Sex Offender Registries

All too often, we see images of grieving parents and families flashed across the reels of the 6 o'clock news. Yet again, a young child, teen, or adult has been taken, molested, brutally raped, and, in some instances, even murdered. The people that commit these heinous acts of violent deviance are what we have come to know as serial pedophiles and sex offenders. These offenders take away the fundamental rights of our citizens to remain safe, innocent, and emotionally sound when they perpetrate these crimes. The sex offender registry is our government and law enforcement agency's method of controlling the actions of sexual criminals that have been released from prison, most times unreformed. The sex offender registry has been a hot topic of debate for many years, as the resolutions of this registry largely hinge upon protecting America's societies from the dangers of these sex offenders, while violating the offender's right to justice and privacy in the process. Before these resolutions can be addressed, a history of this registry must be established.

According to the author of "History of Sex Offender Registry, Pam S. Stevens, "The state of Minnesota set the ball rolling on the sex offender registry as we know it now. Prior to 1991, law enforcement did not have an organized, compiled list of sex offenders. So when 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling was abducted in St. Joseph, Minnesota, (in 1989) and a search for him was launched, law enforcement did not have a comprehensive list of sex offenders or their locations to work with to help them with their investigation (Stevens, 2006). Unfortunately, Jacob Wetterling was never found, but this single action led to Minnesota law enforcement and government agencies forging an extensive investigation of the sex offenders in St. Joseph at the time, and accumulating a list of the offenders' resident addresses as well as the addresses of their employment (Stevens, 2006). Something had to change. People were growing weary of living in rigid fear for the safety and lives of their young children. Societies across the nation were all too eager to possess an accessible national database of sex offenders. Today, the sex offender registry contains lists of the offenders' and pedophiles' whereabouts along with the crimes they were charged with committing.

There was once an opinion that sex offenders should not be chastened, but rehabilitated. The recidivism rate in the 1990's on these "rehabilitated" sexual offenders was staggering, lending more than 46 percent of these deviants returning to prison for committing more sexually charged crimes of a similar manner (Sex, 2006). This only served to press legislation for more stringent laws of the sex offender registry. All criminals that had been charged with a sexual crime, whether it was possession of child pornographic material, molestation, statutory rape, or rape, the offender would be required by law to report his or her residence and employment information to law enforcement (Miethe, 2006). The hope is that, the criminal, having to be held accountable by the public, would not re-offend for fear of reprisal or a swift imprisonment. Unfortunately, there are holes in even the most well intentioned laws and measures.

Although one of the conditions of a pedophile or sex offender being allowed to roam free in our communities is that they register, many of them move throughout the course of their lifetime and do not offer updated information on their whereabouts (Keen, 2005). Also, after the expiration of the probationary period, they are no longer supervised on their movement, nor do they have to report to authorities on a regular basis (Keen, 2005). The danger in this is that these offenders are loose in our communities, amongst our children, our teenagers, and our women, largely undetected and an extremely vital threat to the safety of our societies.

Can the sex offender registry be solely viewed as a viable deterrent? No, not solely. While there is definitely a level of power in the registry, as it is available to the public for utilization in a productive and responsible manner so as to protect potential victims, it would appear that if the offender wanted to find a way around having to register, he or she would be able to do so. Look around. Everyday there is another crime being committed against our children by a sex offender that lacked sufficient and updated information in the national database.

We don't have to look any further than the story of little Jessica Lunsford, the nine-year-old Florida girl, taken from her bed as she slept, only to be brutally raped and murdered by repeat offender, John Evander Couey (Keen, 2005). Couey had recently moved to a relative's residence within close proximity to Jessica's home and he never updated his residential information with the sex offender registry (Keen, 2005). Inadequate resources and manpower availability by agencies to apply the necessary force and pressure in abidance to the law, only serves to further enable these predators to repeat their offenses (Levenson, 2004). Couey prowled around, anonymously, waiting for the opportunity to present itself, for the opportunity to break the heart of another family, and, he did.

