Sex offender laws

[fskimospy]

For once, I actually agree with the OP. I hate the Roberts court because it's so damn politically correct and as such, has ruled federal sex offender laws constitutional. This should be a state level issue and the free market takes care of it best (homeowners associations), not the Federal government.

Also, once someone has served their time, they shouldn't be punished further no matter how potentially harmful they are to the majority.

You and I don't agree at all; don't insult me.

Sex offender laws are most certainly constitutional, they are just dumb. Lots of dumb laws are constitutional. While the federal government might be responsible for one dumb aspect of sex offender laws (the registry), most of the worst offenses against common sense are in fact state level laws.

The fact that you think a homeowner's association would have the ability to regulate sex offenders is so laughably stupid that you've sort of short-circuited my brain because I want to make fun of you so many different ways at once.

 

[her209]

Do these sexual offenses also carry larger fines?

 

[Thump553]

There are real harmful sicko predators out there that damage many young lives but the sexual predator laws are way too broad and way too inflexible. One thing not known by many people outside the legal field is that enforcing federal sex predator laws was a top priority under John Ashcroft's Dept of Justice (GWB's first Attorney General). And like nearly every such campaign the number of arrests and convictions is far more important than the quality of them.

I know of someone, who was barely 18 at the time, now has a permanent federal record as a sex offender because he would download hundreds of porno pictures at night, some of which were inadvertantly kiddie porn. As he was doing this on a file share network they indicted him as a distributor. Try finding a job in this economy with that on your record.

 

[airdata]

Sex offender status is an area that needs an overhaul for sure. I personally think they need to implement some sort of tiered system. Guys who are molesting children should absolutely be on a sex offender list w\ their info on the internet and forced to live far away from children.

However... I don't believe that cases involving consentual sex should be included in that top tier of offenders nor should they be required to register for life and live a certain distance away from school. With this I'm talking about cases that involve guys who are either in their late teens or early 20's having consentual sex w\ teenage girls who in some cases even lie about their age before hand.

That's an entirely different thing than a type of guy who would kidnap or molest a child... totally different ball park.

 

[thraashman]

I actually have a friend who came real close lately to getting in trouble and having to register as a sex offender. She gave her boyfriend a blowjob in the backseat of a car at 2 am in an empty parking lot in front of his work. She managed to plea bargain it down, but had she chosen to fight it and lost she would have had to register as a sex offender as would her bf have. They're both over legal age btw.

Hell, if I wanted to in my state I could have sex with a 16 year old girl, but if I went one state south I'd be in prison for a decade and on a lifelong sex offender registry for the same thing.

Sex offender laws are stupid and yes unconstitutional as they continue to punish someone well past them serving out their sentence, that violates Eigth Amendment pretty clearly.

 

[Genx87]

Because I'm tired of reading horrible threads about the debt ceiling, here's something I found interesting:

http://reason.com/archives/2011/06/14/perverted-justice

The sex offender laws in the US as they exist today are absolutely insane. Our strange, puritanical fury at sex offenses has created a situation where people are being punished for their entire lives for things that most people on this board have either done themselves, or have known someone who has done them.

It's not popular in America to be on the side of sex offenders, but something needs to be done.

I agree with you on this completely. I have a real problem with these types of laws.

1. If the offender does the time, why are they serving their sentence out of jail(sex offender lists)? The purpose of the lists have issues imo. First if they are designed to punish, why not keep them in jail? Second if they are designed to be informative because of a percieved threat. Why are we allowing them out of jail at all? The bottom line is the lists are crap from any angle.

2. So many non-violent offenders end up on these lists. People who have consensual sex, people who show their genitals in public, and apparently 13 states are sick enough to stick their citizens on a sex offender list for public urination. The fuck??????????????

3. These lists dont typically tell anybody what the people did. So some guy who pissed in a park and got caught is now being equated to the pedophile who raped 7 year old children.

