This entry on Crime Scene Blog shows just how far some people would go with respect to the laws on sex crimes. Once again, we completely agree that sex offenders should be punished for their crimes, but the extreme sentences suggested in this petition borderlines on panicky hysteria fueled by "if it bleeds, it leads" headlines and news reports. According to this petition, a 19-year old who has sex with a minor deserves life imprisonment or capital punishment! (Crime Scene Blog, June 12, 2008)
In order to provide equal justice under the law, and to have punishment that is appropriate for the crime, we petition for a minimum of life in prison with no possibility of parole, and, or, Capital punishment for a first time offender. Included in “Jessica’s Law” is a provision that would require all released pedophiles, child abusers, past and present, to wear a GPS monitoring device to ensure that law enforcement can be informed of their whereabouts.
The Daily Kos informs us about a bill currently in Congress that would substantially expand the reach of CODIS, the federal database that catalogs the DNA profiles of criminals at the federal and state levels. One amendment to the bill would require all felons to provide DNA regardless of the crime committed, and another amendment would give states cash incentives to take DNA samples from all arrestees of violent and sex crimes, even at the misdemeanor level. (Daily Kos, June 12, 2008)
Schiff’s amendment would give states cash incentives to begin collecting DNA from anyone arrested for a violent or sex crime, including misdemeanor sex offenses. As the ACLU has argued time and again, innocent people do not belong in a criminal database. Currently, most states do not take DNA from people who have yet to be convicted of a crime, unless that DNA sample is required for an investigation, in which case you can easily get a warrant or court order to obtain it. Including arrestees would dramatically expand the state and federal DNA databases to include vast numbers of innocent people, and would necessarily exacerbate racial disparities that already exist in these databases.
Sex Offender Issues blog linked to a DOJ policy paper from last year that details some of the myriad problems that sex offenders face when attempting to re-enter society. The statistic that 10-20k offenders are released annually as municipalities are making it increasingly difficult for them to live and work there is a compelling one. We also found it interesting that sex offenders are significantly less likely to offend than other released criminals in the first three years out of prison. This flies in the face of the current mood surrounding this issue - see this article for an example of the misinformation floating around. (Center for Sex Offender Management, February 2007)
Facilitating successful reentry is always a challenging endeavor, but with sex offenders specifically, several unique dynamics and barriers make the transition even more difficult. For example, myths about sex offenders and victims, inflated recidivism rates, claims that sex offender treatment is ineffective, and highly publicized cases involving predatory offenders fuel negative public sentiment and exacerbate concerns by policymakers and the public alike about the return of sex offenders to local communities. Furthermore, the proliferation of legislation that specifically targets the sex offender population – including longer minimum mandatory sentences for certain sex crimes, expanded registration and community notification policies, and the creation of “sex offender free” zones that restrict residency, employment, or travel within prescribed areas in many communities – can inadvertently but significantly hamper reintegration efforts.
The next story is a bizarre case of where a campus police officer attempted to get a job with his local force, and felt compelled to be completely honest while taking the polygraph test. He was asked if he had ever had sexual contact with underage girls and whether he possessed child pornography, and amazingly, he answered yes to both. He must have really wanted the job! (Police Link, June 13, 2008)
U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway outlined the details Thursday, a day after Cook pleaded guilty in federal court in St. Louis of one count of possession of child pornography. Such a conviction typically results in a prison term of four or five years. She said Cook's candor during the polygraph was stunning. "By all accounts he pretty much just gave it up," Hanaway said. "It does not often happen that people just give it all up in the first conversation." Phelps County Prosecuting Attorney Courtney George speculated that Cook answered honestly to avoid failing the test, administered by a Rolla officer.
This is an interesting case from Washington state where the issue of whether a legislature through its lawmaking powers can prescribe what crime someone is charged with has arisen. A woman charged with several sex crimes is attacking the constitutionality of a law requiring one of her charges to be classified as 'predatory,' which carries a significantly harsher sentence. She is arguing that this mandate represents an unconstitutional usurpation of prosecutorial discretion. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. (Tacoma News-Tribune, June 15, 2008)
MacDonald argued, among other things, that lawmakers overstepped their authority by mandating that prosecutors must add the predatory allegation against all teachers charged with first-degree child molestation against a student. Case law establishes that prosecutors have broad discretion to decide which crimes should be filed in which cases, MacDonald argued in her pleadings. “While the Legislature has the power to create new crimes such as first-degree child molestation committed by a teacher against a student, the prosecutor, not the Legislature, has the discretion to determine when a defendant should be charged with such a crime,” she wrote.
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