The Dobbs Wire: Life on the registry — an uncommon perspective
Uncommon perspective: A woman writes about life on the sex offense registry. Found on the internet, four interesting essays by Sonia Van den Broek – let’s hope she is well and thriving. Have a look! -Bill Dobbs, The Dobbs Wire
CounterPunch | July 27, 2012
The Self-Identity of a Sex Offender
By Sonia Van den Broek
Excerpts: People are constantly changing their self-identities, either to project the desired image or to gain personal growth. The men and women on sex offender probation have no choice about their identities. They are sex offenders, solely and clearly. Questions about perception and portrayal are nice but hardly applicable. Other people are the sum of their experiences but sex offenders are the sum of their crimes.
Status as a sex offender takes precedence in every single situation, even one where someone’s life is in danger. In my group therapy, we had a discussion about what to do if a child ran out in the street in front of our cars. The treatment provider and probation officer – the latter of whom was sitting in on group – decided it was best to call the police and tell them the situation. They quibbled over whether we could knock on a neighbor’s door to have them grab the child, but under no circumstances were we to touch the child or guide him to the sidewalk.
I was appalled. In the time it would take me to dial 911, much less explain the situation to the operator, the kid could be hit by the next car. MORE:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/07/27/the-self-identity-of-a-sex-offender/
Dissident Voice | May 21, 2015
Who Are Woman Sex Offenders and Why Are They Treated Like Men?
By Sonia Van den Broek
Excerpts: For the first quarter of my life, I didn’t think much about sex offenders. Call it thoughtlessness or a naïve little bubble; it was probably both. This thoughtlessness might not be unique. But I began thinking about sex offenders when, at age 25, I was charged with a sex crime.
This isolation sinks deep into the bones. It makes a person unsure of herself. How do “normal” people act in this situation? What if someone finds out I committed a sex crime? Am I talking and behaving the way women my age do? In this way, the punishment for sex crimes is partly physical, restricting a person’s movements in the community, and partly psychological, making her afraid to engage with other people.
Here lies perhaps the greatest injustice: in the sex offender system, women are treated exactly like men. Treatment providers aren’t given special instruction in dealing with women. The treatment programs are written for men, using statistics about male offenders and past treatment models of men. Imagine! MORE:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/05/who-are-woman-sex-offenders-and-why-are-they-treated-like-men/
BillTrack50 | Aug. 15, 2015
Looking Myself Up on the Registry
By Sonia Van den Broek
Excerpts: Yesterday, for the first time, I pulled up my state’s sex offender registry. Yet this was no idle browsing or searching for a nearby neighbor. I was looking for myself. Six years, three months, and two days after I was arrested, I felt strong enough to search for myself.
Of course, this is no typical Google search, curious what past employment sites list your name or how many Facebook results you can find. This is the willingness to find a version of yourself on the worst place on the Internet: the unforgiving, voyeuristic Sex Offender Registry. MORE:
BillTrack50 | Oct. 16, 2015
Is the Sex Offender Registry Effective?
By Sonia Van den Broek
Excerpt: In the previous blog post, I alluded to the value of the sex offender registry. The best way to understand this value, I believe, is by answering the question “Is the registry effective?” Anything that requires direct police involvement, legal monitoring, and thus taxpayer money deserves to be scrutinized by this question. I propose to you that, far from being effective, the sex offender registry is actually ineffective and harmful – to the community most of all. MORE:
I am glad she is speaking out – her perspective is enlightening. We always talk about the double standard in sentencing but I had never really thought about how treatment etc. was designed for males exclusively – I find that very interesting. I tell my students all the time that one of the victims in this War on Sex is the totality of the male gender. Activities that are routinely a part of life for women or in some cases people over the age of 50 or so are viewed with suspicious eyes if the person is a male alone (or more than one male) under the age of 50 (as an estimate). Males are viewed with suspicion if they hug a child or sometimes if they just speak to a child!
As an SRO if I see a child in danger and I can do something to remove that child from danger I will do it without hesitation. It is better to do what is right than what is ‘legal’. I would rather let 12 decide if what I did was right or not than live with a conscience that tells me I did wrong to save my own ‘skin’.
It is correct that yiu have to watch everything yoou do or say in the presence of children and totally afraid to show affection to your own families children and even our own grandchildren.
I personally am afraid to be alone and not have someone with me at all times for fear of someone saying something or taking something I have said or done out of context and getting jammed up in the legal system.
Here is an excellent article on the subject:
“Are sex offender registries reinforcing inequality?”
http://theconversation.com/are-sex-offender-registries-reinforcing-inequality-79818
While I disagree in part, about women sex offenders being treated like men ( look at sentencing stats ) I do agree with the treatment scheme that it was originated for men in general. As far as the self – identity part I don’t agree with what “THERAPY” say you should do in a certain situation. If it were an adult who was about to get hit by a car, you would pull them to safety, why not a kid.
I agree whole heartedly with what Jerry Sr. and the Capt. said, as I had a situation (when I was still on probation and could have been violated) where my wife and I were at a rodeo, we sat mid way in the nose-bleed section to avoid children in the lower section, when a woman who had way to much to drink had a child who was 4 or 5 yrs old and she wasn’t paying much attention for the child falling as she was for herself falling. There is an opening between the bench seat and the foot board and straight down 20 feet to the ground below, well the child did trip and was headed, head first, through the opening, my first reaction was to stop the child from falling to her death, so I did. Afterward the thoughts came rushing through my mind with the ” WHAT IF’s “. Then I pushed those thoughts out of the way and said no matter what happens, I saved that child. Needless to say the mother, still drunk, just looked up at me with a drunken smile and said thank you.
Very good read though!