4. The stats according to this article are staggering. 9 of 10 people arrested and put on these lists are not previous offenders. So what in the hell does a list provide?

I have always felt if we are that worried about the truely dangerous sex offenders. We should lock them up and toss away the key or put them down. This idea of putting them away and then puniching them after their time in jail is complete is non-sense. And we need to re-evalute who a sex offender is in our society. Consensual sex between teenagers, public urination, and even flashing your tits are not imo, worthy of granting life long punishments.

 

[her209]

1. If the offender does the time, why are they serving their sentence out of jail(sex offender lists)? The purpose of the lists have issues imo. First if they are designed to punish, why not keep them in jail? Second if they are designed to be informative because of a percieved threat. Why are we allowing them out of jail at all? The bottom line is the lists are crap from any angle.

Same reason why we don't allow ex-cons to own guns or vote. Its total bullshit.

 

[fskimospy]

I agree with you on this completely. I have a real problem with these types of laws.

1. If the offender does the time, why are they serving their sentence out of jail(sex offender lists)? The purpose of the lists have issues imo. First if they are designed to punish, why not keep them in jail? Second if they are designed to be informative because of a percieved threat. Why are we allowing them out of jail at all? The bottom line is the lists are crap from any angle.

2. So many non-violent offenders end up on these lists. People who have consensual sex, people who show their genitals in public, and apparently 13 states are sick enough to stick their citizens on a sex offender list for public urination. The fuck??????????????

3. These lists dont typically tell anybody what the people did. So some guy who pissed in a park and got caught is now being equated to the pedophile who raped 7 year old children.

4. The stats according to this article are staggering. 9 of 10 people arrested and put on these lists are not previous offenders. So what in the hell does a list provide?

I have always felt if we are that worried about the truely dangerous sex offenders. We should lock them up and toss away the key or put them down. This idea of putting them away and then puniching them after their time in jail is complete is non-sense. And we need to re-evalute who a sex offender is in our society. Consensual sex between teenagers, public urination, and even flashing your tits are not imo, worthy of granting life long punishments.

I always found it strange that if my neighbor had killed someone I don't get to be notified that he is a murderer, but if he pissed in public the whole neighborhood needs to know.

The truly dangerous sex offenders such as violent rapists and child molesters present a real problem to our justice system because their recidivism rates are so high. I honestly don't have a good answer for it, but I can see how a registry for them might serve a useful purpose since we seem to be unwilling to lock them up and throw away the key.

The registry for almost everyone else seems impossible to justify. I would rather live in an entire neighborhood of public urinators instead of live next to a murderer. (even though the place might start to smell after awhile)

 

[Craig234]

I think this issue is filled with nonsense.

One reason is the arbitrariness of trying to make a punishment 'justice that fits the crime'.

A second reason is that the human and psychological issues with a lot of sexual behaviors are far too hard to understand for a political issue to get sensible treatment.

A third reason is that the issue is so exploitable by politicians, who want an easy issue to get votes, and this one pushes a lot of voters' buttons with no downside to using it.

It's not only the temptation to come up with an 'anti-sex criminal measure' to hype in an election, it's all the more decent politicians who might like to vote against it as part of not using the issue for hype, but vote for it because if they vote against it it's easy for an opponent to exploit against them, calling them 'pro sex criminal' and such.

That's just a formula for hysterical laws.

This is an issue that cries out for the public to act like adults and let experts recommend effective policies, and back those.

There are a lot of ugly truths on both sides of the issues. There's a lot of tragedy in sex abuse that doesn't fit the political "they're evil, burn them at the stake" mentality. It seems that pedophilia is deeply ingrained in the pedophiles and they are much more of a risk permanently than fits into the 'they did their time, now treat them like anyone else' theory of criminal justice. There is a mob mentality of hate and opposition to things that might actually help preferring anything that sounds like 'harder punishment'.

It's a big mess of an issue.

