Just my thought for the day.
Myspace agreed to release data of sex offenders using the site. Reading this, I thought of all the people who will get up in arms about the right to privacy and what about offenders who have served their time and blah blah blah.
My thinking is that once you have chosen to act on an impulse to attack someone sexually, especially a child, you have effectively said "I am never to be trusted". Anyone who is a sex offender gives up any rights to be seen as anything but a sex offender.
Buggie spilled her guts for you at 5/21/2007 02:26:00 PM
6 Comments:
How about I adore you. Seriously.
It was spectacular to meet you this weekend.
My apologies for this lovely comment on a sex offender entry.
:-)
For the most part, I'm with you.
That said, when I was in high school, I knew a guy who was nineteen when he got caught having sex with his seventeen-year-old girlfriend. Her parents pressed charges and now he's a "sex offender" for the rest of his life. I'm very much in favor of sex offender registries, but I think statutory rape can cause a lot of problems with it.
I'm very skeptical about sex offender registry stuff. Partly for what LMNt said, in some states you are a sex offender if you get arrested for peeing against the side of a building. Then there's wrongful conviction. Just last week, this guy in my town finally got his conviction for raping and killing two kids overturned on DNA evidence after 20 years in jail.
And I agree, hurting children is horrible, but do you feel just as strongly about about murderers? Thieves? Drunk Drivers? Tax evaders? Why not have registries for EVERY conceivable offense? What's our hang up on sex crimes?
Most of these people have serious problems, a lot of them had the same thing done to them. It might sound naive but they really do need treatment and having paid their debt to society, they should be allowed to try to live their life, don't you think? If not, why bother ever letting them out of jail? So we can tell everyone where they live and have people demand they leave or worse?
Should we just exile all these people to some island somewhere where we never have to deal with them again?
On the other hand, I just pretty much assumed everyone who regularly uses myspace is a sex offender. I feel dirty after visiting that site.
I appreciate the concern about the innocent, but I said a "sex offender", not a convicted sex offender.
I knew a guy who also has to register everywhere because he had sex with his 16 year old girlfriend at age 18 and the parents wigged out. But that is just a sign that the laws need to be adjusted. True sexual predators need to be taken out.
Here's a story from monday about a woman who will have to register as a sex offender for selling a dildo to an undercover police officer.
These are the kind of unintended consequences that privacy rights safeguard against.
If My Space kicks off a few innocent sex offenders, so be it. If they give names of persons who only were minor sex offenders, so be it. Those people were told not to do things like register on My Space when they were put on probation. Those people can set up their blogs someplace else. My grandchildren need to enjoy freedoms in their young lives without fear of predators in disguise. I'm with you Buggie.
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