Sex offenders in society .

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Dave ? I was going to let this run its course . I guess I am too caught up in it .
Draconian law ? Where I live there was a policy of :Stop and I,ll shoot: for quite a while . Fleeing suspect shot in the back . Faulty revolver says the officer .
O:K: we,ll go to double action only says the higher ups . Suspect shot in back of head while lying on ground spread eagled .

I come from the society that may not have invented it . They sure did their little bit on trying to perfect it .

I do not know who made the quote . : I would rather one hundred guilty men go free than an innocent man go to prison:

I kind of agree with it . I,m a little bit of a bleeding heart , philosophically speaking . I cannot replace the words guilty man with pedophile .

They are capable as you say of unimagineable monstrocities . They do not violate a childs sense of well being they destroy it . That child is forever changed and as I said it is we who are lucky if the victim can go on to lead a life where they do not offend themselves .

When it comes to defending children there is almost no unreasonable act I would not commit .
Reason ? Logic ? do not come into it . It is on an instinctual level I know we are all that stands between they and those who would prey upon them .
 
DannyinJapan, the registry law is not all of it. I think you are right about it stemming from victims as well. If an offender moves into a neighborhood, the people are notifed under a law called Megan's Law that was rammed through the courts by the parents of Megan Kanka. (sp?)She was a young girl killed by a released sex crimes offender. The parents maintained they should have been notified a sex offender had moved into thier neighborhood. Again, this brings up the point about continued punishment after sentance served. A guy who has supposedly served his time for his crime is now subject to threats and ostracism. My solution is to just not ever let them out. As noted by others, it is just too great a risk to see if someone has in fact been rehabilitated.
 
I apologize in advance for covering ground that has already been covered. I have not read through all the posts here in detail.

The specific offenses which trigger the sex offender registration requirement are established by statute. In SC, all of the triggering offenses have some element of a 'sexual' nature. I agree that if the goal is to provide information and protection to the public, it is inconsistent to limit the registration requirement to those who are convicted of one the prescribed offenses. (One could conceivably commit any number of assaults or other violent crimes, making him/her as substantial a threat to others as anyone else, and not be required to register.) Also, I distinguish the situation where a teenager is found guilty of a sex offense for having relations with an underage girlfriend (who is unable to legally "consent" to such an act by virtue of age alone) from a sick, manipulative beast who rapes and tortures his victim. Both may have to register, but do both represent an equivalent threat to me or my family?

These registration laws are to be distinguished from sexually violent predator laws which allow a state to civilly commit an individual (potentially indefinitely) for the purposes of confinement and treatment. When I worked with the SC Dept. of Mental Health, I had an opportunity to visit the Special Commitment Center (SCC) on McNeil Island near Seattle, where individuals committed under Washington state's sexually violent predator law are housed. If I am not mistaken (and I often am) Washington state was the first state to pass a 'modern' version of a sexually violent predator commitment scheme (a number of other states based their current commitment laws on Washington's scheme.) These 'modern' sexually violent predator laws have been upheld against numerous legal challenges all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. In other words, it looks as though they are here to stay. There are obviously a number of arguments on both sides of the main questions: whether these laws achieve a proper balance between individual rights and protection of the public; what is the effectiveness of the treatment which is supposed to be provided to those committed, etc. I don't the answers.

Eric
 
While we are at it, why don't we register the rest of the dangerous felons we are routinely kicking loose in the name of "alternatives to incarceration" so the voters have a better idea of who they are passing on the sidewalk these days? Let it be no secret why these people can no longer vote or own firearms.

They may have paid their "debt" and therefore be entitled to run around loose, but it seems like we ought to know who they are.

I'll bet the main reason this is not done is that if people knew the real truth about this, gun control arguments would be impossible.
 
We all agree...crime against children is the worst sort.

I applaud all who have taken reasonable part in this...but am still closing it for now. We can all take a breather and come back next week if there is more to be said...okay?

Ya'll done good...
 
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