Note: This is the second part of a [now] three-part series on the flaws of the sex offender registry. To read Part 1, click here.
I have a confession to make: if not for the grace of God (and God's wonderful sense of humor), I could have been a convicted sex offender. You see, one winter's day in 1996, in the presence of a couple of somewhat appalled friends, I mooned Phoenix. Yes, I mooned a huge chunk of the capital of Arizona from the top of a mountain at the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. I got away with this fiendish crime against humanity, but what if I had gotten cocky and decided to repeat my caper on the 14th anniversary of the first time?
My friends would not have reported me to the police (I doubt they'd even come along this time around), but let's say a birdwatcher did, and the poor soul, tracking a turkey vulture, saw...everything. Alarmed, she calls the police. I'm arrested and charged with public indecency, a misdemeanor. That's no big deal; even in Arizona, that's not enough to get me on the sex offender registry if I'm convicted. However, let's say that her 12-year old daughter with matching binoculars also got a gander at my intimate areas. That bumps my mooning incident to a Class 6 felony which, if I'm convicted, could put me on the sex offender registry once I'm released from my year-long term in prison.
Where to go from here? I'd probably want to start my life over again, starting with returning to Illinois a far more humbled gentleman. Within three days of my return, I would have to register with my local police department as a sex offender. As a nonviolent offender, I would be required to remain on the registry for ten years. My name, address, and photograph would be posted on the state's online sex offender registry. If I live within 500 feet of a school (which I do), I would have to move. I would not be allowed to use social networking sites such as Facebook. My volunteer work, thoughts of becoming a librarian or teacher, all that comes to an end, all because of what began as a silly stunt.
Compared to other states, however, Illinois is paradise for a convicted sex offender. In Louisiana, those on the registry must use special hurricane shelters (which do not offer separate spaces for women) for sex offenders. In Georgia and Alabama, a sex offender not only cannot live near schools, they cannot work near them. In many states, a sex offender cannot live near churches or school bus stops. Everything from career restrictions to being required to put up a "sex offender" sign on one's front door during Halloween is mandatory in many states.
In the case of convicted pedophiles, this all makes sense. But do horny teenagers (or a middle-aged mooner) deserve such punishment? Should, say, a fifty-year old man who pays for the services of an adult prostitute deserve similar treatment as a fifty-year old man who fondles his five-year old niece? When we blindly pass laws to protect children from sex offenders, we must ensure that we're protecting our children from those who mean to do them harm, not those whose carnal desires are unconnected to children.
There's another problem with throwing those convicted of minor offenses onto the same registry as pedophiles: it makes it much harder to track the latter criminals. State sex offender registries have grown so fast in the last several years that many states can no longer keep track of those on the lists. The Chicago Tribune reported recently, for example, that Chicago law enforcement's efforts to track sex offenders who fail to register their addresses have utterly failed, resulting in sexual predators striking again. California, Missouri, and Georgia also report problems attempting to cope with their burgeoning sex offender registries. And as long as we continue to include non-pedophile sex offenders in the registry, these numbers will only continue to rise. In ten states, sex offenders - no matter what their transgression - must register for life. (Six of these states allow an offender to petition to be removed from the registry after a minimum period of time.)
In addition, laws passed in several states limit where sex offenders can live, some of which are so restrictive that many cannot find a place to live, particularly if they reside in a populous region. As a result, the number of homeless sex offenders has skyrocketed. Jessica's Law, passed in California, bans sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park where children "regularly gather." The result: the number of homeless sex offenders in the state has risen from 88 in 2007 to over 2200 today. In Miami, where the restriction is 2,500 feet - nearly half a mile - the only place where released sex offenders can reside is a tent city under a bridge. As any law enforcement official can tell you, homeless people are far more difficult to track than those with a permanent address. Creating transients out of sex offenders protects no one; Florida reports no change in the number of sex offender convictions since their Jessica's Law went into effect.
The effects of such a broad definition of who a sex offender is can be catastrophic. Lives can and have been destroyed. Sex offenders, including those who were not pedophiles, are targeted by their neighbors in the guise of "vigilante justice" and occasionally murdered by people under the assumption that their victim had molested children.
As parents, as teachers, as all those who support children, we are right to worry about pedophiles. As the most recent scandal in the Roman Catholic Church illustrates, pedophiles appear among the most trustworthy of groups. Aggressive pedophiles will do anything to insert themselves into occupations or organizations that give them the most opportunity to interact with children unsupervised. However, if we want to minimize that possibility, we must properly categorize the various sexual offenses and determine if those offenders should be subject to personal restrictions once they have served the length of their punishments. Pedophiles? Sure, one would want to keep them away from children as possible, and yes, they should be placed on the sex offender registry. Rapists who assaulted an adult? I believe they should be placed on a sex offender registry, but should also not be allowed near children? Probably not. How about voyeurs or exhibitionists? Prostitutes or pimps? That's for the states to determine.
Yes, the resulting laws may be more complex, but at least the resulting sex offender registries would be far more manageable, focusing law enforcement on the more dangerous sex offenders and saving states countless millions of dollars in the process because they don't have to monitor some poor 18 year old kid caught sleeping with his 17 year old girlfriend. Or, for that matter, a Phoenix-mooner.