 

[OutHouse]

hell 2 years ago the cops busted a few of the naked pumpkin runners (running naked with a pumpkin on your head) at boulders pearl street mall on Halloween. They came VERY VERY close to be labeled as sex offenders. I may not agree with them streaking but to fucking charge them with a sex crime is beyond stupid.

 

[BeauJangles]

Like most problems lots of this legislation started out as a good idea. Registering real sex offenders was a way to try and combat the extremely high recidivism rates. Whatever you think of real sex offenders, it's a fact that they're highly likely to repeat their crimes. Hence the lists.

For the statutory laws, they should make it simple. Under a certain age (say 23), you should have to be within a certain number of years (say 5) of the person you're banging. That covers seniors in high school having a relationship with freshman and it keeps the idea behind statutory laws (child predators) in tact. Kids are going to have sex. Let their parents give them hell for it and keep the state out of their lives. Plus labeling a teen as a sex offender just means that you're screwing him / her for life and dramatically increasing their chances that they'll need gov help in the future.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

You should all band together and protest in public; hey, maybe pick the funeral of a child that was kidnapped, molested and murdered?

Some of you make no fucking sense - you want the death penalty (for jaywalkers) but scream bloodly murder when you might get in trouble for banging a 16 year old. So, you want the gubnament to execute the criminals YOU think should be executed. But, when you have sex with an under age girl,... the gubnament is all stupid and need to stay out of your personal life.

"Oh, oh, wait, wait - you don't know the whole story!!" - you mean, like we don't know the whole story with the same criminals you are all salivating over seeing executed??

Honestly, go fuck yourselves. And, I hope we get to the point where they execute sex offenders; hey, whats good for the goose is good for the gander.

How many people don't want certain criminal penalties for crimes they want said penalties for? You seem to be calling for some kind of entirely objective creation of criminal laws, but I don't know how you can expect to accomplish that.

 

[BoberFett]

Methinks Macamus doth protest too much. I wonder how many sex crimes he has committed?

 

[fleshconsumed]

Like most problems lots of this legislation started out as a good idea. Registering real sex offenders was a way to try and combat the extremely high recidivism rates. Whatever you think of real sex offenders, it's a fact that they're highly likely to repeat their crimes. Hence the lists.

The article makes a claim that the above "fact" is a lie. There is a very small majority of sex offenders, violent ones, the kind that rapes and murders that are very likely to be repeat offenders, but the majority, as in 90% are actually one time offenders. Not sure who you want to believe more, but I think it makes sense given that so many states label public urination, indecent exposure, sexting, and 18 on 17 as sex crimes.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

Like most problems lots of this legislation started out as a good idea. Registering real sex offenders was a way to try and combat the extremely high recidivism rates. Whatever you think of real sex offenders, it's a fact that they're highly likely to repeat their crimes. Hence the lists.

The article makes a claim that the above "fact" is a lie. There is a very small [minority] of sex offenders, violent ones, the kind that rapes and murders that are very likely to be repeat offenders, but the majority, as in 90% are actually one time offenders. Not sure who you want to believe more, but I think it makes sense given that so many states label public urination, indecent exposure, sexting, and 18 on 17 as sex crimes.

You are agreeing with each other.

 

[shira]

I actually have a friend who came real close lately to getting in trouble and having to register as a sex offender. She gave her boyfriend a blowjob in the backseat of a car at 2 am in an empty parking lot in front of his work. She managed to plea bargain it down, but had she chosen to fight it and lost she would have had to register as a sex offender as would her bf have. They're both over legal age btw.

Hell, if I wanted to in my state I could have sex with a 16 year old girl, but if I went one state south I'd be in prison for a decade and on a lifelong sex offender registry for the same thing.

Sex offender laws are stupid and yes unconstitutional as they continue to punish someone well past them serving out their sentence, that violates Eigth Amendment pretty clearly.

Consensual sex in a semi-public place makes you a sex predator?

This country's attitudes about sex are sick; totally sick.

