Are Sex Offenders Created Equal?

Seriously, sex offenders, child molesters, or any person that has caused harm to another person through forced and non-consensual sexual acts and by using force, threats - actual or implied, and typically via the act of rape or sexual assault, should be in jail and on the sex offender registry. In most states, this is a given and it does happen every day.

After all, no one wants old Uncle Joe, who has been found to be a pedophile and who has a penchant for patting his nieces, nephews, or neighborhood children in inappropriate places, to be around any child under any circumstance. Nor do we want the stranger (and those who are not strangers in our household) to get away with forcible rape under any definition and we want him or her in jail - even if we have to forego the trial. That much is simple human nature.

Nevertheless, are all sex offenders created equal? Of course not, though they do have some things in common. They can be as young as four years old or as old as 100 and there is some wiggle room on either side of those ages. They can be white, black, and any other color in between. They can be male or female, heterosexual or homosexual - or anything that involves a mixture of both. They can be adult to adult (both over 21), adult to teen (depending on what age is considered adult in each state), or teen to teen provided there is not over a two year age difference (and, on a more sarcastic note, is not 8 days past his 18th birthday).

They can be the boy next door, the trash man, the governor of your state, the police officer who gives you a ticket, and that nice man who runs the grocery store down on the corner. Even worse, a sex offender may be your husband, your wife, your son or daughter, and even that old creepy uncle who comes around now and again. Being a sex offender is very much an equal opportunity classification.

After all, society has to be protected from itself and woe to those who have crossed that state statute line that calls for everyone to be the same age and with written consent given on paper and duly notarized in hand before a sexual encounter can take place. In some states, that notarized paper may even be construed to be a marriage license - oh, just how far we will go to make sure sex is "safe"?

However, do we really want to prosecute and convict a young person who is "in love" in a boyfriend/girlfriend scenario to suddenly be labeled a criminal and placed on a sex offender list for the rest of his or her life? Does this mean the senior boy in the local high school and who is 17 years old can no longer have a girlfriend who is a freshman and is currently 14 years old?

What if the girl has been having consensual sex with other partners over a period of two years - prior to her current boyfriend? What if the girl has had live-in partners at her parent's home with their permission until the latest episode involving the new guy? We all know 20-year-old males who are emotionally immature than most 14-year-old females. We all have met the 13-year-old girl who could pass for being 18 years old when dressed to go to the local teen hangout. What about the parents who have let their "little girl" date the opposite sex from the time she turned 12 years old and even purchased birth control protection for the child? Who really IS the responsible party when sex is involved?

If a 19-year-old boy has consensual sex with a 16-year-old girl, but the girl's mother has a problem with it, does the mother now have the right to exact her revenge and punishment against the boyfriend under the guise of having the offending party adjudicated as a sex offender? The only difference now is the fact that "Momma" has decided to take matters a step further and use the state "statutory rape" laws as a means of getting rid of the current boyfriend.

Oh wait! A few states did finally realize that was a mite "unjust" and developed something known as the "Romeo and Juliet Laws". Most of these states did so only after having court cases that overturned previous convictions based on the circumstances of the defendant's age and dating relationship with his younger partner. Most still allow prosecution and many have enacted prison time for the alleged offender from one year or more, but less than what many actual child molesters gets.

Even with the passage of these laws, whose purpose was to differentiate between abusive sexual acts and those of young teen age lovers is that is it often used in an arbitrary manner. In fact, in many cases, they were acted upon depending on the rage and anger of the girl's parents than on any legal regard based on the facts of the case.

The case in Georgia of former high school football star and homecoming king Genarlow Wilson was another example of a good law used for the wrong reasons. In 2005, Wilson was convicted of aggravated child molestation for receiving consensual oral sex from a 15-year-old girl in 2003 when he was 17 years old. State law at the time required Wilson to serve 10 years behind bars without the possibility of probation or parole. He was released after serving more than four years of a 10-year sentence in prison when the court found that his sentence was "grossly disproportionate to his crime". Now there is a novel concept. Anyone should reasonably expect the punishment to fit the crime - you would think.

Nor did the Romeo and Juliet laws cover those who were homosexual. In one case, Matthew Limon was sentenced to 17 years for having oral sex with a 14-year-old boy when he was 18 years old. After the sentence was challenged for being unfair in the Limon vs. Kansas, the Kansas Supreme Court case overturned the conviction. Matthew Limon was finally released from Kansas State Ellsworth Correctional Facility on November 3, 2005, after serving five-and-a-half years for consensual gay sex. The sad thing is, had his partner been a girl, he may have been sentenced to only 15 months.

In 2007, these Romeo and Juliet laws went into effect in Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, and Texas. Moreover, additional work needs to be done in order to ensure that all states make a distinction between sexual predators and adolescents who do not pose a risk, such as those caught in these so-called "Romeo and Juliet" relationships. To penalize any person to the point of having their life ruined forever over something that is more closely akin to a romantic (and perhaps a misdemeanor if that), is outrageous.

Sources:

Some states reconsider youth sex laws

Limon v. Kansas

Romeo and Juliet Laws - What They Mean For Teens