Monday, August 27, 2007

Looking for the Cussing/Pedophile Connection.

I’ve been reading the series of stories in the SJ-R (here and here) on sex offenders and some of the crazy consequences of overly broad sex offender laws. The Peoria paper has this too. The bottom line seems to be that these laws are expensive, often ruin lives needlessly while not making much of a difference in crime rates. Some of the situations are just ridiculous. For example,
In Pennsylvania, a 13-year-old girl who took pictures of her naked self will be marked a sex offender for life.

Two Virginia girls in their teens who took topless photos of each other also must register for life.

In Florida, a 16-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy made a video of themselves having sex and have to register – not for the legal sex acts, but for the tape, considered child porn.

A Georgia mother was convicted in 2002 of being party to a crime of child molestation because she allowed her pregnant 15-year-old daughter’s boyfriend, who was 17, to move in with the family. Though the couple eventually married, Allison’s label sticks.
And so on. But then I came across this bit:

Jane’s two daughters, ages 10 and 12, and son, 7, spent Saturdays at Glen Wheeler’s for seven years.

The eldest daughter testified at trial that Wheeler started touching her during the very first playdate. Then he videotaped her siblings.

“We thought they had the same moral standard we did,” Jane said of the Wheelers. “They didn’t swear. They didn’t have alcohol in the house. They cared about their kids.

Well, being that simple-minded I can understand how she never saw the signs of abuse. I wonder in what world is there a correlation between swearing and pedophilia? They better lock me up now because I swear AND I drink alcohol. Damn, lock down the schools, I’m on the loose! I have no proof, but I bet there’s a much stronger correlation between hiding behind being a self-righteous prude and pedophilia than there is between saying bad words and molesting kids. But what the fuck do I know; pour me another drink, kid.

6 comments:

Henny Penny said...

I wrote a term paper on sex offender registry laws this spring and how they can be challenged in the courts. Texas creates new rules with wild abandon and even allows developers to come up with rules just for their neighborhoods.

Anonymous said...

The problem I have with the sex registry laws as they stand today is that they clump everything into one category. I think there is a big difference between a 17 year old fooling around with his 16 year old girlfriend and a 45 year old man fondling a 4 year old boy.

In the first instance I think we do indeed to discourage that type of activity but to put a scarlett letter on a teenager for life is a little extreme. In the 2nd case, I dont believe that pedop hiles can ever be rehabilitated and should be locked away forever.

JeromeProphet said...

Good Post

JP

Anonymous said...

The thing that bothered me about those articles is that many of the examples they gave don't apply in Illinois. Rick Monday, you're incorrect in Illinois, where laws do differentiate between those two examples. Everyone is NOT lumped together into one big group here.

I think failing to discuss Illinois law in particular made the articles misleading and irresponsible since much of it has no relevance to our community.

JeromeProphet said...

Will,

I think Dave was stretching a bit, but his point was well taken. Self serving legislators pass laws intended to create a better society, but often forget that in the rush to creating this "perfect" society sometimes people are hurt by the very laws intended to protect them.

Dave's been on this anti-nanny state rant for several post now, which is funny because conservatives have come around (won't name names) and thrown rocks at Dave for being a nanny state liberal.

JP

ThirtyWhat said...

Well, I'm no expert ... but even if Illinois laws do differentiate between different "types" of sex offenders, they are still all registered in one big "sex offender registry." True, once you pull up their name, you see what their offense is ... but their name will be on that list for life.

I personally know a woman whose 17 year old daughter willingly had sex with their neighbor's 19 year old son. They had no idea anything was going on until she ended up pregnant.

Her neighbors are much (much) wealthier than they are. They are envious, vicious people and, out of spite, they pressed charges. That kid is going to be labeled a sex offender for the rest of his life!

I think the general idea of a sex offender database is great ... but some of the individuals who fall through the cracks are going to have a rough road ahead of them.