Left In Lowell

Sex Offender Registry: Modern Day “Scarlet Letter”

29 Responses to “Sex Offender Registry: Modern Day “Scarlet Letter””

1. waittilnextyr Says:
   October 14th, 2006 at 10:03 am

   I fear your thoughtfulness will be used against your candidate by the “Healey” dogs.

   But I also have to disagree with you, at least to the degree that there are some dangerous offenders among those being registered, and public awareness is needed and public humiliation is warranted. Others, and I would include Deval Patrick’s sister’s husband in that category, have redeemed themselves and should not be subject to this public scorn.

   I thought that there were levels of offenders in the current system, and only Level 3 would be publicized. Certainly the case at hand is not Level 3, and therefore should not have been published.

2. Atilla the Nun Says:
   October 14th, 2006 at 1:49 pm

   I don’t think the registry is a great idea. Incarceration is a better one. From Cardinal Law on down to the lowliest pervert, castration and/or incarceration gets the point across. If you wanna make an omelette, you gotta break a few eggs.

3. Lynne Says:
   October 14th, 2006 at 2:12 pm

   Well, Atilla’s call for castration aside (which of course I think is totally off the charts for a modern enlightened society) of course we want the most dangerous and worse offenders to be watched in some way.

   My point is, is that a public registry isn’t the way to do it.

   If there’s serious offenders, then generally, they get very serious sentences and are put away for a long time. And once they’re out, they’re closely watched (well, so long as the probation programs are funded enough) by authorities. And they should also get the most intensive psychological attention as well - and constant evaluation by professionals to determine how safe they are to be part of society. Second time offenders also have their recidivism taken into account for their sentences. But should old Mrs. Flynn next door do the job of the police or psychologists? It’s neither useful nor productive. More often than not, Mrs. Flynn will reach the wrong conclusion, accuse her neighbor of shady behavior the instant anyone says “boo!”. Making the accused feel that much more alienated, shunned, and provoking the very same antisocial behavior that cause him to do the terrible things in the first place.

   But with a little empathy, even for the worst among us, we might actually bring down the rates of recidivism.

   This is sort of like the way we’ve handled 9/11 (thank god it didn’t really take) - neighbors watching neighbors in suspicion. Instead of building trust in American and foreign Muslim communities, creating partners in the war on terror, the Bush administration just evokes suspicion among them by throwing around false accusations and unconstitutional searches and long incarceration without representation.

   And by the way for any idiots who would use this post I wrote against Patrick - since when do *I* speak for the Patrick campaign? I don’t. Get over it. For god’s sake.

   Atilla, your reaction is just as gut-based (castration???) as the people who say we should keep on humiliating people over and over once their sentence is finished.

   Seriously, what the fuck happened to Christian compassion and forgiveness and healing? I sincerely doubt that people today are really listening to their faith.

4. Paul@01852 Says:
   October 14th, 2006 at 2:49 pm

   I totally agree with Lynne and this comes from someone who was a volunteer rape crisis counselor and child abuse prevention instructor for 6 years. Lynne did a better job of dissecting my feelings on this issue better than I ever could and even included rationale that I hadn’t even considered. However, I would like to add one other consideration from my child abuse prevention work. No matter how many registries and scarlet letters we brand offenders with we will not stop child abuse until we empower children! Instead of investing in tracking and registering offenders we would do a much better job of preventing child sexual abuse if we empowered children to just say NO! To tell an adult! To know what is proper and what is not! The program I worked on was underfunded back in the mid 1980’s and I have not seen or heard that this program is in existence today. I used to have to take days off from work to go into our local schools and perform play-acting skits because there was no funding to hire people to do this otherwise. Lets get rid of the sex offender registry (and for that matter CORI checks for the same reasoning) and invest the money saved in empowerment programs!

5. Lynne Says:
   October 14th, 2006 at 2:55 pm

   Thanks Paul, that’s also a really good point.

   The best way to protect your kids is NOT a sex offense registry website.

