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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
In 1994, twice-convicted sex offender Jesse Timmendequas raped and murdered Megan Kanka, a seven-year old girl who lived across the street. In reaction to this emotionally-charged crime, Megan's home state of New Jersey ratified a community notification bill - dubbed "Megan's Law" - just three months later. This fall, a national version of the law went into effect, mandating that all fifty states notify citizens in writing of the presence of convicted sex offenders within their communities. Certainly, society has a responsibility to protect children from sex offenders, and many feel that Megan's Law is the best course of action. However, others feel that it is an unwarranted intrusion into the rights to privacy of individuals who have already paid their debts to society.
Introduction The United States of America has always supported freedom and privacy for its citizens. More importantly, the United States values the safety of its citizens at a much higher level. Every year, more laws are implemented in an attempt to deter general or specific criminal behaviors or prevent recidivism among those who have already committed crimes. One of the most heinous crimes that still occurs very often in the United States is sexual offenses against children. Currently, there are over 700,000 registered sex offenders and 265,000 sex offenders who are under correctional supervision.
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.
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.
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.
Sex offender legislation has been encouraged and written to protect the community and the people at large against recidivism and or to help with the reintegration of those released from prison. Nevertheless, a big question has occurred as to if the tough laws created help the community especially to prevent recidivism or make the situation even worse than it already is. Sex offenders are categorized into three levels for example in the case of the state of Massachusetts; in level one the person is not considered dangerous, and chances of him repeating a sexual offense are low thus his details are not made available to the public (Robbers, 2009). In level two chances of reoccurrence are average thus public have access to this level offenders through local police departments in level three risk of reoffense is high, and a substantial public safety interest is served to protect the public from such individuals.
Sex offenders have trouble reintegrating into society and are often harassed by those who become aware of their status. The sex offender management tool restricts where the offender can live and sets boundaries of how close they can be to children. Research has shown most of these restrictions are viewed as more of a stress to the offender and it is not clear how the public is ensured.
...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).
In a study more than one half of all responding registrants reported having lost a friend as a result of public knowledge of their sexual offending. There is also evidence that family members of registered sex offenders experience persecution and threats when the information is public. Consequently, the offender might lose support from both friends and family, which further hinders their ability to rehabilitate into
"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.
Sex offenders have been a serious problem for our legal system at all levels, not to mention those who have been their victims. There are 43,000 inmates in prison for sexual offenses while each year in this country over 510,000 children are sexually assaulted(Oakes 99). The latter statistic, in its context, does not convey the severity of the situation. Each year 510,000 children have their childhood's destroyed, possibly on more than one occasion, and are faced with dealing with the assault for the rest of their lives. Sadly, many of those assaults are perpetrated by people who have already been through the correctional system only to victimize again. Sex offenders, as a class of criminals, are nine times more likely to repeat their crimes(Oakes 99). This presents a
Two of the sex offenders from the Worley study reported that during Halloween they are told by law enforcement to not answer the door or have outside lights on. Also, local television networks broadcast their picture to warn others of their sex offender status. This then leads to much embarrassment and shame, having their picture televised every year (Worley, R. M., & Worley, V. B., 2013). Today, anyone with Internet access can view and search the sex offender registries and this leads to the direct violation of privacy of these sex offenders. Not only are they tormented but their family members are as well. Their children are bullied at school and their spouses may be forced to quit their jobs (“US: Sex Offender Laws May Do More Harm Than Good,” 2007) As discussed earlier, the sex offender faces harassment and abuse constantly when they are placed on the sex offender
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,