Another year of changes
What is it that keeps my away from making my comments here? Part of it is just that my life has been so busy the last year that commenting about the sad state of sex offender laws in this country has been the farthest thing from my mind.
Well, it came back to the forefront recently with the AG creating his guidelines for AWA. Guidelines that basically do nothing except to say to the states "If you're thinking of being reasonable about your sex offender laws, here's the minimum you have to follow". Well, those 'minimums' are pretty unreasonable in themselves, and it certainly does nothing to help tone down those states and counties that have decided that the best bet is to set up laws that effectively banish sex offenders.
Because, let's face it, that's the ultimate goal of these laws, to do away with the sex offenders so there's never a chance they can offend again. The problem is that the states and counties just can't come out and say that, since that would certainly be ruled unconstitutional, but perhaps we can creep up on it and slide under the radar. Pass one law, then adjust it and amend it, then adjust it again. Pass another that adds to it. And so on, and so on. Before long, you've got what you want, sex offenders can't find housing anywhere and the disappear. Or live the only place they can, say under a bridge.
Can't happen you say? Then you obviously haven't been reading the papers and paying attention to the situation in Florida, where several sex offenders are now living under a bridge, with the full knowledge and cooperation of the parole office, because they can't find any where to live.
Astute readers will have noticed something that many of you might have missed. Notice that i used the word 'disappear' several paragraphs ago. That was a very specifically chosen word. In light of the situation most people would think that the sex offenders would simply leave. Go somewhere else. Move. Those aren't the terms that I used, becuase the more appropriate term is disappear. Those sex offenders who are so downtrodden, so beaten on, and so despondent about their situation won't bother leaving. They won't go away. They'll simply quit registering. After all, they can't live anywhere, so why tell anyone where they actually are.
If you don't think it happens, examine the situation in Iowa, where residency laws have been in effect the longest. Police departments across the states are asking for the repeal of those laws now. Why? Becuase registration compliance has dropped from something like 95% to a dismal 50% or so as the offenders take the only option left to them, to disappear.
Which would you prefer, to know where the sex offenders are living, or to have no idea where they are because they've quit registering. They might be living right next door and you wouldn't know. Those new people that moved in down the street, he might be a sex offender and you wouldn't even know it.
Of course, there is one thing in all this to keep in mind. Of the sex convictions being prosecuted today, less than 5% of them involve someone with a previous conviction. So those people that moved in down the street could still be sex offenders, but you still wouldn't know it if you checked the registry anyway.
Well, it came back to the forefront recently with the AG creating his guidelines for AWA. Guidelines that basically do nothing except to say to the states "If you're thinking of being reasonable about your sex offender laws, here's the minimum you have to follow". Well, those 'minimums' are pretty unreasonable in themselves, and it certainly does nothing to help tone down those states and counties that have decided that the best bet is to set up laws that effectively banish sex offenders.
Because, let's face it, that's the ultimate goal of these laws, to do away with the sex offenders so there's never a chance they can offend again. The problem is that the states and counties just can't come out and say that, since that would certainly be ruled unconstitutional, but perhaps we can creep up on it and slide under the radar. Pass one law, then adjust it and amend it, then adjust it again. Pass another that adds to it. And so on, and so on. Before long, you've got what you want, sex offenders can't find housing anywhere and the disappear. Or live the only place they can, say under a bridge.
Can't happen you say? Then you obviously haven't been reading the papers and paying attention to the situation in Florida, where several sex offenders are now living under a bridge, with the full knowledge and cooperation of the parole office, because they can't find any where to live.
Astute readers will have noticed something that many of you might have missed. Notice that i used the word 'disappear' several paragraphs ago. That was a very specifically chosen word. In light of the situation most people would think that the sex offenders would simply leave. Go somewhere else. Move. Those aren't the terms that I used, becuase the more appropriate term is disappear. Those sex offenders who are so downtrodden, so beaten on, and so despondent about their situation won't bother leaving. They won't go away. They'll simply quit registering. After all, they can't live anywhere, so why tell anyone where they actually are.
If you don't think it happens, examine the situation in Iowa, where residency laws have been in effect the longest. Police departments across the states are asking for the repeal of those laws now. Why? Becuase registration compliance has dropped from something like 95% to a dismal 50% or so as the offenders take the only option left to them, to disappear.
Which would you prefer, to know where the sex offenders are living, or to have no idea where they are because they've quit registering. They might be living right next door and you wouldn't know. Those new people that moved in down the street, he might be a sex offender and you wouldn't even know it.
Of course, there is one thing in all this to keep in mind. Of the sex convictions being prosecuted today, less than 5% of them involve someone with a previous conviction. So those people that moved in down the street could still be sex offenders, but you still wouldn't know it if you checked the registry anyway.
posted by ObservationsOnLife at 3:45 PM
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