Drafted on the premise of providing a level of protection for the citizens of America's societies, the sex offender registry has also found negative criticism with people that abide by all citizens' right to unveiled truth and justice (Sex Offenders', 2002). Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had this to say about the prejudicial treatment of sex offenders and the lack of rehabilitative information given on criminals, "It's not the whole truth. The public is getting only the bad and not the good. Its judgment is being skewed" (Sex Offenders', 2002). "The law's intent is to inform the public, not shame or otherwise stigmatize the convict (Sex Offenders', 2002).

No matter the crime committed by the individual, the sex offender/pedophile will always be viewed as a pariah. It could have been an 18-year-old that had consensual sex with his 16-year-old girlfriend. It's rare, but it does happen. It could also be a 40-year-old man that has molested young children time after time. Which is most likely. Either way, the sex offender registry is a beacon that shouts, "UGLY, FOUL, DEFAMED, MONSTER!" For the layperson that views the sex offender on the registry, there is no differentiation between the two. They are both considered to be ugly, foul, defamed monsters.

With such an impassioned outcry by the majority of the public against these heinous crimes, there is always the very real possibility of vigilantism in regards to the announced whereabouts of all criminals registered in the database. Case in point, take 20-year-old Stephen Marshall of Nova Scotia, Canada. After viewing and retrieving information on sex offenders' Joseph Gray and William Elliot from the Maine Sex Offender Registry, Marshall "borrowed his father's pickup and a gun, drove to the men's homes and fatally shot them" before killing himself on a Boston bus (Killer, 2006). This is an extreme example, but a realistic one, nonetheless. There have been complaints made by many of the sex offenders on the registry that they have been specifically targeted for verbal, physical, and emotional harassment by people in their communities (Levenson, 2004). Because their residential and employment addresses and information is readily available to the public, there is no protection from these swift, random acts of violence perpetrated against them. These sexual deviants complain that the right to privacy does not apply to them as long as they are required by law to provide their information. Many of them are now said to live in constant fear, afraid of the possibility of receiving bodily harm and injury (Sex Offenders', 2002). Perhaps that should have entered their minds when they were committing these crimes against innocent victims. Maybe the fear of vengeance at the hands of an angry mob would serve as a more concrete deterrent than the sex offender registry itself? It is all tied in together in order to serve to prevent these atrocities from happening to our children, our teens, and our women.

There are definite strong points about having a sex offender registry. It provides the public with enough ammunition to fight against and prevent crimes from being committed against the innocent in our communities. Tied in with the fear or reprisal and a return to prison, it serves as a potent deterrent for many of these sexual deviants to repeat offend. There are also holes in the structure of the sex offender registry. Together with a lack of sufficient resources and manpower required to be able to apply adequate pressure and force on these criminals to comply with the stringent requirements of the registry, there are always those offenders that will skirt the law and escape undetected. Thus, our communities are left wounded and vulnerable. There are also those seemingly on the right side of the fence that seek out these sex offenders posing a very real physical and emotional threat the these "rehabilitated" criminals, further causing the overworking of our law enforcement agencies. Our law enforcement then has no choice, but to protect our citizens, criminals or not.

There are definite possibilities for amendments to be made for this registry in order to make it a more effective piece of legislative powerhouse. But until there is a complete compliance from both the offender and the everyday citizen to abide by the registry's law, it will never be as was intended.

Works Cited

Keen, Jerry. CHILD MOLESTATION: LEGISLATURE: Intensify efforts to track,

monitor. (2005, November). The Atlanta Journal - Constitution, Retrieved

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Killer uses Maine sex offender registry to murder ex-cons. (2006, June). Contemporary

Sexuality, Retrieved September 26, 2008, from Academic Search Complete

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Levenson, Michael. IN SUBURBS, PARENTS WEIGH SEX OFFENDER WEBSITE

ISSUES. (2004, August). The Boston Globe. Retrieved September 25, 2008.

http://0-proquest.uml.com.uncclc.edu/pqdweb?index.

Miethe, Terance D. Specialization and Persistence in the Arrest Histories of Offenders.

(2006, August). Quarterly Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency.

Sex-Offender Notification. (2006, April). World News Digest. Retrieved September 24,

2008. www.2facts.com.uncclc.coast.uncwil.edu:80/ICOF/Search/i0102980.asp.

Sex Offenders' list scrutinized by Supreme Court. (2002, December). Contemporary

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Stevens, Pamela S. History of the Sex Offender Registry. (2006, December). Top Ten

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