   It’s to have an open dialog with your kids, to help them understand that NO adult should be asking them to do something they’re uncomfortable with and then ordering them to not tell anyone; that they will NOT get in trouble if they come to you with information about a situation that is not what it should be. Teach your kids to be wary of strangers, to understand that they should listen to their instincts, and of course, always know where they are, meet the parents of their friends, be sure to understand the situations you put your kids in.

   It’s so easy to say “damn all them sex offenders!” and pretend that you don’t have to work hard to prevent abuse or assault against yourself or your children. It can be an unsafe world and it feels good to hate, doesn’t it? But that will not stop the violence, or protect your kids.

6. Mister Goat Says:
   October 14th, 2006 at 5:09 pm

   Attila, your call for castration actually perpetuates one of the most common myths about sexual assault. While one can’t make blanket statements, in a great many cases, sexual assault is about control and violence, not trying to get off sexually.

7. Atilla the Nun Says:
   October 14th, 2006 at 8:20 pm

   Maybe so Goatie, but if I had to choose between living with a violent act vs a sexual act, I’d pick violent every time. A little chemical castration along with a trip to the woodshed just might be the thing.

8. Atilla the Nun Says:
   October 14th, 2006 at 8:22 pm

   Lynne, Fuck if I know what happened to Christian compassion (and Language). Maybe it was thrown out along with “The Lord’s Prayer”?

9. Renee Says:
   October 14th, 2006 at 9:11 pm

   Paul, I do have concerns with educating children that I hope you can address. It isn’t that I don’t want to protect my child, but I don’t want my children to think every person is a potentional criminal either. The majority of adults are still good and I don’t want my children to be so fearful that they can’t be polite in public or make a decent adult feel akward. I think there needs to be more of a focus to teach parents on what to teach their kids, rather have mandatory classes for children have them for their parents in schools.

10. Paul@01852 Says:
    October 14th, 2006 at 10:38 pm

    The program I worked in was mainly to empower children not only to protect them against sexual abuse but against anything which made them uncomfortable. We did three skits. The first was a bully extorting lunch money from smaller, weaker kids. The 2nd was an older female student urging younger children to get into trouble. And the 3rd was “Uncle Harry” doing “things” with his niece.

    Before we put on the playlets we had a parent-teacher meeting where we explained the rationale for the program as well as putting on the skits to demonstrate that we were not “going too far.” We described the dynamics of child abuse and outlined situations where sometimes we adults were guilty of setting our children up, such as insisting that a child kiss relatives even if the child did not want to. We also explained that after the skits we would meet one-on-one with EACH student to “debrief” them and address any individual concerns. We also were trained to properly listen to any disclosures that might be offered. And we instructed the parents and teachers what to do if *they* became the person to whom a child disclosed. Approximately one month after a program was put on, the professional coordinator would re-visit the school and meet with all the teaching staff to reinforce the lessons and to assist with any issues that may have arisen.

    As you can see the complexity of the program led to a scarcity of volunteers and the funding precluded more than a single part-time staffer. And by the way, this program was produced in the 1980’s, long before there were any CORI checks or sex-offender registries.

    To address your concern about making children MORE fearful through education, children actually become more fearful from lack of knowledge. Children are extremely perceptive and pick up quickly on adult fears. If these fears are not addressed children believe that THEY are responsible for creating them. If a child has knowledge that sex-offenders exist and are empowered to deal with them, empowered with the knowledge that it is OK to say no to an adult when something makes a child uncomfortable, then children are not fearful. During the discussion following each playlet we stressed that not all uncles or all older students are bad, just some are. We also addressed the politeness angle and expolained that if something gave them the “oh-oh” feeling then it was ok to say no no matter who the adult was — including, doctors, police, teachers, etc.

    Hope I answered some of your concerns. And unfortunately, at the present time I do not know of any program for either parents or children that compares to what I was involved in back then. I suspect whatever limited funding that was available then has been eliminated in the many budget cuts since.

