The Public Right to be Able to View the Sex Offender Registry - Research Paper Example

The public should legally be able to view the sex offender registry to protect their family Sexoffenders are people who have been convicted of committing sexual crimes. The definitions of sexual crimes vary depending on the legislation of a state. In some states even urination in the public where there are children who can see is categorized as sex crime, the same applies to sending text messages with obscene sexual content or sexual suggestions between an adult and a teenager. According to Tofte, Sara and Jamie (2007), these ranges from extreme sex acts like statutory rape, child sexual abuse and molestation, bestiality, incest and even sexual assault which are common across all states in the US. Sex offender registry is where the people who have been convicted of sexual offences are recorded. The records are normally held in police offices, courts or the sheriffs’ offices but are nowadays available in a national registry as well online in the National Sexual Offenders Public Registry. They are also available in the Federal Bureau of Investigation websites by county and state. Any individual can conduct a search of the sexual offenders by state, address, and name among other search criteria. The information on this registry is updated as frequently as the information is got from the sexual offender who has to be reporting to the nearest police station and update his or her information at least once every year. Debate has risen over the sex offender registry all around the country with some people advocating for its removal from public visibility while others want it to remain and even keep on being updated so that they can remain alert and aware of their neighbours and friends. The pros and cons of this debate are discussed below in detail and they include issues such as stigmatization, family breakups, trauma to children, living in fear and forever being regarded as a criminal for the cons. The pros of having a sex offender registry are: knowledge, caution, and self-protection, early prevention among others (Tofte and Jamie 46). The sex offenders’ registry remains to be among the greatest protection and prevention mechanism parents have against sex offenders and sex predators. Parents especially with younger children are better able to protect their children against sex offenders once they have a better knowledge of whom they are. Research has indicated that majority of the people who commit sex offences are not strangers but are family friends or neighbours (Maddan, 54). Having a registry where the parents can be able to verify whether their neighbours or family friends are sexual offenders is one way parents can be able to sleep better and protect their children. Knowledge is power and hence the fact that parents and guardians will have the knowledge is a better way to caution their children. Parents can be able to caution their children on whom to relate with and how. If they have a sex offender in the neighbourhood, they can caution their children as well as exercise caution on their part to prevent another relapse episode by the sex offender. In case the sex offender is in the sex predatory level, they can request for that person to be kept away from living in a neighbourhood with many children or teenagers to prevent the offender being tempted to a repeat of the past mistakes. Parents can also be able to make better decisions about the people they employ or whom they entrust their children with once they have the information from the sex offenders’ registry. Many parents are career parents and juggle a family as well. They therefore hire round the clock employees in the form of nannies, chefs, maintenance people and gardeners among other workers all of whom are in contact with the children without the presence of the parents. Parents can however work much better and without worry about the safety of their children when they know about the criminal background of their employee and especially where sexual crimes are involved. It is easier for people to talk about sex offenders and sex offenders’ registry when they do not have a family or relative on the registry. For those with close kin on the registry, their argument is opposite what we have discussed above. According to relatives of sex offenders, some of the culprits did not commit violent sexual acts like rape of sexual assault. As has been seen in the definition depending on the state, others were simply urinating in public even sometimes without being aware there was an audience and this landed them in the sex offenders’ registry and it will remain a burden for them and their families for the rest of their lives. Stigmatization is the worse burden to live with for a reformed sex offender. These people have served their jail term for years and have undergone therapy, mandatory and otherwise and have also had a clean record for a while, but they still live like they performed the act yesterday and no reforms or incarceration were made simply because they are in the registry. The stigmatization according to Carrey (2004) means that they cannot get decent jobs or live in good neighbourhoods in peace and without fingers being pointed in their backs or under supervision by others. It is worse than even being in jail where their freedom is curtailed. They therefore have to constantly shift localities and subject their families to the same each time someone recognizes them from the