When Kansas House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, introduced a plan to prevent registered sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of schools, school bus stops and day care centers, a lot of people warned it could make life so difficult for offenders that they might become more likely to reoffend. Iowa, which enacted a similar plan, is witnessing some of the law’s drawbacks. A story in The New York Times told of sex offenders in that state clustering in rural motels and trailer parks because they cannot find anywhere else to live. And officials are starting to lose track of offenders. The state now has nearly three times as many registered sex offenders considered missing as before the law took effect.
A woman who lives next to one of the rural hotels that is now home to 26 sex offenders said, “If the point of his law was to make us safer, we are not.”
Kansas lawmakers should heed her warning and make sure that in their desire to get tough on sex offenders, they don’t start passing laws that don’t work.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
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31 Comments
“They might be more likely to reoffend”
They’re going to reoffend anyway. These people cannot be “cured”. Most of them never should have been released to begin with.
The idea that sex offenders always reoffend is a myth that has been dispelled many times over by reputable social scientists, for instance Eric Lotke in his article “Politics and Irrelevance.”
This study shows that 52 percent of child molesters will reoffend. It also shows that sexual offenders usually have up to 2.4 times the number of victims than they are actually prosecuted for, because the crimes were never reported.
Perhaps these social scientists aren’t reputable enough for you.
http://www.csom.org/pubs/recidsexof.html
All sex offenders should face the rope upon being convicted of their first offence, period!
Viva La Raza Blanco!!
sex offenders should just make a claim that their way of life oughtta be recognized by the state! Then rape and incest will be made legal as well!
“They’re going to reoffend anyway.”
“This study shows that 52 percent of child molesters will reoffend.”
Must be the same type of math that equates 51 percent with a crushing defeat.
Oh well.
You stupid Americans can’t even run your own government! Nowonder you are all victims of the capitalist pigs!
Sex offenders should die.
Todd is right, sexual predators can’t be cured, only controlled. I think the answer is to banish them to a remote island where they can rape and molest each other, else the death penalty for repeat offenders. Either way, they should lose their right to citizenship and a place in our society.
The 52% recidivism rate quoted above is deceptive. As noted, the figure is taken from a CSOM (Center for Sex Offender Management) article. This article is referring to a study by Prentky & Knight of 265 offenders who were civilly committed in Massachusetts. Each of these were already recidivists. They had been imprisoned on multiple occasions for sex crimes. It is an error to use these figures to generalize about the whole population of sex offenders.
The U.S. Depart of Justice conducted a much larger and broader study in 2003, “Recidivism of sex offenders released in 1994″ Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, Langan, P. A., & Levin, D. J. NCJ-198281http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/rsorp94.pdf
It presented data on the rearrest, reconviction, and reimprisonment of 9,691 male sex offenders, including 4,295 child molesters, who were tracked for 3 years after their release from prisons in 15 States in 1994. The 9,691 were two-thirds of all the male sex offenders released from prisons in the United States in 1994. The study was the largest follow-up ever conducted of convicted sex offenders following discharge from prison and provides the most comprehensive assessment of their behavior after release.
It found that within 3 years following their release, 5.3% (517 out of 9,691) of sex offenders were rearrested for another sex crime.
It is demonstrably true that sex offenders are apt to reapeat their crimes…..or even surpass earlier offenses with worse ones.
But I think it important that we be sure someone is an honest to badness sex offender before we go overboard with punishment.
It is not uncommon for a spouse (usually female but not always) to falsely accuse their former partner of these kind of offenses in a nasty divorce or child custody battle.
JR, I know of such an instance.
I also know of such an incident, some women also know this as well, once accused, the presumption is almost automatically, you’re guilty.
JR, the same goes for a small percentage of young girls, who pass themselves off as over the legal age, as in a case of statutory rape. Yes, it should be the guy’s job to be absolutely certain the girl he’s about to become intimate with is legal, but there’s that part about there not being enough blood for both heads… I can understand a parent being livid after discovering their under-age daughter has been fooling around, but I sometimes wonder just who it was that initiated the invitation. There are plenty of under-age girls out there who just don’t care how old the guy is and how much trouble he can get into. Some parents WILL prosecute, no matter what.
Off-topic, but there’s something I might mention before confusion occurs. We now 3 different “steve”’s posting here (well 2½ actually; Steve@Steve.com rarely has anything on-topic or worthwhile to say).
Most people check the e-mail address, but it’s easy to make an embarrassing mistake (ahem. . .).
My immediate reaction is, “Let’s castrate them”. However, that’s not realistic. If sexual predators complete their punishment, are able to control their perversions and live life like normal adults, then we shouldn’t continue to punish them for the rest of their life.The problem is that these urges never go away. A pedophile will always be attracted to children, and has to learn how to not act on it. That spooks me a little bit.
Oh, please, RD! You talk like a man can’t help himself. Anyone who chooses to engage in any sexual activity that involves another person better know the rules or he deserves what he gets. Do you know how many pedophiles use the excuse that “the child was coming onto him”? No excuses. an adult is responsible for his behavior, no matter how much he says he was being manipulated.
Sex offender covers far too much territory. A guy who gets a bit drunk and relieves himself in an alley can be labeled as a sex offender. Similarly with a guy who patronizes a prostitute. These are a far cry from child molesters.
We need to fine-tune the terminology and focus on those who are a damger; leave the ‘dorks’ alone.