11. Renee Says:
    October 14th, 2006 at 11:37 pm

    Thanks for clarifying. I guess I’m speaking from a mother of young children my oldest is only four years old. I guess no matter how much you can educate or empower a child, they are still a child. The responsibility ultimately is on the parents, gaurdians, and others in such a capacity to prevent such oppotunties for predators.

12. Renee Says:
    October 15th, 2006 at 2:06 am

    “You want to know what’ll stop rapists from raping again? A well-funded program of frequent psychological visits to overcome that damage which brought them to rape in the first place. Having police and social workers tracking their movements for as long as it takes for these offenders to stop the cycle, both to protect the public and to give the offender a framework to perhaps truly rejoin his fellow man. A public which treats them as they treat any other average stranger, not as someone they saw on a sex offense registry that they should look on with suspicion and fear.”

    Lynne, I realize this is a sensitive issue, but the Catholic Church tried that with it’s pedophile priests and it didn’t work. From Sin to Syndrome Sins of Our Fathers One Nation Under Therapy Christina Hoff Sommers Sally Satel, M.D.

    “In the 1970’s, it was the fashion among mental health professionals to view pedophilia as a treatable form of psychological immaturity. The pedophile, so the theory went, was sexually attracted because, emotionally, he was a child himself. Talk therapy and other transformative treatments would help him understand himself better and more beyond the arrested state of development. Tragically, the church accepted this theory and sent predatory priests to mental health clinics to be cured.

    The idea that pedophilia is curable is no longer taken seriously by most clinicians. The only recourse is strict control, primarily by imprisoning the perpetrators and, after their release, by denying them unsupervised access to children. But as Fred Berlin, director of the National Institute for Study, Prevention, and Treatment of Sexual Trauma at John Hopkins University of Medicine, says, “Years back, the Church, very sadly, was misled by mental health professionals.” For their part, therapists who treated the priests now blame the church for rushing priests back into service against their advice.

    Church officials sent errant priests to various centers where they received counseling, group therapy, psychodrama, roleplaying therapy, and, according to a report in the Economist, “holistic medicine [and] Christian forgiveness.” Once “cured,” many were permitted to resume their duties…..” p.81

    There is though an obvious problem how CORI and sex offender information is used and its classification of crimes. The public and private business and organizations need to be educated how to use this information. One can forgive, one must never allow such persons to be put into a position o f temptation in which the general public (their neighbors) must know so we don’t put criminals who are getting help in improper situations with potential victims.

    The real situation is that what occured with Patrick’s family is a very private matter and should be treated with a different level then those who are predators. I’m really lost for words at what to say.

13. Mr. Lynne Says:
    October 15th, 2006 at 11:11 am

    My feeling is that when people hear “registered sex offender” people immediately thing “pedophile”, when in reality “sex offender” includes a broad category of crimes. My problem with registration laws is that they don’t discriminate enough. If the right to privacy of someone who has “served their time” needs to be balance against public safety, then any given registry needs to be less broad than “sex offender”. It should be limited to those crimes that have been demonstrated to both have a high recidivism rate and have been shown to have a low rehabilitation rate, otherwise the state doesn’t have a compelling interest in violating privacy.

    Even then, I think there needs to be justification that registration actually works. That is someone needs to demonstrate that recidivism rates drop among registered ex-cons. If it doesn’t actually have an effect on recidivism, then it is quite possible that the sense of ostracism the laws create could be making the problem worse. If registration doesn’t help, then it should stop. Call me crazy but I want laws that work.

14. Paul@01852 Says:
    October 15th, 2006 at 5:20 pm

    Renee I know this is hard to hear for a parent who wants only the best for her children but in order to educate a child it is important to allow the child to make mistakes. Let me use an analogy. If we parents are always there to walk our child across the street the that child will NEVER learn to cross by himself. Someday that child (or maybe young adult even) will be alone and forced to cross the street. If we havent ever trusted him/her to cross alone before then he stands a much greater chance of being hit by a car since he has no concept of looking both ways. Intersections have Walk/DontWalk lights but do*you* always pay attention to those?

