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The issues with society’s role about sexual offender has caused major concern amongst family, especially for those who have children. The public perception on these individuals may provoked a lot of hatred, anxiety, and fear against these offenders. It is no doubt that the media and politicians have played a major role and have been influenced in the implementation of laws in order to protect the citizens from any victimization. Sexual offenders are constantly under the spotlight by the media and are constantly scrutinized by many which can in return influence the public. According to Rachel Allsopp, one issue is that the media may report in regards to child sexual abuse that is strangers that society needs to be wary of in regards to protecting children. A media’s headline can portray that sexual abuse was committed by a stranger, however, that in most cases it was perpetrated by someone the victim knows. By the …show more content…
Another one is Megan’s Law out of New Jersey, which was later signed into legislation by President Clinton that required state legislatures to adopt statutes that would require convicted offenders to register and would grant public access to the registry. Basically, these statutes requires states to establish program to monitor these individuals. Additionally, it requires them to have their information updated within a certain amount of period of residence change. In addition, some other requirements can be community notifications, residence restrictions, monitoring, etc. The only problem is that according to the Center for Sex Offender Management, the public fear about offender can present a unique challenge to leaders who work to establish and improve policies in regards to supervising and treating sex offender in the
When a parent hold his/her child for the first, one of the things a parent does is make a silent promise to this child that they do whatever they can to protect this life they have in their hands. Unfortunately, there comes a time, when a parents cans no longer able to be around to protect their children 24 hours a day. This is the time parents have to dreaded talk almost like taking away a part of their children’s innocents because they have to discuss about the “bad people” in the world. How sometimes these people are not stranger but someone who maybe someone they have come trust and love. This is evident ever time you turn on the TV, there is news report discussing the molestation of a child by a teacher, coach or even a priest. One of the ways law enforcements try to keep our children safe was by enacting the Meagan’s Law. Meagan’s Law was created after a 7 year old girl, named Meagan Kanka, who was lured away by a neighbor with a promise of puppy inside his house, where he suffocated and strangled her. Her body was stuff into a toy chest and dumped in a near by park. Meagan’s killer was a two-timed sex offender living with other sex offenders he met in prison, right across the street. This incident caused the federal government mandate all sex offender to register their location with police and their information to be made public and placed onto sex offender registry. On the surface, the sex offender registry seems like the perfect solution needed to protect our children, but with closer examination, the sex offender registry falls short.
Megan's Law operates under the logic that responsible parents, once notified that a designated "high risk" sex offender lives nearby, will be able to prevent their children from becoming the victims of another attack. One of its primary motivations is the high recidivism rate associated with crimes of sexual molestation. Without even considering the large number of sex offenses that go unreported each year, the California Sex Offender Registry reports that approximately 40% of convicted sex offenders are arrested again for a repeat offense.... ... middle of paper ...
The federal Megan’s Law established three specific conditions. The first condition required information from state sex offender registries to be distributed publicly so that all community citizens have access to it. The second condition required any information collected by registration programs within the states to be released for any reason given that it is allowed under the state law. Finally, the third condition required local and state law enforcement agencies to release all applicable information from state registration programs needed for the protection of the public (Corrigan, 2006, p. 271).
There is much debate as to whether a sex offender should be released into the public, this debate stems from the idea that a sex offender cannot be treated and that they are a danger to the public as they are ‘purely evil’ (Burke, 2005), however there is much evidence that sex offenders can be treated and re-introduced into society as a productive member. Sex offender is a general term used to refer to any person who has been convicted of crimes involving sex, from rape and molestation to exhibitionism and pornography distribution. There are many theories which try to explain why people are sexual offenders, these theories along with treatments for sex offenders will be looked at to help explain why people sexually offend and to help evaluate whether sex offenders should be released.
Ever since the bill for having a Canadian Sex Offender Registry was passed, in December of 2004, it has been a heated debate in many boardrooms across the country. On the one hand, there are the defence attorneys deeming it slightly mentally damaging and unnecessary for their client(s). On the other side of the coin, there are the individuals claiming it to be a great idea if used in the correct manner. A sex offender registry is only useful when used correctly, with updated and accurate profiles, while remaining conscious of charter rights.
