The Unethical Dilemma of an Offense Based Sex Offender Registration and Notification System and the Indiscriminate Effect on the Low Risk Offender.
The Law Review article linked to below was written by Kenneth H. Browning, a third-year law student at Barry University School of Law. He examines ethics in the sex offender registration scheme and questions whether it is ethical to sweep up everybody into a common dust bin. He asks, “why is Adrian, a registered sex offender who had sex with a girl who said she was 18 years old when they met at an Over 18 Club, on the same list as Jesse Timmendequas, who forcefully sexually assaulted and murdered a seven-year old girl from his neighborhood? In these cases, and several others we will review, lady justice has been truly blind. Blind to indiscriminate and damaging sociological, psychological, and economic trauma exacted on registered sex offenders as a result of the indiscriminate effects of the notification requirement. Legislature, opting to deal swiftly with the offense, has failed to deal accurately with the offender”
Read his article and share your thoughts.
The facts are eloquently displayed logically and with simple terms any normal educated person should be able to understand but ,who is listening? Or are they just more casting pearls before swine.
I am a registered sex offender they got me for solicitation of a minor she was a fifteen-year-old girl we were writing sexual notes back and forth they arrest me for solicitation of a minor okay I’m fine with that but it’s nothing more than what they could read in any teen magazine but anyway yes we do not be in a classification
America has a serious problem of forcing their eyes shut when it comes to the truth, on all levels and aspects.
A person doesn’t automatically turn sexual commencing after their 18th birthday. Similarly, you talking to someone underage, while being ‘societally inappropriate’, doesn’t automatically mean you were nefarious, or had evil intentions to harm the person. However, the blind law set an arbitrary random number of “18” (or “16” in some cases) as the final age that a person becomes responsible for their own actions.
Hence why in foreign countries where they generally have more common sense when it comes to human nature, they are not as strict with such laws as they are here.
“Talking” to a 15 yr old or anyone of any age for that matter is nothing in the same category as what happened to a defenseless 7 yr old girl from an obvious psychopath.
If simply TALKING to a 15 yr old makes you a “danger to society”, then I say we all protest the yearly celebration of Elvis Presley on the cover of Time Magazine because he was WRITING LOVE LETTERS from the army to a 14 yr old Priscilla.
Before protesting him though, I’d like to have this question asked if the powers that be in these laws – How did Elvis threaten the safety of the public by being in love with ONE young female who he ended up MARRYING!!!????
Not knowing whether you’re 47, 27 or 17 nor the content of your “sexual notes” I must respectfully disagree with your assessment that it’s nothing more than what “they” could read in any teen magazine.
Teen magazines would must likely present issues of sexual anxieties, curiosities of teens in a age appropriate way. Nor would the editor be inclined to meet with there targets.
What I find concerning about your post is how you minimize your actions. When some 27 guy is texting some 15 year old girl “Sexual Notes” than meets up with her for sex, society will react, most likely in knee jerk fashion and pass some kind of legislation denying ANYONE convict of a sex offense internet access.
For every action there is a reaction.
@ CMC:
I respectfully disagree with your assessment of Richard’s circumstance, as he wrote about it above.
He never said anything about meeting in person, or that the person identified herself as 15 years old when they were texting. While certainly not appropriate, the parents of that particular 15 year old could have solved the problem by taking away her cell phone without ruining anyone’s life, the girl included.
Sorry, but I do not and will not believe that any substantial harm comes to anyone from texting or chatting or whatever other electronic communication is used. Parents might – and should – pitch a fit about it when their kids are sending and receiving those communiques, and should deal with their kids when it’s discovered. IF it’s that bad, a restraining order against whoever they’re talking to would probably solve the problem. But simple conversation, regardless of content, in and of itself is harmless. Criminalizing it based solely on the supposition that it may lead to an actual sex crime is simply insane.
Accordingly, I’m concerned about how you’re maximizing what is, at most, a thought crime. Are we at the point now where people should be prosecuted for what we presume they are thinking? I haven’t heard of anyone being prosecuted for extremely vocal statements about assassinating the president. Guys like Quentin Tarantino and Guillermo del Toro still make movies that took some pretty sick reasoning to devise, yet no one wants them psychologically evaluated.
But it is a crime for an adult to send sexual messages to a minor, or to solicit them from a minor, bad parenting notwithstanding.
I realize I may be stating the obvious, but I thought we were all in agreement on that?
