Sex Offenders More Stringent Laws

Sex Offenders More Stringent Laws for Sex Offenders Of all the violent crimes that plague our society, sex crimes are among the most terrifying. Catching rapists and sex abusers is one thing, but establishing both short- and long-term punitive consequences for this kind of deviant behavior has been a troubling path for policy-makers. Most of the victims of these crimes are youth, and those children are likely to suffer ongoing psychological distress long after the crime has occurred.

Moreover, sex offenders are notorious re-offenders; that is, research supports the contention that even offenders that have been jailed are more likely to repeat their crime when released than most other categories of criminals. Since most sex offenses result in short jail terms, the unfortunate reality is that thousands of sex offenders live relatively anonymously in our towns and communities, ready to strike again. This essay will argue that more stringent laws need to be established to deal with these sex offenders at all stages of the legal process.

Reporting requirements must be enhanced to make it easier to identify and capture repeat offenders. Minimum sentences should be increased to keep those offenders locked up. Once they are released, publicly accessible registries must be maintained. By tightening up legal measures at every step of the system, sex offenders can be more reliably caught, more consistently imprisoned, and more effectively tracked once released.

Current Legal Context Much of the debate surrounding sex offenders has focused on registration requirements for offenders that have been either released from jail or never sentenced at all (but convicted of a sex crime). Until recently, states had widely varying laws in place to manage their sex offenders. Only a few states had registration requirements for convicted offenders. In 1994, Congress passed the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Act (42 USC 1407).

This Act requires all states to develop a registration system for offenders, and states that fail to comply would suffer at 10% loss of federal funds for law enforcement. All states have since complied, and there are now more than half a million registered sex offenders nationwide (Sex Offenders). However, registration alone was insufficient.

Following the tragic death of Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old, who was killed by a recently released sex offender living in her neighborhood, a "public outcry created a call for programs to provide the public with information regarding released sex offenders," (Sex Offenders). Megan's Law was added to the feeral legislation and became Section (e) of the Wetterling Act in 1996. Now, all states are required to provide internet information about registered sex offenders. How or where to provide that information is left to the discretion of each state.

Despite these tightened restrictions, many sex offenders fail to register with the state and may all too easily slip through the cracks of the legal system. An estimated 100,000 sex offenders that should be registered have effectively gone missing (NCME, 2007). Efforts to tighten up the implementation of sex offender laws have helped, but not solved, this problem. In 2006, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act was passed, focusing on standardizing states' implementation of their registry systems.

Each state is also now required to create a searchable database that is available to the public so that people can find out if any sex offenders live in their neighborhood. The Act made it a felony for sex offenders who move across state lines to fail to register their new address. Proposed Reforms Although some new laws, most notably the Adam Walsh Act, are steps in the right direction, there is still a great deal of work to be done to keep children safe from sex offenders.

While registry systems are improving to help keep community members aware of their risk from known offenders, much more needs to be done to prevent offenses from happening in the first place. This is a very difficult task, since it involves not only crime prevention but also risk detection and systems cohesion. One way this challenge might be approached is through increased reporting requirements. Too often, alleged abuse in schools or daycare centers goes un-reported and the accused teacher is simply let go from his job.

He is then likely to go to another school and be re-hired there, effectively placing a whole new set of students at risk. The Student Protection Act was introduced in the Senate in 2007. If passed, the Act would create mandatory standards for reporting incidents of sexual misconduct, and would develop a nationwide database to house that information. When a school was conducting a job search, for example, it could quickly learn whether or not a candidate had ever been sanctioned for committed sexual acts against children.

This bill has not yet passed. Another proposed reform has predictably come following another horrific case. In this instance, 17-year-old Chelsea King was raped and murdered. Her killer was a convicted sex offender who had escaped detection by all the existing measures in place. Chelsea's Law, now proposed in the California state legislature, would intensify sentencing for sex offenders, by allowing prosecutors to pursue a life sentence without parole for certain violent sex crimes committed against minors.

For offenders who had attacked a child younger than 14, sentences would include a lifetime of parole including GPS monitoring. Finally, Chelsea's Law would prohibit sex offenders from even visiting public places where children congregate, like parks.

Controversy If current laws that convict and punish sex offenders are so weak as to allow cases like the Chelsea King murder to occur, why would there be any controversy surrounding efforts to create more stringent laws? The primary source of disagreement comes from civil liberties groups, who argue that even sex offenders are Americans and should be afforded the same rights as non-criminals. They also point out that "there is no proof that longer sentences and parole.