With the tears of a father who's lost a child, I'm watching news of the desperate search in San Diego for yet one more beautiful, intelligent young woman - an honor student with her whole life ahead of her. They say they haven't given up hope - and after the miraculous return of Elizabeth Smart from a multi-year abduction by a completely bizarre sexual predator and his wife , hope remains viable - but the search is also clearly intended to find a body, not a survivor.
Meanwhile, the news keeps showing images of yet one more unassuming-looking 30-year-old previously-convicted sexual predator, who has been linked to the young girl via items of her clothing and, perhaps, DNA.
So I have to wonder - just who the hell favors leniency for registered sexual offenders, and what are those who want them locked up for OUR own good going to do about laws that send these monsters back onto the streets to pray on our children, our loved-ones and our fellow citizens?
An AP article published in late 2006 sums up the problem with sexual predators - recidivism. Author Steve Thomson wrote:
Most crimes have a low recidivism rate, but this is not the case with sex offenders.
Recidivism among sex offenders is quite high, according to the United States Department of Justice. Although not all sex offenders re-offend, they are four times more likely than a criminal convicted of robbery, murder, assault or any other charge. Psychologists believe that recidivism is high among sex offenders because their desire to rape, molest or assault is a psychologically ingrained predilection.
Next to capital murder, there is no more destructive crime than violent rape - and the impact on the young, with their whole lives ahead of them, is especially awful. However, it gets worse - as we've seen in all too many cases recently, the worst kinds of sexual predators seem to evolve from kidnapping and rape to kidnapping, rape and murder. The more sexual crimes they commit, the more violent and destructive they seem to become.
Which brings me to my question. Just who the hell favors leniency for convicted sexual predators? Is there any good, rational reason for not locking these monsters away for life? None that I can think of. It used to be, rape was a capital crime and many rapists were executed - and considering the havoc they create among their victims, I have no problem with that. However, given the court's vacillating approach to capital punishment, I advocate life without parole for all individuals convicted of being sexual predators.
There are some sexually-related crimes that don't qualify the perpetrators as sexual predators, and reason needs to be used in defining which crimes and which criminals qualify. A 17-year-old who has consensual intercourse with his long-time 15-year-old girlfriend has committed statutory rape but he's hardly a (by definition) predatory sexual rapist. A 14-year-old girl who sends naked self-portraits to her 15-year-old boyfriend is not a child pornographer. But a priest who seduces altar boys, or a gang who attacks, rapes and beats nearly to death a young investment banker in Central Park, or a school teacher who seduces her 12-year-old student or a 30-year-old registered sexual predator who "disappears" a bright, beautiful, filled-with-life 17-year-old honors student IS a sexual predator. The key is a crime that is violent, abusive, exploitative and - in most cases - criminal under other statutes than just sex crimes. Kidnapping, assault and battery - those are the kinds of markers.
When it comes to defining what is a sexual predator, common sense as described by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in defining hard-core pornography is useful:
I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [hard-core pornography]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it ..." [U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, concurring opinion, "Jacobellis v. Ohio," 1964]
So I'm wondering - just who the hell favors leniency for registered sexual offenders, and what are those who want them locked up for OUR own good going to do about laws that send these monsters back onto the streets to pray on our children, our loved-ones and our fellow citizens?
The Capitol Curmudgeon
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Thank you - Ned Barnett
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