Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Taking cars, homes, computers???

I don't know if those out in the blogosphere read this, but I don't think this is the best way to discipline sex offenders.

Isn't it enough that these people have to go to jail and then register for the rest of their life on the sex offender registry? Sex offenders are the only people who don't get a fair chance to start over should they be released from jail. They can't live within certain limits of schools (which is good) and are constantly labeled by the public as dangerous and sick. They have to live their lives with the stigma.

And I understand that children who are victimized also have to live with lifelong issues but I also think people ought to be able to serve time for their crime and be done. Other criminals don't have to worry about this.

I'm not saying that those who commit sex violations shouldn't be punished because they should. But I am saying that seizing a person's property such as homes and cars should not be passed into law.

An online reader posted this to the story: "While I will be the first to say someone who sexually abuses a child should be severely punished....this bill, as I see it goes way outta line. After all, many child molesters are married men with families of their own. Those families do not know (or condone) what daddy has done. Do THEY deserve to have their house, their cars, their computers taken away and their lives destroyed for what their dad or husband did? It is hard enough for them to have to find out what kind of a person he is, but why should they be kicked to the street because of it? You are not only punishing the offender but his whole extended family which had no part in what happened. This is wrong. Punishment needs to fit the crime and in my view this - is overkill and not right. Punish the offender.....not his family."

I agree with this.

Another commentor wrote this: "We do the almost the same thing to drug pushers and no one cries. It is time to drop the hammer on sex offenders. If a person is suspected of drug dealing but is found innocent the property remains theirs or they are compensated. The same could be done for suspected sex offenders. Forget the 17 not sleeping with the 18 and the parent getting accused of something by an upset child. That has always happened and unfortunately probably always will. No people we are talking about sex offenders. Your child or your spouse gets sexually assaulted you'll be singing a different song on this forum. The concerns can be worked out. The ACLU's opposition to this is enough for me to say good job legislators. Get serious and tough about sex offenders."

Tell me what ya'll think should be done. Anyone?

5 comments:

MrCoffee said...

This is totally illegal I do not care what ANYBODY says.

Listen to this, go to about 11:30:

http://theparson.net/media/Beware_the_Mob.m3u

I want to direct you to one issue on my blog, but I also encourage you to read more of my blog.

http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/2007/03/yellow-journalism-in-augusta-georgia.html

and

http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-thoughts-sex-offender-law-issues.html

One last note. Why are child sex offenders placed on the public registry? And when in jail/prison, placed in the same place as the adult offenders? Doesn't this just seem wrong to you? As for the registry, it would seem to me like that is an open invitation for a predator to use to seek their next victim. Doesn't make sense to me. I personally think ALL sex offenders below 18 should be removed from the registry and also young offenders should be segregated from adult offenders to prevent further abuse.

LINKS
* http://www.nacdl.org/sl_docs.nsf/issues/sexoffender_attachments/$FILE/sexOffenderPolicy.pdf
* http://sexoffenderissues.blogspot.com/ (Educational Sex Offender Blog)
* http://sexoffenderinfo.pbwiki.com (Educational Sex Offender Wiki)
* http://on-murders.blogspot.com/ (Blog about sex offender murders)
* http://on-suicides-deaths.blogspot.com/ (Blog about sex offender suicides)
* http://politically-sparked.blogspot.com/ (Blog about sex offender vigilantism)
* http://www.badcopnews.com (Why aren't these in the media?)

FACTS:
* Child Victimizers

o Approximately 4,300 child molesters were released from prisons in 15 States in 1994. An estimated 3.3% of these 4,300 were rearrested for another sex crime against a child within 3 years of release from prison.

o Among child molesters released from prison in 1994, 60% had been in prison for molesting a child 13 years old or younger.

o Offenders who had victimized a child were on average 5 years older than the violent offenders who had committed their crimes against adults. Nearly 25% of child victimizers were age 40 or older, but about 10% of the inmates with adult victims fell in that age range.

* Recidivism

o Of the 272,111 persons released from prisons in 15 States in 1994, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4% resentenced to prison for a new crime.

o The 272,111 offenders discharged in 1994 accounted for nearly 4,877,000 arrest charges over their recorded careers.

o Within 3 years of release, 2.5% of released rapists were rearrested for another rape, and 1.2% of those who had served time for homicide were arrested for a new homicide.

o Sex offenders were less likely than non-sex offenders to be rearrested for any offense –– 43 percent of sex offenders versus 68 percent of non-sex offenders.

o Sex offenders were about four times more likely than non-sex offenders to be arrested for another sex crime after their discharge from prison –– 5.3 percent of sex offenders versus 1.3 percent of non-sex offenders.

* Sex Offenders

o On a given day in 1994 there were approximately 234,000 offenders convicted of rape or sexual assault under the care, custody, or control of corrections agencies; nearly 60% of these sex offenders are under conditional supervision in the community.

o The median age of the victims of imprisoned sexual assaulters was less than 13 years old; the median age of rape victims was about 22 years.

o An estimated 24% of those serving time for rape and 19% of those serving time for sexual assault had been on probation or parole at the time of the offense for which they were in State prison in 1991.

o Of the 9,691 male sex offenders released from prisons in 15 States in 1994, 5.3% were rearrested for a new sex crime within 3 years of release.

o Of released sex offenders who allegedly committed another sex crime, 40% perpetrated the new offense within a year or less from their prison discharge.

Anonymous said...

There are no sex offenders under 17, maybe 18 on the Louisiana Sex Offender and Child Predator Registry. Those convicted as juveniles (14 and over) are not subject to community notification.

Victim identification is not available on the Louisiana Sex Offender and Child Predator Registry.

Donecia Pea said...

I don't know Ash, I just feel like when you do the crime, especially a crime like this, then oh well, you have to suffer the consequences, whatever that may be.

I mean, like you mentioned, when they violate children, or anyone for that matter, in such a terrible way, those scars stay with the victim for life, meaning they continue to suffer the pain of the offender's act for the rest of their lives. The offender has already taken that from them.

So knowing that, it's hard for me to feel any kinda sympathy for sex offenders getting anything taken from them.

As for the sex offender's family, whatever they suffer is a direct result of their spouse or parent's action. I would hope that the spouse/parent would do the right thing for the family and leave their offending spouse for the best interest of their family when something like that happens.

I'm just saying. It's just really hard for me to care at all if they lose their computer, home or cars. That's on them and it doesn't begin to fix the damage that's been done.

I just hope that the proposed bills do consider the welfaire of the families of the sexual offenders.

Eric said...

I see one punishment that fits any convicted sex offender and that is DEATH. No other punishment is enough. They killed a part of ther person or persons they assaulted, they in turn should be put to death.

Ashley Northington said...

I don't know about this one ya'll.

I almost think there should be degrees of the offense that determine what the punishment will be. I'm all for putting away pedophiles and/or rapists. But what about statutory rape people who had consentual sex with their younger partner (I know teens probably shouldn't be having sex but its the world we live in.)...should they be subjeted to the same harsh punishement as a rapist?

And, if you take away a computer from a person couldn't they just go buy a new one? I don't get it.

And if you take a person's home away from them what happens when they get out of jail? Where will they live? Will the tax payers be forced to take care of them then when they become homeless?

We really need to think about this one.