Life Sentences and Sex Offenders

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Recommended: Labelling theory and sex offenders

Human Rights Watch, a world-class independent organization, state on their site: “Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world” (Human Rights Watch). In 2007, they published No Easy Answer, which deals with how sex offenders are affected by being registered as sex offenders. They claim that it is injustice to “label” a person for their entire life for a bad decision they made as a child. I could not agree more, but what the good people at Humans Rights Watch are forgetting is that those are not the only people on the sex offenders’ registry; there are those with unspeakable crimes. Individuals like Dr. Earl Bradley, a pediatrician who sexually abused more than one hundred victims whose ages ranged between six months and thirteen years! (The Week Magazine).

Ohio state laws define a sex offender as one of three: a person who committed a sexually oriented crime, a habitual sexual offender, or a sexual predator. All sex offenders are required by law to notify the State Bureau of Criminal Investigations or local Sheriff Offices within three days of entering any county or changing their address. Sexual offenders are required to submit their fingerprints, photo, DNA, vehicle information, and criminal history. Certain individuals are eligible for a written notice about all sexual predators and habitual sexual offenders. Those individuals are local law enforcement patrons, all residents within 1000' of the offender's residence; the director of the public children services agency; the superintendent of each board of education of a school district; the director of each preschool program, and the administrator of each child day care center. These regulations, as harsh as they may seem, were creat...

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..." Human Rights Watch | Defending Human Rights Worldwide. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. .

"'America's Worst Pedophile'? - The Week." The Week Magazine: Political News and Cartoons, Current Events and Entertainment Online. Web. 27 Nov. 2011. .

Hall, Gordon C. "Sexual Arousal as a Function of Physiological and Cognitive Variables in a Sexual Offender Population." Archives of Sexual Behavior 1991st ser. 20.4 (1991): 359-69. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.

Marshall, W. L., and H. E. Barbaree. "An Outpatient Treatment Program for Child Molesters." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Article First 528.1 (2006): 203-14. Web. 27 Nov. 2011.

"Ohio State Sex Offender Registration and Community Notification." Klaaskids Foundation for Children. Web. 26 Nov. 2011. .

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