“Secondary registrants”: A new conceptualization of the spread of community control
U.S. policies influence worldwide responses to sexual offending and community control.
Individuals in the U.S. convicted of sex offenses experience surveillance and control
beyond their sentences, including public registries and residency restrictions. While
the targets are the convicted individuals, many registrants have romantic partners, children,
and other family members also navigating these restrictions. Findings from a qualitative
study using written and interview responses from a hard-to-reach group—family
members of registrants (n = 58)—reveal legal and extra-legal surveillance and control
beyond the intended target. We argue that family members are “secondary registrants”
enduring both the reach of sex offense policies into their personal lives and targeted
harms because of their relationship with a convicted individual, including vigilantism
and a “sex offender surcharge.” Family members engage in advocacy work to ameliorate
sex offense restrictions to counteract their own stigmatization and social exclusion.
Conceptually, secondary registration captures the unique and expansive reach of policy,
state surveillance, and coercion on registrant family members and raises new concerns
about spillover harm. Secondary registration demonstrates an understudied example of
the neoliberal penal practice of de-centering the state but with the addition of deep stigmatization
and the spread of sovereign and vigilante violence onto families.
Secondary registrants – A new conceptualization of the spread of community control
America burned its witches, starved its natives,enslaved its blacks,incarcerated its Asians,killed millions of its babies,has done myriad’s of illegal and unethical medical experiments on its people that would make the nazis jealous..That’s just the tip of the iceberg..It was just a matter of time before it would run out of other minority’s to torture and dehumanize and it would need to “create” a new group to use for subhumanization..Having secondary victims is just icing on the cake for the despots…How many on the “registry” are really on it for crimes that every state even agrees are even crimes? (you may be shocked)..Let’s be honest.. when you let politician’s decide your laws and morality(can you can a lower grade of criminal?) and your government is well known for committing worse atrocity’s (past and present) than any criminal in prison ever thought of do you expect anything else?
What a great and very truthful article! My poor wife is a victim of secondary registrant. My wife is a Canadian citizen and we have applied twice now for her to receive a green card from the US but have been denied twice due to the Adam Walsh Act. We are trying for a third time now and have spent over $30,000 that we don’t have over the last 10 years. They say I have to prove that I am of no threat to her which we have done above and beyond and then the US comes back with, well you fall under the Adam Walsh Act and have no right to ask to sponsor your wife. The poor woman just wants to be able to travel back and forth with no problems and she has been held “captive” in the US for the last 10 years because of the rules that are forced on us registrants. To make matters even worse we care for her mom who lives with us and has dementia and we can’t afford to put her in a place because it’s to expensive. All she wants to do is to be able to take her mom home and place her in a home in Canada where it would be free but if she leaves to do that that US will not let her back in. My wife is being punished for something I did 21 years ago and it has taken a huge toll on us and our relationship. If we are denied again then our only course of action is to get a divorce and find another way to get her a green card. That seems very wrong to me!!! I am truly sorry for all of that family members that suffer because of the rules and regulations that are place on us as registrants! We are an example of just how this system is! I pray that one day someone in power will have the eyes of their hearts open to see the damage that has been and continues to be done through people who truly don’t have a clue! It seems that in America if you are a drug dealer, DUI, murderer, etc… you can still have your rights and live a life of freedom, but that is sadly not the case for us on the registry and our family members! I pray that everyone has a blessed day!
Sincerely from my heart, Jerry Petrosky
Hi Jerry, just read your post, I had a very similar situation, I would love to chat with you and give you some suggestions please. You can contact the admin here, Ron, and he has my number, my name is also Ron
Hi Ron, how do I contact admin? I would love to chat for sure, but am not sure how to get the information bro needed.
Jerry
Obvious, you are quite correct on what one state sees as an illegal act is not in another state. If we look thru history and the world at large at one point in time in one place or another everything that is considered a crime was at some point legal. Society and those who govern is what decides what should or should not be leagal . Sometimes its also concidered leagal or understandable due to circumstances. For instance if you kill someone its murder, but in war its expected. Or if you kill someone due to a mental break down say it was someone who did something to you in the past that was horrible they can say: due to extraordinary circumstances ( temporary insanity) there for you should not be held accountable. This also includes all sex crimes if your wife is not in the mood it was OK to rape her after all she is your wife and its her duty. This was how it was years ago right here in the U.S.A. But laws were changed and its now prosecutable. As you said they have to find some new group to ostersize and make them selves feel superior and not look into theyre own closet or family tree to see what skeletons are lurking in the shadows.
Stuff they did as kids that was explained away as boys will be boys they now want to see kids go to prison and be put on registrys for . Im sorry but sheep will never become people without incentive. Once they themselves or a loved one has to go thru the bs thats called the registry they will never understand. history will teach them a lot if they open they’re eyes, but alass it looks as tho we are doomed to repeat it because they won’t . Welcome to the new world order.
Thank you sharing this and the other article of similar content. It almost feels like moving away from the US would be best for me and my family.