 

[ericlp]

yeah.....well, it's not just sex offender ... what about the dude that gets busted growing marijuana plants down in his basement. Felony... Now he can't get a job or do much of anything. What a waste.

How dangerous are these hard core thugs? Now it's legal to grow it for medical use and no one cares anymore even tho the state have changed their laws... The horrible crimes a few years ago still stand for the rest of this persons life.

Well, that's the justice system for you I guess. Sad... But... True, and yes I have a few friends in this situation.

 

[werepossum]

Consensual sex in a semi-public place makes you a sex predator?

This country's attitudes about sex are sick; totally sick.

I largely agree.

Kid: Mom, can I go see this movie? It's really cool, this dude kidnaps and tortures to death a dozen people! It's rated "R" for violence.

Mom: Any of those people naked?

 

[blackangst1]

I largely agree.

Kid: Mom, can I go see this movie? It's really cool, this dude kidnaps and tortures to death a dozen people! It's rated "R" for violence.

Mom: Any of those people naked?

Meanwhile you can dress your 8 year old like a hooker with shorts that say Tastee...or SUGAR BABY...or some such on the ass. Perfectly healthy, perfectly normal.

 

[ShawnD1]

We should mandate the standard creepiness rule. ((Age/2)+7)

What's cool is how this works with low numbers. Suppose you are 12. (12/2)+7 = 13. You can only sleep with someone older than you 😛

yeah.....well, it's not just sex offender ... what about the dude that gets busted growing marijuana plants down in his basement. Felony... Now he can't get a job or do much of anything. What a waste.

Don't worry brah, california is working on it. Soon people with criminal records will be a protected class. Employers will not be allowed to ask if you have a criminal record.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

What's cool is how this works with low numbers. Suppose you are 12. (12/2)+7 = 13. You can only sleep with someone older than you 😛



Don't worry brah, california is working on it. Soon people with criminal records will be a protected class. Employers will not be allowed to ask if you have a criminal record.

Already the case in a number of states after a particular period of time.

 

[werepossum]

Meanwhile you can dress your 8 year old like a hooker with shorts that say Tastee...or SUGAR BABY...or some such on the ass. Perfectly healthy, perfectly normal.

LOL We call those "prostitots." Family Guy - Meg, do you want the shirt that says "SLUT", or the one that says "CUM DUMPSTER"? They even make shirts for pre-teens that have built-in padded busts. News flash - an eight year old with a B-cup does NOT look better, she looks bizarre.

One of the local radio guys talked about entering a local restaurant. Exiting was an attractive and very young lady wearing shockingly little, breasts almost completely exposed, ass cheeks hanging out. Her mother, following her out of the restaurant, snapped "She's only twelve!" Whereupon one of the men turned around and snapped "Then put some freakin' clothes on her, lady!"

We do have some very strange and probably damaging ideas on nudity, sex, violence, and sexualizing children.

 

[ShawnD1]

One of the local radio guys talked about entering a local restaurant. Exiting was an attractive and very young lady wearing shockingly little, breasts almost completely exposed, ass cheeks hanging out. Her mother, following her out of the restaurant, snapped "She's only twelve!" Whereupon one of the men turned around and snapped "Then put some freakin' clothes on her, lady!"

It's puzzling. If you want me to look at your ass, show it. If you don't want me to look at it, don't show it. It couldn't be simpler yet people still manage to screw this up.

When I take my shirt off because it's hot, I fully expect people to be looking at my chest or back. If I don't want people to see that, I will put my shirt back on.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

This is merely a bump in the road and will be corrected. After all France gets this right.

 

[werepossum]

It's puzzling. If you want me to look at your ass, show it. If you don't want me to look at it, don't show it. It couldn't be simpler yet people still manage to screw this up.

When I take my shirt off because it's hot, I fully expect people to be looking at my chest or back. If I don't want people to see that, I will put my shirt back on.

This tends to be a female thing - they only want certain people to look. Men are generally happy as long as anyone looks.