Senator: Keep molesters on 'short leash'
An Indiana state senator, contending pedophiles cannot be cured, is calling for legislation requiring that child molesters released from prison be monitored by satellite for the rest of their lives.
Under Sen. Brent E. Steele's bill, offenders would be required to regularly report to authorities and wear a Global Positioning System device. GPS uses a network of satellites to track an individual's whereabouts
link
Now, this will be controversial, but am I the only one who thinks we go a little too far with sex offenders? Sex offender registries? GPS tracking? lifelong monitoring? I do not think I have to say that I abhor sexual abuse, but sex offenders are still required to register even after they have served their sentences and completed their parole. There have been several occasions where individuals have been harassed after their neighbors found out they were on the sex offender registry. A few years ago, some concerned Hamilton County residents found out a sex offender lived in their neighborhood and harassed to try to force him to move. He ended up committing suicide. I am not against a sex registry, per se, but I think there should be limitations as to how long one must register and there should be some privacy guarantees. As for boneheaded lawmakers like Brent Steele, the issue is either political posturing or paranoia, but the reality is that it is invasive and a waste of money.
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Update: Advance Indiana reports Indiana Sex Offenders Become Identity Theft Victims
Under Sen. Brent E. Steele's bill, offenders would be required to regularly report to authorities and wear a Global Positioning System device. GPS uses a network of satellites to track an individual's whereabouts
link
Now, this will be controversial, but am I the only one who thinks we go a little too far with sex offenders? Sex offender registries? GPS tracking? lifelong monitoring? I do not think I have to say that I abhor sexual abuse, but sex offenders are still required to register even after they have served their sentences and completed their parole. There have been several occasions where individuals have been harassed after their neighbors found out they were on the sex offender registry. A few years ago, some concerned Hamilton County residents found out a sex offender lived in their neighborhood and harassed to try to force him to move. He ended up committing suicide. I am not against a sex registry, per se, but I think there should be limitations as to how long one must register and there should be some privacy guarantees. As for boneheaded lawmakers like Brent Steele, the issue is either political posturing or paranoia, but the reality is that it is invasive and a waste of money.
Post hate mail below.
Update: Advance Indiana reports Indiana Sex Offenders Become Identity Theft Victims
posted by torporindy at 12/31/2005
14 Comments:
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Happy New Year to you and everyone!
The observation that putting an offendor through criminal process — trial, conviction, punishment, and parole — has no lasting effect on their behavior is one that we should pause to reflect upon.
The sociological evidence, from researchers like Lonnie Athens and James Gilligan, is even more sobering. Not only is the criminal justice system failing to rehabilitate offendors, it appears to be transforming them into even more offensive recidivists.
If a doctor prescribed a treatment that was shown to make the patient progressively sicker and sicker, people would lose faith in that doctor and his iatrogenic practice.
Hammurabism has been shown time and again to be an insane offense against humanity.
Hammurabists should be kept on a short leash, and tracked carefully, lest they spread their diseased beliefs and practice ever wider in our long-suffering and angst-ridden society.
Before legislation of this sort is passed I feel that sex offenders should be categorized by their offense level. I agree that some offenders may not be as dangerous and can be rehabilitated.........however overwhelming evidence shows that there are some that will never be rehabilitated. For those I don't have a problem with tracking them or notifying neighbors of their presence in their community.
Well, some criminals are incorrigible, but statistics show that sex offenders actually have a lower rate of recidivism than other criminals.
The most incorrigible recidivists are those annoyingly unrepentant miscreants who perpetually engage in the offensive practice of Hammurabism.
I say we bring back the rack and thumbscrews!
(You know, American society ought to just give up the quaint notion that one of the reasons we have prisons is to rehabilitate the criminal, and not just to serve the endless, bloodthirsty vindictiveness of the public. Oh, and you don't pay your debt to society and get a clean slate. You pay and pay and pay for the rest of your natural life, and then some.)
I'm a trifle out of the loop, but was surprised to learn that convicted felons lose the right to vote - or is that just another myth?
I don't knwo what I think about this issue. My feeling (gut instinct, rather than informed argument) says that if someone has committed a sex crime, the needs of the community outweigh those of the individual. yet if we start the GPS monitoring, where will it stop?
The entire legal establishment is out of the loop on this one.
That is, they are out of the loop of analytical reasoning, and ensnared in the loop of lamentably delusional beliefs and dysfunctional practices.
No, it's not a myth. In Indiana, I believe one cannot vote if they are serving a sentence or on probation, but many states (largely southern) prohibit felons from ever voting.
Speaking of Sex Offendors in public...
Kangaroo Court
Some shoplifters are kleptomaniacs and will never be rehabilitated. Some people who neglect animals are sociopaths who will never be rehabilitated. Some Republicans who take bribes from lobbyists are simply corrupt and will never be rehabilitated.
It is unfair to select one type of crime, automatically assume that the offender is sick and incurable, and then take away any semblance of civil liberties from the offender who has legitimately served his time.
Well there is a reason that sex offenders are the only felons that have to have tabs kept on them after their sentence and probation; they will offend again.
So sure, I am a "once you done the time" type of guy I just don't feel a few years cuts it for child molesters. If we know they will offend again then why let them out in the first place, or better yet remove what makes them offend, i.e. cut off their balls.
The flip side of that is that anyone can be accused of rape and therefore be subject to this and not be guilty and of course there are the 18 year olds who nail their 17 year old girlfriends or a girl who tells them they are 18 and now have to register with each community and go through that whole process.
Easy way to solve this is to either castrate child molesters or keep them in jail and treat statutory rapists like any other criminal.
Actually, this is a myth. Sex offender show a lower level of recidivism than other criminals. Robbers, Burglars, and auto thieves exhibit most likely to reoffend.
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