    I am not implying that you need to let your child get molested in order to learn that molesting is bad. But you do need to allow your children to make mistakes in assessing what is safe and what is not in their relationships with others. This begins even before school in play groups and with adults that toddlers come in contact with. If we depend on registries instead of education to do that assessing for our children they will not learn to make these decisions on their own. And remember not all offenders have been caught and therefore not all are even in a registry. If your child doesnt have the skills to successfully avoid becoming a victim of an unregistered offender then he/she becomes an ideal target of that offender because he is typically looking for an easy conquest.

15. Eamonn Says:
    October 15th, 2006 at 6:11 pm

    I am not as informed on the nuances of the sex offender registry as I should be. However, I do have one specific issue with it. As I understand the matter, the legislature passed a law mandating a public registry of sex offenders, including those who had already served there sentence. This seems to me like an after the fact punishment by legislative rule, rather than a punishment tailored to the specific crime handed down by a judge. It just seems to go outside the proper legal role of the legislature and makes them have a judicial role. If the registry was only mandated for offenders whose crimes took place after the bill’s passage into law, then I wouldn’t have an issue with it, but as I understand the registry, that isn’t the case. If I am wrong, someone please correct me.

16. erika Says:
    October 15th, 2006 at 7:56 pm

    Well said. I’ve always felt the same way.

17. Tom Christiano Says:
    October 18th, 2006 at 10:24 am

    Hi Lynne:

    First, I think you should win an award for courage. There are very few people in this state that have the courage to write what you did about the sex registry.

    Second: I don’t have any idea what the vest answer is to this question about the sex offender registry, however, I think an honest and open disussion of the issue is a positive step in the right direction.

    Third: I find it interesting that the most compassionate and forgiving people often describe themselves as athiests or agnostics. The Christian message of forgiveness and compassion helps not only the offenders, but the victims as well….there is no other way to get back one’s peace of mind….and what joy is there in life if one doesn’t have peace of mind. Just look at the recent example of forgiveness practiced by the Amish.

    Thanks again for your courage and compassion Lynne.

18. Craig Says:
    October 23rd, 2006 at 3:08 pm

    I agree with Lynne’s column.

    Basically people in general are not very well read. They tend to be somewhat myopic. They don’t see the big picture, or what is really going on.

    Sexual assault has become a political topic. When any “crime” become so political, the due process of the accused are usually compromised, courts a farce-convictions easy.

    False allegations of sexual assault, domestic violence, sexual harassment, child molestation, et al., are common place and have become weapons of choice for women to use against men.

    Just look at what happened to this poor boy.

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/05/sex_lies_and_prison.html

    Tim LaHaye once wrote, “you reap far more than you sow. If you sow submission in obedience to God, you will reap blessings in abundance; if you sow rebellion in disobedience to the will of God, you will reap abundant misery.”

    In Hosea the bible reads. Hos. 8:7 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” Also, Gal. 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

    Many take bible scripture as nothing more than a proverbial joke. A book full of nothing more than dead doctrine. A patriarchal book written to oppress women. How do you argue with these people? I don’t even try. That is their post-feminist world view, so be it.

    It is interesting that on the “whole,” pagans are easily deceived and lead astray. Perhaps because I am a true Christian I was able to see through everything? Perhaps it was due to my Christian world view?
    Perhaps it was the Holy Spirit which revealed it to me, through my heart and mind?

    I pity these sex offenders. I wonder how many are trully guilty of the crime?

    I am shocked Lynne a non-christian was able to see so much. Good work Lynne, I am sure you will be blessed for your column, since you wrote the truth.

    God Bless…

19. Suffering Says:
    November 18th, 2006 at 2:54 pm

    Thanks for your comments Lynne. My husband was accused of a sex crime that he did not commit at a youth home. His lawyer (in his infinite wisdom) suggested that since it was my husband’s word against hers, my husband would not win the case. The lawyer suggested that he plead guilty and take a plea bargain of just 5 years probation. Then it would all be over and he could move on with life. He took the lawyer’s advise (that was 1997). Had he know he would later have to register as a sex offender for all to see, he would have faught in court.