The only question is whether the perpetrator and their family should be subjected to a lifetime of punishment, and that’s why I’m grateful FAC is here.
@ Jacob:
I don’t dispute that it is a crime, I dispute whether or not it should be. The fact that minors can assume whatever cyber-age they want and whoever they’re talking to have no means to verify (but still somehow have the responsibility) tells me it shouldn’t be. Again, a parenting issue as far as I’m concerned.
I certainly agree the penalties are excessive.
Nicely said, precisely what I was thinking.
Also, many times, I have seen cases where someone sexting over the phone and never met in person gets more time than someone who actually met and had physical relations with someone after taking a plea deal.
Guess what, he’s not going to be arrested for, charged with and convicted of a sex offense if the material reviewed by law enforcement was appropriate.
He can cry on your shoulders not mine.
CMC, bro I think you have a lot to learn about law enforcement and electronic communication. Very respectfully I advise you to withhold criticisms and conclusionary rhetoric, especially the blind faith you have in honorable, honest law enforcement. Do we now “just believe police” as we do all alleged victims? I submit to you that, in my educated and very experienced life and opinion I believe that the majority of illicit porn and other similar content is deliberately placed and circulated by law enforcement and other entities with motives that vastly transcend protection of children. These entities have an incentive to keep this garbage out there and it finds its way into my mainstream legal searches all the time. Doing Google searches for legal porn always produces a few creepy results that I never requested or would even think about, much less click on. But they are baiting me, hoping I might make a mistake or be curious. It’s political, it’s gender politics and more, it’s way more, it’s just unstoppable evil. It’s the same mindset that says prostitutes are victims and only the buyers of sex should be prosecuted, elimination of statutes of limitations, “metoo” and “justbeliveher”, and now in the cross hairs the entire Rights of the Accused, the Fifth Amendment, confrontation of witnesses, etc.. The registry is just another bar of the cage being constructed to hold all of us. Man, please, snap out of it.
Unlike must here, I pled guilty to, was charge with and convicted of sexual battery on a minor in 1998. Now here’s the real kicker, my victim don’t report or “tell” nor was I caught by my spouse. Nope. I went to see a counselor talked about my issues and in fact called the abuse hot line from his office.
For this and no other reason I did no prison time, was given 10 years SO probation with the requirement to complete the MDSO program.
No, I here because of the ever changing restraints and complete lack of finality. That’s my battle.
Only snooks take the bait.
I. S.
Thank you for bringing those things out. I know all you said is 100% true. I in the past knew someone that worked for law enforcement , his job was to set in front of a computer all day , view porn and distribute it in an effort to entrap someone. All larger agencies have these pawns placed in order to entrap. What a job look at porn all day.
Well written but a “Preaching to the choir” campaign unless they have the eyes and ears of a judge or legislator who gives a damn and can propose real reform.
Thank you Cherokeejack! That has been well considered. As with all attempts to open the eyes of our legislators and judges, their only focus is safety and recidivism. The sex offender laws have been challenged and cast down under every constitutional claim (equal protection, due process, 8th amendment severe punishment) but the legal “nostalgia” of our in-justice system shelters their verdicts under the guise of public safety. Even the civil commitment process under Jimmy Ryce is far-reaching and in its very nature, by all accounts, unethical and unconstitutional. One of my law professors said to me that no judge will hear my appeal since it does not outline how to reduce recidivism or how recidivism affects society. My appeal to the rights and human dignity of sex offenders is moot. After nine months of review and seeing a multitude of legal experts fighting for the same cause, the only true question now is HOW do we get them to listen?
Kenneth
Thank you so much for a personal response, that meant a lot.
You and your family stay safe during this national crisis. I would imagine many court hearings were put on hold because of it, eventually backing up cases for months if not years. Where I live, the courts are closed except for emergency hearings of life altering proportions. ( Central Florida region )
My best friend is on the registry and lives with me. As an attorney to be I have stood with him while police have come to my home 4am. I have my vehicles registered with FDLE because he lives with me and my family. I’ve had a person ask me how do I let him live with me when I have a 16 yo teenage daughter? I ask them do they know what he has been accused of? They have no idea. I am amazed at the acidic responses laced with ignorance. You are right. They were trying to arrest him until Corona spread and he has received a sliver of peace. They’ve been respectful towards me in the process but I have been awoke many nights for them to check to see if he was here. I have cameras in my home and have documented each encounter. The hardships even in light of my help are egregious and nigh impossible for anyone who is attempting to have any sense of normality and human dignity.
