Megan's Law May Actually Encourage Sex Offenders

[drakonyx]

Megan's Law, which calls for neighbors to be notified when a sex offender moves into the area, may actually encourage recidivism, a new study shows.

According to the new analysis, "the publicity created by Megan's Law "has negative consequences for (registered sex offenders), including loss of employment, housing, or social ties; harassment; and psychological costs such as increased stress, loneliness, and depression."

http://www.theprovocation.net/2011/09/megans-law-may-actually-encourage-sex.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. Yeah...I'd still like to know who the predators are around us.

I'm sorry that people who prey on other people for sexual jollies are being made sad and lonely as a consequence, I really am. :nopity:

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Not the point

I too find it hard to muster-up a modicum of sympathy for sexual predators, but I see the point being made that laws meant to identify offenders in our midst may lead to disregard for the rules, which means we're no better off than if there were no disclosure laws in the first place.

From the article:

Because many states put sex offenders on a lifetime registry, they've got very little to lose by reoffending. There's no reward for good behavior, and the punishment for bad behavior - a return to prison - doesn't serve as a deterrent for people who feel more comfortable and accepted behind bars than they do in the outside world. It's easier to let the state take care of you than it is to find employment in an environment where very few employers want to hire you because of your background. The predictable result of all this is that sex offenders will find new victims; then they'll be caught, convicted and put back into prison to further increase the already overcrowded conditions there - along with the financial burden on society.

I am willing to put aside my desire for revenge in order to create a system that actually works. Causing these offenders to suffer may be personally rewarding to some, but it's important to consider potential victims of a repeat offender who feels like (s)he has nothing left to lose.

[TwilightGardener]

3. It's not that I want them to suffer, and see that suffering as a deterrent.

It's that I believe that the vast majority cannot be successfully rehabilitated unless they undergo some sort of profound change in their thought processes, impulse control and perhaps brain chemistry. Once a person is gratified sexually by victimizing another person, especially a defenseless child, I believe it's very difficult to put that aside for the rest of one's life and develop a normal, healthy sex life with willing adults. I would never trust these folks again to be among an UNAWARE community. My awareness, and thus my self-protection and protection for my children, trumps their right to slip through society unnoticed.

[Cirque du So-What]

6. If I had MY way about it...

these people would never suck oxygen on the free side of prison bars for as long as they lived. It'd strictly be one-strike-and-yer-out. Personally, I'd rather require permanent monitoring devices that circumvent the possibility of going 'off-grid.' Until that day arrives, however, I'd rather look at solutions that don't remove all hope and actually encourage recidivism.

[TheWraith]

9. Actually, the recidivism rate for sex offenders is extremely low. About 5%.

For comparison, the average recidivism rate for a felon committing another felony is 43%.

[yurbud]

14. how about for just child molesters? Isn't it more like a sexual orientation for them

like being gay or straight, in which case, they can never be reformed?

A rapist could theoretically be taught to deal with his sexual urges in appropriate ways, or separate his feelings of powerlessness from sex, but the pedophiles impulses have no outlet that is safe for society.

Maybe Megan's Law should be amended to focus more narrowly on serial rapists and sex crimes against children. Hell, I'd like to know which of neighbor's even beat their kids, so I won't let my kids go play there.

[plumbob]

15. That number is a flawed number. Very good study at this link:

http://www.csom.org/pubs/recidsexof.html

Marshall and Barbaree (1990) found in their review of studies that the recidivism rate for specific types of offenders varied:

Incest offenders ranged between 4 and 10 percent.
Rapists ranged between 7 and 35 percent.
Child molesters with female victims ranged between 10 and 29 percent.
Child molesters with male victims ranged between 13 and 40 percent.
Exhibitionists ranged between 41 and 71 percent.

[X_Digger]

13. edit: nvm, Thewraith covered it. n/t

[ixion]

7. yeah, who needs that pesky Rule of Law anyway...

:eyes:

[dorksied]

4. A friend of mine is on the registry

he can't get a job, he lives with his sister because he can't get a job, and this is AFTER he spent $50,000 on therapy over 5 years. I've known the guy for a LONG time, and the changes he went through in therapy are obvious to anyone who knows him vs. the old him, but no matter how much he's changed, no matter how much he's tried to become a good citizen and a good person, nobody will hire him, he has to deal with hostile neighbors, and he's told me that sometimes he thinks going back to prison is a good idea.

How can a society continue to punish someone who has made so much effort to be exactly what society wants?

I really fear that some day he will either kill himself or do something to get himself back into prison.

[WingDinger]

5. I knew a guy on the reg. He tore his shorts. Homeless are there for peeing.

Zero tolerance has made the reg useless. It also smacks of double jeopardy. Zero tol. has ruined a lot of things.

[NashVegas]

8. There Are Better Means of Protection Out There

Than this law.

#1 - create a safe, loving home where your childrens' emotional needs are met as well as their physical needs.

#2 - when your children are old enough to ask where babies come from, TELL THEM. At the very least, parents have until that time a kid can string a sentence together to ask. Give them the whole talk, too.

#3 - watch for sudden changes in your childrens' behavior. When a small child goes from open and engaging with their peers to suddenly being on the sidelines, watching all the fun instead of participating, something is going on and they will appear vulnerable to a predator if they haven't already been hit on.

Society will never be able to rid itself of true freaks without becoming a totalitarian state, and that's simply not desirable. The best we can do is to give kids the support they need to avoid looking attractive to predators and if it still happens, the support they need to confront and leave the pain behind, as they grow up.

[TheMadMonk]

10. Whether or not such laws encourage an individual to offend, there is...

...the simple fact that if an offender does step over the line which separates thought from deed, there is no external encouragement for them to pull themselves back. Only for them to keep stepping forward until they are finally caught. Or faced with the prospect of being caught, the offence escalates to murder.

Only a self-fullfiliing affirmation that each is worse than the last.

[elocs]

11. Not all sex offenders are sexual predators. If the point is to assure that they fail when released

after serving their time, by hounding them from one place to another, making it difficult for them to find a place to live or to even get a job, then society will pay the price for that one way or another.

Megan's Law may well contain within it the Law of Unintended Consequences.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

12. I was watching one of those prison documentaries ...

A guy had served ten (10) years for statutory rape when he was 21 and his girlfriend was 15. He was put on the registry, and now he looks for scrap metal to sell for a living. He was an otherwise good kid (from what I could tell). Now his life is ruined because of a transgression. Twenty-one years old is not the same as a fifty year old diddling a 15 year old. I think these laws are too draconian. Why not make the actual punishment fit the crime; and make actual practical solutions to this problem?

He didn't deserve to go to prison for 10 years, nor to be shunned by society for the rest of his life by being put on a registry with actual pedophiles.

That screams injustice to me.