest of their lives because statistics show that they are likely to repeat their first offense and to ensure the safety of society.…
In 1994 “The Jacob Wetterling Crimes against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act” was passed. This required each state to maintain and continuously update a registry especially for sex offenders. The registry lists all registered sex, the type of crime they committed, workplace of the offender, and home address. The registry…
This is an example of how an ex-felon liberty is limited upon their release from prison. The ex-child molester may not like the idea of having their name put online because they would face an enormous amount of discrimination but such legislation has been declared constitutional since it serves to protect vulnerable civilians (children). Whether or not sex-registry laws need reformation is neither here or there. The main argument is that sex-registry laws have an intrinsic value in aiding the safety of children near an ex-child molester. However, what benefit is there in preventing ex-felons from voting. There is absolutely no correlation in preventing ex-offenders from voting with preventing ex-felons from committing crime. If such legislation did prevent ex-felons from committing crime then there would be some sort of justification. So where does the intrinsic value lie in legislation that prevents ex-felons from…
Deirdre, F. C. (2012, Dec 16). Circles of support extends help to sex offenders. Sunday News. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1239136080?accountid=32521…
This articles has the story of Daniel Ray Winfrey, who was 15 at the time, and his friends raped and murdered Julie and Robin Kerry. He spent 30 years in prison and has been paroled twice after his conviction. Sometimes he feels free but not completely free because his name is still on the sex offender registry. On the other hand, there is Ali Nemec’s fiance, who was arrested at the age of 17 for having child pornography on his computer. Now he is 24 and remains on the list. He finds it very difficult to find employment. Even after sex offenders serve their time in prison, they cannot fully integrate back into the community because their name is on the registry. In the state of Missouri, their names and faces will be on the websites for the rest of their lives, including juveniles. Some say registries are effective because the public needs to know their whereabouts after they serve their time to prevent re-offenses. Others believe they should be given a second chance to become productive citizens. “Critics claim that the registry nets are cast so widely they often catch people who most would agree aren’t sexual threats. One commonly cited example are the so-called “Romeo and Juliet” offenders, who had consensual sex with teenage lovers, sometimes when they themselves were teenagers”(McDermott 22). They say these are foolish mistakes and deserve a second opportunity.…
In rape trials, the names of victims should not be released to the public. Rape victims have been through more than they deserve to begin with. There is no reason their names need to be released to the public. Rape is a different type of crime, it leaves the victim with emotions and feeling I cannot even begin to describe. If the victim of a rape decides to go public with their name that is their decision, but it should be left up to them. I would never assume what the victim of a sexual assault goes through physically or emotionally following their attack. I believe victims of a sexual assault would be left feeling alone, hurt, violated, confused , Just to name a few of the emotions they may be trying to deal with. Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes in the United States with about half going unreported, according to the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN). Many researchers, aside from the obvious trauma involved in such cases, are beginning to attribute this natural unwillingness to report to authorities because of the media’s treatment of the victim’s identity and the subsequent feeling that they need to hide who they are. However, according to a survey conducted by The National Women’s Study, half of rape victims reported that they would be “a lot more likely to report” to police if there were a law prohibiting the media from disclosing their names and identities. The biggest worry victims are concerned with is whether someone will believe their story. I believe this happens much in part that rape is a crime in which people still tend somehow to blame the victim,” Gartner said. “One reason is that the press puts this mystery around it by refusing the name.” The problem is that no matter how reputable an alleged victim may be, something negative in her background could always be found and used against her. No one is completely without mistakes in judgment, and events…
Megan’s Law is named after a little girl slain by her new neighbor, a habitual child molester. It mandates that community residents be notified of the arrival of foreraly incarcerated sex offenders, so that parents can take measures to better shield their children from potentially dangerous strangers.…
Another way to investigate the characteristics of a typical juvenile sex offender is to administer an assessment. In the research article “Offense Related Characteristics and Psychosexual Development of Juvenile Sex Offenders” they used the Global Assessment Instrument for Juvenile Sex Offenders (GALJSO) to determine the psychosexual development of the offenders. The GALJSO is used to identify, investigate, and predict the validity of a juvenile…
The sex offender registry has been a topic of debates and formal studies since the Minnesota Sex Offender Registration Act was first passed in 1991 (Stevens, n.d.). The use of the sex offender registry has been saving lives of potential victims. Before the registry was enacted, sex offenders who lived in their neighborhood victimized adults and children and no one knew about their prior criminal history. In very public cases, it was brought to light that children were being abducted, sexually assaulted, and finally murdered by sex offenders that should have been registered. Those children could have been kept safe and may still be alive today if the public knew the information about their attackers. Also the surviving victims of sexual abuse…
It is important to note that there are approximately 700,000 sex offenders that appear on registries in all 50 states of our country; however, their crimes may vary extensively from highly violent sexual predation down to those who have made several foolish decisions, such as public nude exposure (Yoder). Therefore, a significant percentage of those people listed in sex offender registries pose almost no threat to children or other possible victims, making it difficult for us to know who is really dangerous to the public…