    When we moved into our new house, one of the first words out of the mouth of one of our neighbors was “I heard your name was on one of those sex offender lists? Is it true?” How humiliating for him. Not only did he serve his time. He served time for a crime he didn’t even commit. I’m sure there are others convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. It is hard to put something like that behind you with this type of registry. My whole family suffers because of this. Recently, he applied for 2 very good jobs. In both, he made it through the intense interview process. They loved him and were ready to offer him jobs. In both cases, he has already received the benefits package in the mail. Both were followed by a letter a few days later stating that he didn’t pass the background check. The accompanying report listed his “registred sex offender” status. His self esteem is dropping fast. He is a good man and doesn’t disserve to be treated this way. I wish there was something I could do to help him. Any suggestions?

20. Paul Says:
    January 15th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

    I totally agree with Lynne - it is refreshing to see someone with the guts to speak out against this media-fed lynch mob mentality. Isn’t it interesting that no one voices concerns over needing to know if the neighborhood includes convicted murderers, burglars, kidnappers, former terrorists, or drug-Lords? If there must be a registry, then I’m in favor of a registry which tracks ALL known violent or psychopathic criminals, but the mitimus must be “violence” & likelihood to injure others, not the all evil “sex” word as part of their crime. Most people convicted of sex crimes are non-violent offenders (exposers, peeping toms, etc) … and these all should be punished & then successfully treated. Until treated, perhaps tracking is important. Those determined to be an ongoing threat should be listed (along with convicted murderers, kidnappers, etc, and all other known dangerous criminals). But just because a person’s crime includes a sexual component, that should not be the measure of whether or not it needs to be exposed to the whole world for the rest of their life.

    Among many other flaws, the current registry laws increase the likelihood that a child will be killed by an attacker. The stakes of giving the child an opportunity to “talk” are too great, and greater pressure than ever is placed on child molesters to “destroy the evidence”. This makes no sense.

    Finally, now many (if any) of the recent high profile crimes would have been prevented by a national registry? None. A registry can do little or nothing to prevent repeat crimes — it is my opinion that they do far more to increase the likelihood that sex offenders will always and forever live down to their label. Who does this benefit?

    Thank you

21. BRANDED Says:
    January 16th, 2007 at 5:17 am

    To Suffering,

    Some hope for reason may still occur though it may be slim. The link below is to an article describing litigation in two states and a possible Supreme Court review.

    http://www.michbar.org/journal/article.cfm?articleID=542&volumeID=41&viewType=archive

    Lynn…Thanks for beginning this dialogue.

    The national puritanical scare tactics founded several centuries ago are still alive and well. The SOR is the new millennium’s electronic Scarlet Letter. Liberally used now just as then on those alleged Adulterous Harlots and Witches.

    Enacted in its current capacity the SOR is an expensive and inaccurate tool. Effective alternatives, that to my knowledge no state currently uses, would be pre trial evaluation of the individual accused. If these evaluations find that the defendant has a proclivity as a habitual sexual predator destined to repeat their crimes; then lock them up and through away both key and “List”.

    If however the individual does not fit the evaluated profile for proclivity or recidivism nor is there for some of the many ridiculous charges others have mentioned above. Destroy the list!

    Or, publish a national list for all crimes! I too would like to know if a violent individual only on his second strike is moving in next door!

    In its current capacity the Branding of the SOR burns out too many lives, families, and careers.

22. Frank Says:
    March 29th, 2007 at 12:38 pm

    Now, I work in an office, and no one under the age of 18 hangs around the complex.

23. Frank Says:
    March 29th, 2007 at 12:40 pm

    Which is why listing the offenders’ work places seems just dumb or cruel or maybe both. I think people can change. Christ says so in the Book of Revelation: “Behold, I make all things new.”

