Tired of the media's inaccurate portrayal of sex offender laws as applying exclusively to "sexual predators"
- by constitutionalfights.org
If you read or watch any news report related to sex offender laws in the United States, you have surely heard the word "predator" used repeatedly and improperly. The fact that these so-called journalists misuse this term so universally is disturbing enough. But the perception that their inaccuracies create is an even greater danger.
Of course you cannot assume these ever-increasing, newly-crafted, "blanket" sex offender laws apply only to those horrible "predators". In each and every case, residence restrictions, life-long reporting requirements, home visits, registration fees and nearly every other sex offender law applies to all sex offenders. This is the fundamental flaw in the concept of these laws (including the Adam Walsh Act); they do not differentiate between low risk and high risk ex-offenders.
All of these pariah laws are doing nothing to protect public safety. In fact, studies are showing that these laws are counter-productive to community safety, as they drive ex offenders to extremes where they are set up to fail and have no reason not to re-offend. If he cannot get a job, is forced out of his family house because it is too close to a school or park, and everyone in his community views him as a monster, what reason does he have to be law-abiding?
Even the term "sex offender" is used as a means to stir panic and fear in our neighborhoods. This term allows the government and law enforcement to label hundreds of thousands of people in this nation who have made just one bad mistake in their lives to a life-long branding as a "sex offender".
Are those who were convicted a decade ago branded with the label "drunk driver" for life? No.
Is the man who was arrested 12 years ago for domestic abuse labeled by the law for life as the "wife beater". No. How many people in this country have been arrested for drug abuse (or offenses) ; and are they branded with the label of "drug offender" for the remainder of their lives? No.
Ex Offenders who have a sex offense in their history are the only group we allow to be labeled in such a way , for life. This will explain why Constitutionalfights often uses the term "ex offender" rather than "sex offender". We urge readers to correct the misuse of the terms "predator" and "sex offender" wherever and whenever they are able to do so.