So sorry you are going through that. You are a super hero.
One of my neighbors just became a cop and he has been causing problems for me using his job (off duty) to harass me.
Luckily where I live there are also cameras that also record voice and sounds.
Central Florida Region is where I go to school, work, and live. There is an awesome Sexoffender assistance program called Sexoffender One Stop here in Orlando. Have not had the opportunity to work with them but when I worked with the 18th Judicial Circuit Public Defenders Office, I was able to refer several people there who received assistance.
Thank you. Thank you for the national place FL Action Committee is making in this area. Your connection to the community of Registered citizens is laudable and I think, greater than most. MA has an active element, largely fed by academic Emily Horowitz and others, but their actions are just that, academic and inside the community. NARSOL seems like the most active association, but their action seems to be more so legal. Because we have allowed this fight to be inside the system, that battle is not win-able, because it is attacking the injustice state by state. Your review of the frontline battle is very good, but until we can address the stupid and unjust laws that are not consistent with the good evidence, and does not address the boogeyman view of the public, and cannot get lawmakers, other national associations, and the press onboard, we continue to make little progress, at least in my lifetime. When I look at Congress, I see no active law legislation; I see no reference in judicial committees openly working this issue. I look at the VA state legislature, they are working at increasing the restrictions. When I look at other related justice associations, none have sex offenders or laws on their committee structure, and no human rights sex offender issues being worked. It looks to me that we have no effective national effort or strategy to right this wrong. I think your organization is more effective and better organized that I have yet discovered. In my case, I own a time share in FL but cannot use it for fear of the numerous rules there are to vacation in FL. I am already registered in a second state in order to visit family. For me, these laws have made travel too dangerous and not worth the effort, and in that light, my senior age and retired status makes living life in America as a citizen, being without liberty and without the ability to pursue happiness as it was determined by our founding fathers.
Robert, thanks for the Compliment. It is so important for EVERY state that does not have an active advocacy group to establish one. Ours started small, but with that small group of very dedicated and determined volunteers it has grown. Since each state has it’s own unique set of laws with varying nuances, it’s important for there to be a separate group for each state but it’s equally important that there’s a strong nationwide effort that comes from networking among the individual state groups and collaboration on nationwide efforts.
OHHHHH. Now it makes sense. I always wondered why so many commenters were from other states. I mean I like it because we can compare notes about what is better or worse in each state.
It does sometimes get confusing when people start quoting statues and requirements and I think they are from Florida and I freak out thinking the World has ended. Such as in Georgia where they were thinking of putting signs in EVERY registered persons yard.
Robert,
Something you said just made me think of something.
Myself and many others were added to registry retroactively well after we had been sentenced ( Was no registry when I was sentenced ).
The thing that is weird, is, in many cases they rule we can have retro active laws applied to registered persons. But in other cases like the 1000, 500, 2500 feet from a school law, they did not make me move. if they had made it retroactive, I could not live where I do now.My point is, why are some of the rules not ok for them to apply to those already sentenced, but others are?
If we could get a judge to think about that, maybe that would be the stone that broke the giants back?
Or, they could say ” Oh,why aren’t we making all these retroactive?
I don’t get it? Are we extending justification for a criminal registry? Have we forgotten what registries do? I guess no one remembers Nazi Germany & the internment camps. America didn’t need a list to fill their camps, just round up them Jap’s! People need to wake the f up & start pushing back against gov. instead of making arguments to erode more privileges.
As a registrant ( I refuse to label myself as a sex offender) who has been on “The list” in California for 5 yrs following a misdemeanor internet conviction, I am continually amazed when I read of the ridiculous steps the Feds, state legislatures, and local municipalities will go to in order to basically rid the planet of the demon offender. Have they noticed that in over 3000 yrs, no law to stop murder, theft, arson, bribery, or ANY other offense has stopped the offenses. The registry will not stop future acts and is wrong on so many levels I can’t even begin to list them.
The term “sex offender” is a weapon of war and hate. People who are listed on the hit list are just People Forced to Register. Forced by criminal regimes at the point of a gun.
Not only that but we should not be labeled for the rest of our lives for an event that may or may not have happened 30 some odd years ago.
A kid who steals candy from the store is not for the rest of his life labeled a robber or a thief. I know our accusations are much more serious, however even if we did commit an illegal sexual act once 20 to 30 years ago, how does that mean we are and have always been a sexual pervert?