24. s.s. Says:
    May 20th, 2007 at 11:28 pm

    Very true. Scarlett letter for the “sex offender”. With the laws that are being passed, and the fear that comes to everyones mind when the word “Sex Offender” is spoken, unconstitutionality comes to mind. There are so many different circumstances involved when it comes to “Sex offender”. I am a survivor and also by the legal sense sex offender. I was abused as early back as I can remember at the age of 3, by my biological father. At the age of 15 he actually raped me til the age of 16, where good friends of me to open up. He spent 6 months in jail and 6 months in a mental institution and the state droppped the charges! I had no self esteem or self worth. When it came to sexual situations, I blotted out what was going on and didn’t know how to say NO! Then I met a man just like my father. His first words to me was “I’m an alcoholic” My response “so what” There was no fidelityin the marriage, and he only thought of one thing. Lots of mental abuse in the marriage. Drugs and alcohol through out the marriage! By the time I got out of the marriage, I was a full blown ADDICT. Divorced him because he got another woman pregnant, and he convinced me that if I left the marriage he would get custody of the child. Then went right back to him! One night totally drunk, in my room. He brought a female in the house whom I believed was 18. 2 secs of touching on my part, and I’m branded for life. Found out later that she was a minor, along with finding out my ex had a bunch of porn of minors, along with the fact he RAPED an 11year old. My life was a disaster. Lost my children to the state. Testified against my ex, spent year in jail and year in a alcoholic treatment facility. After all this transpired, my life has changed in every sense of the word. I have custody of my children, been sober 10 years, and doing my best to give my children a good life. HOLD IT. I also live in fear, my information is out there for anyone to find, one of my children was at school, and someone brought up the offender website for the whole class to see for my 12 YEAR old daughter. She came home a wreck! Not including when the newspaper printed my picture for the whole world to see and lots of people saw me, and of course it gets back to the school and children. Better yet, what am I to do now. My eldest child is driving and the citizens are pushing for a license plate that says “SEX OFFENDER” Not including the citizens are pushing for Driver License that says SEX OFFENDER across it. I go anywhere with my children, and what’s going to happen? When is this madness going to end. I don’t make much money, so I have no way to fight it. All I want to do is protect MY children. What am I supposed to do?

25. registered level 3 offender Says:
    May 25th, 2007 at 6:14 pm

    well sufferring I do have an answer for your husbands dillemma. Hes fucked! let me explain in a more professional articulate manner.

    Lynne, Frank and all others whom i am reading here most of you are among the minority and i commend you for your bravery with your comments because if any of you are involved in any political forum with a goal for a political career you are surely doomed. Definately will not ever be appointed or voted as a judge.

    Let me explain! As I can attest I have had the same opportunities as sufferings husband did and was offerred jobs good jobs…matter of fact the IRS hired me…but once revealed i was immediately let go. Let me explain the legal recourse that you and your husband have and a long shot it is but nevertheless save your pennies because it will happen again to him over an over….are you ready?

    I had to open my own business…this was not easy but i did it. this was the only way i could feed my wife and my 3 children and another on the way while being a level 3 sex offender. If you want to get ahead you must repair your credit pay cash for everything and begin on your own looking for no assistance form anyone..The only thing you have that the government has not taken away (or if you are the pessimist in the crowd you took away form yourself when you got your self in that prediciament,) is your own hard work.

    Now let me tell you I have not found one individual or corporation who has ever done a background check on me since I opened my own business. I have worked at the IRS(lol isnt that funny) as a sub contractor I have worked for aeerospace engineering facilities that are secured by Government security including the FBI and CIA I have worked for millitary command centers and a host of other companies but becsasue i am a sub contractor of services and carry my own liability and workers compensation they have no right to look into my back ground and if they want to look into my back ground i wdont have to take the job.

    HOWS THAT FOR A LOOPHOLE!!!!

