Sex Offenders Essay

1241 Words3 Pages

Life on the Registry
Although they may be out of jail, they cannot be considered free. They are unable to make their own decisions: where they can work, where they can live, and how they can live their lives are all under control of the government. These people look the same as everyone else, but underneath the mask, lay a title they cannot shake. These people are sex offenders. A sex offender is defined as anyone who has committed a sexual crime. These crimes range from serious crimes, like rape, to minor offenses, such as urinating in public, or under age consensual sex. All sex offenders are placed on the registry and are required to follow a careful protocol. Registered sex offenders are paired with a Community Corrections Officer (CCO) who oversees and supervises the offender's actions. Many restrictions are placed on the offender, and although the laws can vary from state to state, there are some basic restrictions that apply to every offender. Some of these restrictions include: a sex offender cannot move without the permission and approval of their CCO, they can only live and work in certain areas, they cannot own any firearms, their personal computers are monitored and controlled by their CCO (many websites are blocked, including pornographic content), they are not allowed to take or consume any mind altering substances such as drugs or even alcohol, and they are required to get regular counseling (“Rules”). Currently there are 747,408 registered sex offenders in the United States. Some states such as Delaware and Oregon have a higher concentration of sex offenders (500 per 100,000) where as Pennsylvania has the lowest concentration of sex offenders (94 per 100,000) (“Sex Offender Statistics”). Due to the inefficiencies ...

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...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.
The government made the registry with good intentions but it has backfired and only created more victims and more discrimination overall, and that is why it should be abolished. The citizens that are on the sex offender registry have already been punished for their crimes and have dealt with the consequences of their actions, there is no reason that they should continue to be punished for the rest of their lives.

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