Someone in their 20’s who sold drugs for years and was arrested several times, then gets a second chance, goes into the army and turns their lives around, do people point to them years later and say ” oh look, there is Bobby the drug dealer”?
As far as the current law is concerned, once a sexual offender, always an offender.
Of course.
That’s the same reason that if a liar stops lying, we can’t really call the person “liar” any longer. Or a cheater who stops cheating. Or a beater who stops beating.
Anyone who can’t realize that and keeps calling people names is just a sad, pathetic “person”. And they give everyone permission to call them names as well. If a “person” calls someone “sex offender”, then that “person” gets their own names/labels that everyone can call them.
I was aressted in clay county florida leaving a bar never went to the place yet i was beaten an arrested for traveling to meet a minor in 2012 i went to prison for 5 years an 10 years sex offender probation lifetime registration i have been fired from jobs for charges im constantly picked on i have attempted suicide on 2 occasions so yea the punishments are way to harsh i cant even have a normal life nor see my children because of this its time to stop this murderers and rapists are treated better
Yes the the teen can say what ever age they want to on line I was arrested for solicitation to a minor I wrote section notes to her she was only fifteen nothing happened to her for giving me sex notes on line or over the phone. Now I am a registered sex offender that is totally wrong
I am also on registry for meeting a guy in over 21 club passed a lie detector test to show I had no idea and needless to say I did 13 years in and been home 2 years. Honestly it’s been harder to handle at home then In prison. I search everyday for any information that could help me especially now and some things done to violate sex offenders that I don’t believe he can actually violate us for. I have yet to get any correct information and they just send me back to speak to local sheriff which is who I am asking about in the first place. New world lots of open spots in registry for all kinds of manipulation from law enforcement and no definitive answer on certain aspects on legal or not in our world.
Hi Crystal, I understand your predicate I too was lied on,my girlfriend told me she was 18 and I met her parents but still got pop because she was 15…. I really hate to say this I had no problem in prison because I worked out,,, I did get into fights but was because guys could not control their own behavior not because of my charges.
I couldn’t take any vocational classes since people like us wouldn’t get hired but living on the street or in the free world has began to be confusing silly laws I had family in fla. but they never visit or care enough to help me so the decision was easy I left fla. and went to AZ been here no problems I got a decent landlord . If FaC allowes it and your interested I offer u to get out of that state I know who and where to go too here in this state I had in the past posted information
This thread begun with my criticism of someone who openly admitted to texting sexual notes to an underage child.
If I’m not mistaken the purpose and intent of The Florida action committee is to reform the SORNA and try to stop the never ending and ever more punitive restrictions.
Must if not all these restrictions being imposed are in reaction to some inappropriate sexual action taken upon a minor by offender.
The last thing we need is for some high level activist or any of the members and associates involved in the reform of sex offender laws, to be convicted of a new offense or appear to be supportive of someone minimizing inappropriate teen texting.
The years of hard work building up whatever support organizations like FAC have established can be instantly reversed and damaged by the acts of just one activist.
So yeah, I’ll call out someone who openly admits to sending sexual notes to a teen. No one on this blog should be supportive of that kind of behavior.
Nuff said.
CMC
Thank you for that clarification. Nobody should be advocating exemption from true crimes. There just needs to be a lot of clarification as to what is a crime and what is not. Also the punishment should fit the crime. Right now none of that exists. The registry doesn’t serve any useful service except to punish and it’s being denied as being a punishment. Also it’s destroying lives of these ones and all related to them. Plus prohibiting the offenders from being rehabilitated.
This is an excellent work, but I do wish it had been given a thorough editorial review before publication for punctuation, spelling and typos. There are too many mistakes of this type in this article (treatise) and there should not be.
Thank you Edward. My Law Review was written as part of a graduation requirement and it has been reviewed several times. It has also been reviewed through Grammarly. I began researching the legal topic March of 2019 and began writing it in September of 2019. It has been reviewed by my professor and myself on several drafts. I also served as a high school writing, literature (British and American), and poetry teacher. I know it is always possible to make grammatical and syntactical errors in any writing. I find them constantly in almost every book I read…and that’s a lot of books.
If you have found any errors, please submit to me and I will make the corrections. Many books are published with errors that have escaped editorial review and I know the same is here, but I haven’t been able to spot any and apparently Grammarly has not either…or my professors. So please assist me in finding them and I will correct for personal reasons.
My email address is jahbow01@hotmail.com.
Thanks Edward! Be blessed.