Aw, Damoon, I didn’t say they were smart men. And I sure didn’t say all pedophiles were duped by young girls. Far from it. Maybe everyone (male or female) should ask for ID to verify age before proceeding. “I’ve got the condom, did you bring your ID?”
So what ARE the ages for statutory rape? I’ve heard and read several versions and still don’t know.
RD, I served jury duty on a trial that involved the age of consent. In Kansas, it’s 16.
I do not mean to come down on the side of sex offenders. They are the scum of the Earth and they deserve all the punishments posted above and then some……particulary as concerns kids.
But nothing is black and white.
We must be certain that peole are not accused falsely.
And then there is also the blurring line of “love”.
I love ya to death Damoon. But surely you are aware of the Nebraska man who had “illegal” sex with an underage Kansas girl. He did the right thing. He married her. Hopefully they can make things work…….after he gets out of prison.
All i am saying is that yes punish offenders. They are yes bound to repeat. Let’s just make sure we don’t get so outraged that we see perversion where there is none.
Tara, castration does no good. Rape and sex without appropriate consent are about power, domination and hurting others, not really about sex.
And as for the “angry woman” argument…it sure seems to get a lot of play here. Nothing, it seems, is as much danger to any man as an angry woman.
Unless of course it is an angry lesbian…:)
Todd actually provids a pretty good link here. The following is from that link:
“In Hanson and Bussiere’s meta-analysis, 61 research studies met the criteria for inclusion, with all utilizing a longitudinal design and a comparison group. Across all studies, the average sex offense recidivism rate (as evidenced by rearrest or reconviction) was 18.9 percent for rapists and 12.7 percent for child molesters over a four to five year period.”
Meta-anlysis is a strategy that combines various research results by way of calculating a common metric. This is a useful quantitative research summary strategy. The results of the above analysis would tend to counter the commonly held notion, that many/all child molesters will re-offend. Many different offender/crime characteristics tend to go into what ends up being risk factors for re-offense.
See this page for a myths/facts from the research.
http://www.csom.org/pubs/mythsfacts.html
Myth:”Most sex offenders reoffend.”Fact:”Reconviction data suggest that this is not the case. Further, reoffense rates vary among different types of sex offenders and are related to specific characteristics of the offender and the offense.”
“Persons who commit sex offenses are not a homogeneous group, but instead fall into several different categories.”
This above underscores Ben’s points above about definition of terms.
JR, in the case of the Nebraska man who got a young girl pregnant and then married her, I think the girl’s mother should have been charged with child neglect. She was well aware that the girl was spending nights with him in his mother’s basement. Those cicumstances don’t make much of a foundation for a successful marriage. By marrying the girl, he probably just created more problems for both them and their child.
Ugh….I hate to sound like I’m defending sex offenders.
Well Damoon I don’t think much of that mothers actions or lack therof either.
But things get tricky when ya throw “love” into the mix.
It is worth it to point out that not terribly long ago, women were married by age 14.
I don’t think all sex crimes are committed equal and should not be equally punished is I guess what I am trying to say.
Yeah JR, just ask Matthew Limon. All sex crimes are NOT punished equally in ks.
This is 2006, JR. 14 yr old girls are not mature enough to get married and be barefoot and pregnant in this day and age. “Love” is not necessarily in the eyes of the beholder, that’s why we have laws forbiding adult’s from having sex with a minors, TO PROTECT THE MINOR.If a 22 yr old man has sex with a 14 yr old girl, he’s breaking the law, no matter how much he “loves” her. That’s as it should be.
Off with his head (which one I don’t care!)!!!
Damn, I’d make a good queen!
I just cant help it. I have reoffended many times and my wrist is starting to hurt from being slapped.Maybe I will be moving in next door to you. You never know. I am from out of state and wont have to register. Do you have any little girls at your house????????Hey, they let sex offenders go door to door with the Jehovah Witness’http://www.silentlambs.org/
That is awful judgemental Damoon, and more than a little disappointing from you.
(I get that the Queen part was satire)
The subject was the judgement and punishment of sex offenders. Now to my mind Damoon that 22 year old man who married his 14 year old girlfriend is not deserving of the same punishment as a pedophile. To my mind he is deserving of no punishment at all.
There is evil.And then there is that that we personally do not approve of.
We can agree to disagree on the crime. Let’s just be judicious as to punishment and not dilute true monsters with folks we just don’t like.
We have to uphold the laws in order to protect children, JR. That little 14 yr old girl’s life is probably ruined, at the very least she has a very difficult road ahead of her. No child should get pregnant and married, no matter how much she claims to be in love. Her “boyfirend” certainly didn’t have her best interest in mind when he got her pregnant. He should have consequences for his irresponsible behavior, because of him, she’ll have the consequences for the rest of her life. Love has nothing to do with it, and he didn’t do the “right thing” by marrying her. He was just trying to save his own neck.No excuses.
Not all sex offenders should be labled the same. Some offenders should be very closly supervised, while others who were just 18 years old that had sex with an underclassman be punished the same.Why is there not a system in place for that? How can we as citizens tell the difference? The justice system labels them all the same. It should be decided on a case to case basis and proper labeling be decided. I agree there are sex offenders that should be heavily monitered, but what about the ones that made a stupid mistake? Should those that are likely not to offended again be laeled just like the sex offenders that truly are a minice to our society?