It may also bring issues of anger as the sex offenders laws state that some of the rights of the person being denied in some states sex offenders cannot attend Halloween and even lose their parental rights this may do more harm or good to the person and give him an I don’t care attitude. However flipping the coin to the other side legislation has helped with the integration of the sex offenders as in most cases those who have registered rarely repeat their crime. For example in New York between 1985-2001 out of the registered 11898 only 251 were returned to jail for recidivism which is about 2.1% this shows that it works as the cases have
Sex offender legislation has become a controversial topic in the recent years. There have been numerous laws enacted in response to sex offender crime. Do these laws really work to help minimize re-offending, or do they give the public a false sense of security and cause recidivism? In a several studies researchers found no evidence of sex offender registries being effective in increasing public safety. Some studies have found that requiring sex offenders to register with law enforcement may significantly may reduce chances of recidivism. However, the research also found that making registry information available to the public may back fire and lead to higher levels of overall sex crimes
...scrimination against sex offenders. If people took the time to actually listen to their story and figure out what happened they would see that a vast majority of the registered sex offenders are far from dangerous. The government also needs to implement a ranking system that allows sex crimes to be rated from most severe to least harmful, this way people can differentiate between those who are bad and those who just made a bad decision.
In today’s society, juveniles that commit a sexual assault have become the subject of society. It’s become a problem in the United States due to the rise of sexual offenses committed by juveniles. The general public attitude towards sex offenders appears to be highly negative (Valliant, Furac, & Antonowicz, 1994). The public reactions in the past years have shaped policy on legal approaches to managing sexual offenses. The policies have included severe sentencing laws, sex offender registry, and civil commitment as a sexually violent predator (Quinn, Forsyth, & Mullen-Quinn, 2004). This is despite recidivism data suggesting that a relatively small group of juvenile offenders commit repeat sexual assaults after a response to their sexual offending (Righthand &Welch, 2004).
The lack of opportunities to secure housing and employment and loss of family and friend support are all consequences of community notification. More than one third of registrants surveyed in a study reported they had lost a job, been denied a place to live and been harassed and treated rudely in public as a result of public knowledge of sex offender registers. Offenders are more likely to be driven underground when they are unable to secure employment or a place to live due to their status on the sex offender register. Employers are less likely to employ a sex offender due to fear of losing business from an informed public. These issues on top of the stress of being released from prison and trying
"US: Sex Offender Laws May Do More Harm Than Good." http://www.hrw.org. 2014, Human Rights Watch, 11 September 2007. Web. 13 Feb 2014. <
Are we bothered by the fact that in the current social climate, the rights of convicted pedophiles are routinely violated and nobody cares. Rules of evidence are stretched, and terms of punishment are increased. The danger of this precedent is impossible to ignore.
Martin, R. (1996). Pursuing Public Protection Through Mandatory Community Notification of Convicted Sex Offenders: The Trials and Tribulations of Megan's Law. The Boston Public Interest Law Journal, Vol. 6, Issue 29
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.). Sex offenders across the country are being harassed and abused on a daily basis for the crimes they committed, were convicted for, and served their punishment for. Due to the sex offender registry giving out names, pictures, addresses, phone, numbers, vehicle information, as well as other personal information these sex offenders are being targeted in the homes and work places. Their families are also victims of abuse. In addition, the use of the sex offender registry has created blind spots in parents. They may
More importantly, “60 percent of children who are sexually abused do not disclose and most are acquaintances but as many as 47 percent are family or extended family” (The Scope of, 2016). The prevalence of child sexual abuse is difficult to determine because it is often not reported; experts agree that the incidence is far greater than what is reported to authorities (Child Sexual Abuse, 2012). Startling statistics represent the depth of the issue. Globally, prevalence rates show that a range of 7-36% of women and 3-29% of men experience sexual abuse in childhood (The Scope of, 2016). “The U.S Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau report child maltreatment 2010 found that 9.2% of victimized children were sexually assaulted” (Child Sexual Abuse,