Category: Editorials

The War on Sex Offenders

It has never been officially called a war; nevertheless the multitude of laws governing sex offences and sex offenders is mountainous.

Overview of the widest reaching Sex Offender Laws

1994 – The Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act is passed as part of the Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. This law requires states to implement a sex offender and crimes against children registry.

1996 – Megan

Rebuttal to “Get SMART: Complying with Federal Sex Offender Registration Standards”?

Each year heinous crimes are committed against children and women. A small percentage are committed by repeat offenders, whereas according to the DOJ about 95% of new sex crimes are committed by persons who have never been convicted of a previous sex crime. The question at hand is whether a national registration scheme could prevent heinous crimes like the Foxwell incident or any other crime.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ):[SORNA] provides a comprehensive set of minimum standards for sex offender registration and notification in the United States. SORNA aims to close potential gaps and loopholes that existed under prior law and generally strengthens the nationwide network of sex offender registration and notification programs.”

While this quote is profound, is it based on a lie? The public has been led to believe that 100,000 sex offenders are AWOL. But if you’ve been following the nationwide sweeps that the Federal Marshals service has been making you already know that that number has been blown way out of proportion. The second part of the lie was exposed above in stating that 95% of new sex crimes are committed by people not on the registry.

Then there is a profound question that legislators need to think about before implementing the AWA. That question is, “Is it legal”? After Ohio implemented the AWA a fire storm of legal challenges led that state to lose millions of dollars fighting on the wrong side of the law. In the end the Ohio Justices ruled in two separate cases, (Bodike) and (State v. Williams) that the AWA violated separation of powers and that it is punitive. Will other states rule this way? Time will tell. But the larger question is will SCOTUS rule the same as the Ohio supreme court? If they in time do rule the same way then it will prove that legislators were working in opposition to the founding principles of the United States.

Learning From History Part 2

“Stocks, Pillory, Pranger are devices used in the medieval times as a form of physical punishment involving public humiliation. The stocks partially immobilized its victims and they were often exposed in a public place such as the site of a market to the scorn of those who passed by. Since the purpose was to punish offenders against the standards of conduct of the time, anybody could assault, revile or throw filth at the victim.”

Today in America we have a similar device; it is called the Sex Offender Registry. The SOR is a widely debated form of punishment. Even the fact that it is punishment is debated by many. On the other hand politicians often use the term punish when speaking about the registry.