sex offenders’ registry. As a result of this constant stigmatization and movement, partners leave their spouses who are in the registry. They cannot be blamed as it is simply too much for them to endure and it is something they have to live with for the rest of their lives. They are subjected to ridicule, abuse and gossip and hence always are under psychological stress. This is an unhealthy environment to raise the children in and it is better for them to leave if it will cause health complications to them. Some of the spouses as well as their partners have been diagnosed with stress related disorders. They are constantly in fighting as some cannot withstand the constant changes and negativity and blame it on the spouses. The sex offender in turn may turn to alcohol, drugs and even physically harming the partner when they argue over the register. The others who suffer the most directly or not are the children. They have to live with the fact that one of their parents is a registered sex offender something which if other children get to know bully them and ridicule them for. The children are therefore constantly under fear of whom will tell them what and their self-esteem is therefore destroyed. They also suffer greatly when they have to keep on changing residence and schools as well as friends once the sex offender parent starts being the subject of discussion and bot even being given work anymore. There is also the constant fighting verbal or physical between the parents and this adds to more fear and psychological torture on their part and this will manifest themselves later on in their adult years (Maddan, 74). Some sex offenders in the registry are teenagers (though not all states allow the teenagers to be in the registry). Once they serve their juvenile sentence and majority for minor sex acts such as sending suggestive text messages or found in compromising sexual positions with their teenage girlfriends, they are put in the list. Their whole life from then henceforth becomes nothing but a disaster. Some schools even reject them once they find out about the registry (though they will not state that as the reason), they lack friends as they do not want association with them and their life simply crumbles in front of them. Other than getting depression, most of these teenagers are suicidal with numerous cases of attempted suicide and drug abuse and alcoholism while others simply kill them to end it all (Ryan, John and Daniel 122). Texas according to Cannon, 2011 has been trying to remove some of the sex offenders from their registry. The reasoning behind this is that some committed minor sexual offences and others are simply teenagers and hence have a long life ahead of them and of they are in the list forever, they simply have no meaningful future as mentioned above. Basing the argument on the cons above, it is evident that the public being allowed to have access to the sex offenders’ registry is not such a good idea as was meant to be. Yes the public becomes aware of them and take the necessary precautions but that is as far as it ends but the largest burden is on the sex offenders and their families. The same way the other criminal records are not put up for the public to see should be the same case with the sex offenders. The records should remain private and only available to the police and the courts and few other people. If this is not the case, the sex offenders’ registry should be maintained only for the multiple sex offenders and those who have simply refused to reform even after incarceration and multiple counselling sessions or rehabilitation. The other minor sex offenders of the offenders that have truly reformed, their names should not appear on the registry or should be deleted from it after a few months or years after serving jail term or juvenile sentence. This is to enable them start their life over and live in peace somewhere else. If this cannot simply be done, they should consider the aspect of the children and what the registry does to their present and future. Is it really right to bring up children who are fearful, lack self-esteem and are full of resentment and hate towards one of their parents and the system in general including all those who ridiculed and offended them? Is it also right to have teenagers who are sex offenders kill themselves or spoil their whole future with drug addiction? What kind of future will the nation have if the life of the future generation will be as such? These are the kind of things that the government should ask itself in regards to the sex offenders’ registry being made public. Work Cited Cannon, James. “Texas in final stages to allow some sex offenders to deregister from list.” Midland Reporter Telegram, February 5th, 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.mrt.com/top_stories/article_d8a791e0-5ca6-5de0-8b64- 912de3f79f83.html Carrey, Corrine. No Second Chance: People with Criminal Records Denied Access to Public Housing. Washington DC: Human Rights Watch, 2004. Maddan, Sean. The Labelling of Sex Offenders: The Unintended Consequences of the Best Intentioned Public Policies. New York: University Press of America, 2008. Ryan, Eileen, John Hunter and Daniel Murrie. Juvenile Sex Offenders: A Guide to Evaluation and Treatment for Mental Health Professionals. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Tofte, Sara and Jamie Fellner. No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the US. Washington DC: Human Rights Watch, 2007. Read More