Guest Author - Lisbeth Cheever-Gessaman
The recent 146 page report issued by Human Rights Watch regarding US policy and laws against sex offenders reveals some shocking news: Not only are the current policies not serving to protect our children, they are fueling violence against offenders of every type and making it nearly impossible for those trying to reform to gain safe and fair housing.
The report, “No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the United States,” is the first comprehensive study of its kind detailing the effects of current policy on public safety as well as the impacts of said laws on offenders and their families. And where the policy of HRW is not to undermine the intent to protect the innocent, they address the very real issue that current laws do little to that effect, while simply setting the stage to make it far easier to harass and commit violence against former perpetrators.
In the majority of states under the current policy, anyone who is convicted of a crime involving sex fits the criteria of 'sex offender'. This means that an 18 year old normal male teenager convicted of having consensual sex with a 16 year old girl must register as a 'sex offender' and is subject to the same scrutiny as a 50 year old pedophiliac repeat offender. The same holds true with offenders that exposed themselves as pranks, or grey area situations which arise such as the case of Mary Kay LaTourneau. Current policies are not specific with regard to risk, which is troublesome for both parents and those offenders that pose absolutely no threat to communities at large. Because these policies are both overbroad and short on scope, there are currently over 600,000 offenders on record, many of which are not considered an at-risk threat by psychologists and are being unduly prosecuted simply by the nature of the label itself.
The most troublesome aspect remains that current sex offender laws reflect politicians responding to the paranoia of the public at large - that children are at grave risk of being molested or sexually assaulted by a stranger, when statistics prove that the biggest risk to children comes not at the hands of any errant assaulter, but from someone within their immediate family or a trusted authority figure that has never been previously convicted.