    Now if you still want to go on with the conventional means of gettign a job you will surely suffer for a long time. I spent 10 years in prison and spent 10 years trying to figure out this crazy system. The only recourse…here it is now write it down….tha you have against a company is not discrimination but “targeting”. meaning that you wer targeted by the company because of your “sex offinder crime” which under the law no individual may use the information he or she sees on the registry to cause harm or intend to cause harm to the registeredt offender. Now the criminal courts will not take this up so you have to approach it civilly. Will You Win? i dont know but you never know until you try! the police department uses the word “targeting” when ever referencing a sex offender who is being harrassed int he commuinty. For obvious reason “target” is what they made us.

    In any event there is your answer. I live in Massachusetts and i have studied the law and fought my own case right up to the us supreme court and never got a hearing. oh well thank you and god bless america. but remmeber as long as this country reamins capitalist the best price will make you alot of money so dont be greedy and be humble cause people will love to part with their money and give it to you if your price is right and your work is good.

    forgive me if i have made spelling errors but i am in the midst of work and happened to fall onto this blog. As for any politicians changing the law i dont think so. Let me remind you that our cgoverntment alwasy tests out the new program on the lesser class of citizen(slavery, woman, immigrants) before applying to the the whole collective. remember we are lab rats to the reich of our government and if something works to give them more control ove rus(like oil and materialistic dependency) then the more power they have to dictate.

    “Double think” as the book 1984 once read: as soon as your government says that for the security of our nation liberties must be stymmied for a period of time(not determined) in order for freedom to prevail. makes no sense but we will convince ourselves that it does. alexander the great did it and hitler did i. now GWB is doing it and we are all missing the picture “let freedom reign” is what our forefathers wanted.
    read the declaration of independence dont interpret it read it!!!

    God bless becasue in light of my troubles I have bee blessed with good intentions by “learning form my mistakes”.

    thanks
    John

26. Anonymous Says:
    May 27th, 2007 at 12:08 pm

    those pervs they raped my child and beat her and him. He is scubby he boke into my house and raped them his girl friend helpeped out. Please if you hear anythig call 911.

27. ren Says:
    August 28th, 2007 at 5:24 pm

    Lynne, I agree with you on the registry; however, I disagree with you regarding healing sex offenders, or anyone for that matter. True healing and change, not outward change but inward change, is only possible through Jesus Christ. True healing will never come from psychological counseling. Psychology deals with the mind, God through Jesus Christ transforms the heart. I’ve known it to be so.

    Thank you for speaking courageously. This sin has definitely become our society’s unpardonable sin. I’m grateful that God is not so limited.

    Blessings of His grace to you.

28. Laura Says:
    September 10th, 2007 at 9:54 am

    My son was 17 and his girlfriend was just shy 16 by a couple of months . They went out for 6 months and they broke up in school she was at a party over the weekend and slept with a kid and the kid confronted my son and told him about the weekend.. Of course my son wanted to get the truth but Jessica would not talk to him.. So he wrote here a letter in school and he called her a bitch and a slut and she brought if down to the office an he got suspended for sexual Harrassment. The it wasnt over them the mother went to the court the following day and got a restraining order for him to stay away for staying away from Jessica and the school .. Then about 2 weeks later he is arrested for inndecent assault and battery… I hired a lawyer and it went on for 2 years… Da not showing up a few times and them Jessia not meeting with the da to videotape her side. Then my son got into some trouble and was at the house of correction for 2 weeks . for violating the restrianing order that he had on the school he was dropping off his younger sister at school in the loop driveway and somebody seen him and he was arrested for that …. so them his lawyer seen him on a sunday and said that he was having a hard time in jail and that he would plead guilty on killing jfk at this point and that we had to get him out of there and that he was emotionally going crazy… So he told timmy to plead guilty on everything and that he would just get probation and that is it so all timmy hears is I can go home…. SO he does… My pawyer leaves the court house and they werent letting him go so I ask they said that there was a problem that he has to register as a sex offender and that he will be on a gps system that he will have the whole time he is on probation .. I just feel like his lawyer and the da running the case didnt know the consequence of him pleading guilty just to home…. his is innocence but know we are trying to appeal the plea but know my lawyer is dragging his feet and the so called da is not returning his calls…. I just think this whole sex offender thingk has its good and bad because it can really wreck somebodys life when you are innocent. You jsut had the wrong councel…..

