Zunguzungu links to a hard luck story in the Marie Claire about an “accidental sex offender”. A nineteen year old boy who had sex with his 15 year old girlfriend, whose mother shopped him to the cops to “teach him a lesson”, which landed him on the Texas sex offenders register where he still is, fifteen years later, even though he’s now married to the same women and they have children together. It’s a tragic illustration of how sex offender registration laws can ruin the lives of people who were never supposed to end up on them, but whom political considerations keep on these registers — no politician up for re-election wants to be accused of being soft on rapists or pedophiles…
It’s a good argument against such registers: sex offender registration is for life, regardless of the severity of your crime and you can never get off it, except in very special circumstances. In effect sexual offenders are considered so dangerous that they have to be punished for life with all kinds of restrictions even when clearly they are not, something most other criminals do not have to deal with: a murderer can be rehabilitiated, a rapist cannot. Which is why sexual offender registers are quite likely doing more harm than good and should be abolished. You would think that the people in this case, being victims of this policy themselves, would understand. You’d be wrong:
Today, Nikki, 30, and Frank, 34, both say they unequivocally support laws that put sexual predators behind bars and protect children from attacks. “The registry isn’t a bad thing,” says Nikki. “It’s a good thing. It’s just that Frank shouldn’t be on it.”
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