Reasons Why Society Should Support Jessica's Law - Essay Example

When Jessica Lunsford became the victim of sexual battery and murder in February of 2005, her murderer, John Couey, became the poster man/symbol of the predator who was out to steal not only sexual innocence but also the lives of our children. Couey brutally raped and buried alive an innocent 9-year-old girl. He managed to do all of that because he had failed to register as a sexual offender in the state and was therefore not being watched by the state authorities.

As a society, we wanted our state and national government to do something to protect the children against future (lowercase intended) coueys. That is why most states have passed some sort of variation of Jessicas Law in their area. However, there are still some sectors of society that argue that the law will do our children more harm than good in the long run mainly because these sexual offenders more often than not commit their acts on family members thus making the law inapplicable to the children living in the homes of these predators.

They claim that Jessicas Law does nothing to protect those children (Simerman, J.). Nothing could be further from the truth, as Jessicas Law mandates that all sexual offenders be forced to register with the state and live a minimum of 2,000 feet from children. Those opposed to the law thinking that children are not protected in their own homes have the wrong idea as to how the law is applied to the offenders. The 2,000 minimum rule means that the offender would have to live practically out of state and the lifetime electronic tagging means that the police will constantly be able to monitor their movements and prevent another crime from happening to a child.

We also see growing opposition to the law because, according to the website Proposition 83 (n.d.), some believe that under Jessica's law: “. the Proposition would not focus on the real problem—dangerous sex offenders—but would instead waste limited resources tracking persons who pose no risk. The new law would create an expensive tracking system for thousands of registrants who were convicted of minor, nonviolent offenses, perhaps years or decades ago. Law enforcement’s resources should be directed toward high-risk individuals living in our neighborhoods.“ The current state of predator laws in some states is so murky that a sexual offender can find a way around the registration law and even worse, get around the location tracking by simply not having a permanent address. Even more sickening is the fact that some probation officers even advise these dangerous criminals as to how to get around the law. There are even certain situations wherein the predator will get off the hook with a slap on the wrist at the hearing stage because they can and will get a probationary status after entering into a plea bargain that releases them back into our streets, parks, and schools.