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Worries over notification laws (posted 12 December 2001)
Another "Boo hoo hoo, poor rapists" story, concerned with measures such as sex offender registries and involuntary detention in mental health clinics for sex offenders who have served all their time in prison. You know, there is a simple solution for all this.
- Rationalize age of consent laws so that consensual sex between adolescents with less than 2-4 years age difference is not considered statutory rape. Thus, there is no worry about consensual sex between adolescent partners giving the older one a criminal record just because they are on the wrong sides of the age-of-consent line.
- For anyone who commits acts covered under the remaining rape laws - whether child rape, acquaintence rape, serial rape, gang rape, or anything else - throw him in jail for the rest of his life, without the possibility of parole. Thus, there is no worry about the constitutionality or fairness of notification laws or involuntary detention in mental health facilities after release. There is no release at all.
Simple, isn’t it? Treat rape like a serious crime, and these worries disappear.
Bennie W. replied:
The Problem With Sex Offender Registration is in the term “Sex Offender” itself. Once a person is convicted of a crime that is now legally called a sex offense crime, and the person has to register for all to see, then it is here we see that amongst police, politicians, and the general public itself, “Sex Offender” means child abuser, child molester, rapists. The exhibitionist who is hands off is now seen as a child abuser, or a child molester, or a rapist, or all three. There are two types of exhibitionist; 1) Non-aggressive, and 2) aggressive. The non-aggressive never ever attempts to make contact, whereas the aggressive type puts himself in situations that are extremely threatening to potential and actual victims. The aggressive exhibitionist is borderline and may progress to child molestation, and adult rape. The non-violent should not have to bare the stimatization of “violent” if in fact the person is not viloent. Even in law there can be fairness, but even so-called right minded people, need to get off their high minded pedestals and insist that the legislatures specifically and clearly categorize offenders so as not to lump sum them all together. There are offenders who will not offend again, and offenders who will never in their lifetime ever touch a child in a sexual manner, and this is because of their own inner belief system which is pretty much like the general publics views on child abuse, and child molestation.