The weaponization of laws against children in the United States
A father in Ohio turned to police for help after learning that his 11-year-old daughter had been manipulated into sending explicit photos to an adult. When asked what the police could do, one of the officers responded by saying that his daughter could be arrested for producing CP. The officer was referring to a law that was created to protect minors.
“It was a complete failure on a legal level and on a human level,” said Scott Berowitz, founder and president of the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAIN) – the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. “I don’t know who immediately goes to blaming a child in a situation like that. It’s inconceivable.” (Yahoo!news, “Police suggested charging a child for her explicit photos. Experts say the practice is common,” Claudia Lauer and Samantha Hendrickson, September 21, 2023)
Sometimes the answer doesn’t involve law enforcement. Sometimes the answer is parenting.
This response is over-the-top! So now the laws that drive so’s underground, will now be used to drive victims under as well.
Who’s the genius that thought this through?
In common law jurisdictions, most crimes require both proof of mens rea (“guilty mind”) and proof of actus reus (“guilty act”) before the defendant can be found guilty. The mental state of a defendant must be considered when accusing someone of a crime.
State statutes often overrule common law, which can result in children, and people with mental disabilities being incarcerated. In a challenge to this, Justice Robert Bell wrote in favor of common law, saying “[mens rea is] a principle of justice so rooted in the traditions of conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental.” ~ GARNETT v. STATE 332 Md. 571, 632 A.2d 797 (1993) Sadly, Justice Bell was in the minority.
Twenty percent of people on US sex offender registries (200,000) are there because of something they did as a juvenile.
Source: https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/saycrle.pdf
But still we fight on, and will keep trying
https://www.macombdaily.com/2023/09/22/court-of-appeals-rejects-cruel-unusual-punishment-claim-in-lifetime-sex-offender-registration/amp/
This defendent basically received due process regarding his risk of teoffense. Sad part is his likelihood to reoffend applies via precedent to ALL registrants. No one else will be offered due process..
There was a follow up to this story a day or so ago and after the outrage, something was actually done about the situation. The two officers involved are now being investigated for their actions/lack of action.
Source: CNN
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/20/us/columbus-ohio-police-officers-under-investigation/index.html
First of all, there’s no indication that the girl was coerced by an adult. The first publication from CNN of this story read that the father lamented that there was no effort to find the person his daughter was communicating with. It’s just as possible she was chatting with another minor. Nor is there an indication that the girl presented herself as an 11-year-old from the first contact. The Yahoo version stating otherwise is pure presumption, not proven fact, likely to make it more shocking.
Second, why should the cops here be investigated? They may have been a bit indelicate, but they told the truth. There are a bunch of registrants who did the exact same thing when they were minors, so what is there to investigate? If disciplined in any way, I would think their union reps would raise nine kinds of hell.
Third, why aren’t there any complaints about the DAs in these circumstances? Cops only make arrests, not charges and certainly not prosecutions. I’ll bet the first DA to successfully convict a minor for self-CP is still patting himself on the back.
Fourth, this should be a parental issue, not a legal one. The father could have solved the problem by taking her phone away. Replace it with one that doesn’t have internet access if she “needs” a cell phone (though kids got along just fine without them until 10 or 15 years ago). There was no reason to involve the cops here.
The teenager taking the picture of herself in the mirror is tried as an adult because she is old enough to know better than to take a picture of her own reflection who is a child and not old enough to know better.