29. Name Withheld Says:
    November 30th, 2007 at 3:27 pm

    It is so refreshing to read that there are some people who would actually incorporate common sense and logic into our laws rather than base them on “fantacies”.

    Like most of you, I don’t see any point in publishing someone’s name on a public registry when that person has not been involved in a situation (yes, I purposely refrained from using the word “crime”!) that involved neither “contact”, misuse of authority, or coercion in any form. The reason being is that the likelyhood of them causing me, or anyone else for that matter, any harm is no greather than it is with anyone the I don’t know who is not on the registry.

    I have to admit that when I hear the words “sex offender” that I get images of rapists and child molesters rushing through my mind and it conjours up a bit of fear in me. If someone has “landed” on a SOR they must be a really bad person then (Garfield chokes on his lasagna). I have seen some of the postings on these registries and all they “tell you” is what “charges/crimes” a person went to trial for or plead guilty to. The listings tell you absolutely nothing about the case, that’s what supposedly the case files at the Courthouse are for (Marie Osmond dancing in “Bride-Of-Chuckie” outfit). What’s up with the Marie Osmond image you ask, it’s this… believe it or not investigating officers sometimes “fudge” their complaints so that they can “paint” the defendant in a light that makes them look “more bad”. Then the defendant gets an over-worked public defender that doesn’t prepare for trial. Next the trial Judge readily admits “evidence” that the D.A. intends to use, but tells the defendant to “shut-up” when “new-evidence” comes up after trial saying “it is an issue for your appeal”. (Paris Hilton having lunch with Jerry Fahwell) Then the Appellate Court refusing to look at the “new evidence” because it “wasn’t in the record”. SEE THE REGISTRY TELLS YOU NOTHING LIKE THIS!!!!

    Specifically what INFRURIATES me is hearing about “child pornography”. This is another “Pandora’s Box” if you will. I put child pornography in quotation marks because it seems to “encompass” some very legal simple nude images of children which are NOT pornographic UNLESS you are a “PRUDE FROM #&LL”. Be that as it may, I continually read about some being charged with “possession” of child pornography and subsequently be required to register as a sex offender. I’ve seen so many LEGAL CHILD NUDES without having to “troll” the internet or mail-order from so place like Antarctica that unless the child pornography is “really-disgusting” I really have no desire to know that someone “has” some pictures unless they use them for some other purpose than just to look at. If someone uses images of nude children to seduce a child for a sexual encounter then I would definitely care, but until they cross that boundary I wouldn’t “brand” them with the label of sex offender. And it just gets more outrageous… I’ve reading some about “no-contact sex crimes”. Just hearing “sex-crime” gives me images of some sort of “bodily contact”. A person’s “situation” has nothing to do with a child, but because of a few images their probation agreement FORBIDS them from being “near” children. OMG, people who have never “touched” a child, or even entertained the thought for a fraction of a second, are suddenly BANNED from anywhere a child could be “expected” to be (Garfield spits out a big clump of lasagna) which, what??, is really anywhere!! Then I hear of a Probation Agent that told someone to go rent from a place that had a POOL (record scratching) that was supposedly closed so there would likely not be children hanging out but then turned around and “blasted” the same person for walking through an empty hospital hallway, calling it a “VIOLATION” of the probation agreement.

    Sorry that I got a little wordy but since we’re all “writing our minds” I wanted to add that the INSANITY of the Registry overlaps into areas such as habitation, work, school, and pretty much every aspect of a person’s life EVEN WHEN THEY HAVEN’T DONE ANY HARM TO ANYONE!!!!

    Thank you and have a pleasant day…

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