There Needs To Be Change

This is going to be a controversial post, I know that already. But this is something I feel strongly about. I just hope I can make some sense and generate some thought and open, honest discussion about it.

As someone who has survived childhood abuse (physical, sexual, mental, you name it), I know there is a real need for laws to protect children from predators. We have many laws in place now (The Wetterling Act, Megan's Law, Jessica's Law, and The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, among others) and I expect even more will follow. I appreciate each and every one and all the states that have decided to use these laws, or variations of them to protect the children that reside within their borders.

That being said. I believe some serious changes need to be made to these laws in order to best serve everyone.

Here in Nebraska, for example, I know of a young man whose name I will not post here, 19 years old, who has to be registered as a sex offender for 15 years, his name, photo and description of his crime are available on the sex offender registry website, he cannot be on any social networks that allow members under the age of 18, and, of course, there are several other restrictions in place to keep him completely out of contact with minors, such as where he can or cannot live in proximity to schools or businesses that are child specific. His crime (first offense): At 18, he kissed a girl at school who a couple of years younger than him. It was never made clear to me whether the act was non-consensual, nor who was responsible for the charges being filed.

I understand the philosophy of "zero tolerance" and even agree with it in a lot of cases, such as pertaining to drugs, weapons in school and the like. I even agree with it as it applies to sex offenders when it's perfectly clear that the offender is at risk to repeat or is unrepentant. That wasn't the case here. And this isn't an isolated case.

California is running into a host of problems because of these laws. The most pressing is the number of people on the sex offender registry that have become homeless.

What needs to be done is to have lawmakers sit down and take a serious look at what truly constitutes a dangerous sex offender. Make clear definitions about which actions are clearly criminal and need the severest punishment and which infractions would be best handled by counseling, community service and/or jail time but doesn't necessitate sex offender registry.

The young man in question was required to go through counseling and was sentenced to probation along with the sex offender registry. Personally, I think the counseling and probation were enough. Instead, he is going to have a very difficult time of things for the next fifteen years and possibly beyond.

My hope is that lawmakers will get a clue, stop worrying about looking "soft on crime", and write some laws that make sense and benefit everyone.

Wishful thinking perhaps?