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Originally Posted by guccilvr
Wow, this thread has come further than I expected. With that, it's going to be hard for me not to just jump in and state how I feel about the sex offense registries etc.
I'm curious though to the statements about women/girls getting abused more than men. (or that men do more abusing than women). I have a contact with a person who works for the state and rehabilitates sex offenders. She says that while statistically men do more offending than women, the stats are skewed because of a double standard. A boy has sex with his female teacher and it's seen as a badge of honor. It never gets reported and the teacher gets her rocks off to little johnny's tutoring. I have a feeling that if all the instances of this were reported, we'd see quite a difference in the stats and that it would be closer to 50/50.
NC is going to a tiered system for their registries. However it still doesn't differenciate between the 18 yr old kid who slept with a 16 (and legal w/ consent) girl and the 40 year old who plead down to indecent liberties.
The other thing that I'm concered about is how Bush put the law out there that juvenille offenders have to register for 10, 25 and life. If a juvenille offends and isn't found to be mentally disabled, he shouldn't have to worry with such a long registry. Let him try to get his life back together. I think that for every 1 recidivist, there are 1,000's of non-recidivists, but naturally we only hear of the 1, and another witch hunt ensues.
I'm a parent. I understand the fears that parents have; but let's be honest. If someone wants your kid bad enough, no amount of registry or screening or law enforcement will stop them. It's scary, but it's true.
It's early, I'm sure I have plenty of misspellings in there and I apologize but.. as most know this is a subject that I can hash out all day.
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I agree that juveniles should not be lifelong registrants in almost any circumstance. If their court records can be sealed, why should they then have to register the rest of their lives? As adult crimes are tiered, so should those in juvenile courts.
I think my stance has been really skewed to some here thinking I'm out to get some felon. My
only concern is the welfare of my kids; by me being informed, they become informed. I'm not one of those 'because I say so' moms when it comes to something like this. My kids know the world isn't all lollipops and daisies; if I know there's a true hint of danger and where it might be, so will they so that they can act accordingly. I also know, as do they, that some piece of paper or formal act of law-abiding is not what is going to protect them-knowledge will, being aware will. They know why their bus stop was changed and know that sometimes, those that are supposed to act on their behalf, don't, so they need to practice common sense.
The tiered system is a bit better than just some across-the-board legislation, but it would be impossible to go with every case's circumstances and rule accordingly, so there has to be a system of labelling the crime by severity;
sexual assault is not the same as sexual battery, sexual battery is not the same as depraved indifference is not the same as lewdness, etc. "Sexual assault" might have gotten someone a tier2 (depending on the state), but, as in the case I brought up, we have two convictions, which might very well be the reasoning behind the status. I think there is a difference between the 18 year old lying down with a 15 year old girlfriend and a 40 year old doing the same thing; I'd suspect more respectable judges would as well.