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The sex-offender registry can be a life sentence

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Re: The sex-offender registry can be a life sentence

#111

Post by kobeya »

bambax wrote: post #99
kobeya wrote: post #14

I have a friend who plead guilty to two statuary rape charges that were false accusations, serving more time with parole than the maximum sentencing of the one charge he was guilty of, solely because the prosecution would drop the request for sex-offender registration, which would have done him permanent harm. There are some real predators out there, and I understand the threats that make something like a registry ne…

> I understand the threats that make something like a registry necessary Necessary? But why do sex-offenders registries only exist in (a small number of) English-speaking countries, and in no other [1]? Are there no sex crimes in other countries? Or does it have something to do with Puritanism and a general fixation with sexuality in those countries? A registry is not necessary, it's yet another manifestation of Amer…

The problem with the sex offender registry is not that it exists, it is that there is no way to rehabilitate and get off it.

Re: The sex-offender registry can be a life sentence

#112

Post by gigatexal »

lb1lf wrote: post #64
gigatexal wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't mean to insinuate that Europe was perfect just that there are things we could learn that would help us one of which is the rehab vs throw-away-the-key approach to prisoners.

Oops, my bad - my intent was simply to acknowledge that we old-worlders do have a thing or two to learn from our former colonies, too.

Agreed. I didn't take your comments as anything other than constructive. Alas, though, this administration has no diplomacy.

Re: The sex-offender registry can be a life sentence

#113

Post by aanm1988 »

noxToken wrote: post #71
sersi wrote: post #12

In the fight against the great boogeymen of Terrorism and Sex Predation, the US has lost common sense. As a kid, when I was 8 years old, I played doctor with my neighbor, we we were both curious about each others differences and so we explored them. So, if I read this article, if this had been in the US, we could have been tried as sex offenders? How does this even make sense? Of course kids are curious about body di…

I'm gonna go against the grain here. I'll preface this by saying that I think all sex-offender cases should be handled on a case-by-case basis, and if we use a bit of common sense, things would be a lot better for everyone. Here's a scenario that is likely rare but plausible. Some girl and boy both at age 15 could be sexting each other. Pics are exchanged, and the pictures are removed from the phone and placed on a c…

> I think the heart of the matter is in the right place.

It's not. Not when you are trying to toss a teenager in prison for taking pictures of themselves.

It's also not if you consider the reasoning behind the laws. Is child porn illegal because it's disgusting, or because you can't create it without subjecting a child to an act they can't possibly consent to? Shouldn't it really be the latter, in which case you should really consider that in many (most?) places the laws regarding consent are different for teenagers.

Re: The sex-offender registry can be a life sentence

#114

Post by aanm1988 »

bambax wrote: post #16

> Her friend, who had just given birth to a baby girl, had logged on to the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry Web site to search for local predators. "Sex-offender" registry is of course a total and complete abomination. But if you're going to write against it, maybe you owe it to yourself and your readers to not use the words of the enemy -- namely "predators". There are no "predators". There may or may not be p…

> There are no "predators".

There are absolutely predators out there. When your "mistake" is rape and you made that "mistake" repeatedly, that's a pretty good definition of a predator.

> many of those mistakes would not even be frowned upon in many other parts of the world.

So what. There are a great many despicable things that have no place in our society yet are permitted in the rest of the world.

Re: The sex-offender registry can be a life sentence

#115

Post by Pica_soO »

vijayr wrote: post #100
mabbo wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard it said that much of it goes back to the Calvinists roots of American culture. The idea that there are good people and bad people, that you are one or the other. Bad people deserve to go to prison, and therefore people in prison are all bad people. Why should any mercy by shown to bad people? Why should good people have to pay to help bad people? That sounds immoral. By the same set of rules, good people d…

The ironic, depressing thing is this - strong support for the registry and openly making jokes about prison sexual assaults (in movies, real life etc). How can someone support both at the same time, is beyond my understanding.

Because we are carnivores, secretly cheering at the misery of others, projecting injustices who happened to us - upon some poor fool who has to suffer for our stomach feelings to be satisfied. That whole - very animal process, is then written down and followed through rigidly- and the redecorated primal lashing out is called justice.

Re: The sex-offender registry can be a life sentence

#116

Post by aanm1988 »

bambax wrote: post #97
pc86 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are no "predators" This is just as wrong as saying that everyone on the registry is a predator. Of course everyone isn't. But there absolutely are many violent rapists, pedophiles, etc on those registries. Plenty of people who made a mistake or got caught without a Romeo & Juliet law in their state, but also plenty of sexually violent predators.

There are no predators because a predator is an animal. Calling people who committed crimes of sexual nature in the past, predators, is the same as calling people who committed theft, rats or other epithets. The purpose of this naming scheme is to de-humanize the person, so as to justify the inhuman treatments one wants to subject them to. It's a technique as old as society. It never ends well.

Humans are animals.

In fact humans as a species have evolved to become the greatest predators on the planet.

Re: The sex-offender registry can be a life sentence

#117

Post by aanm1988 »

Overtonwindow wrote: post #86
pluma wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that it's easy to hate the US for what it has been doing to others (yes, yes, tu quoque and at least the US isn't literally Nazi Germany) but what's really astonishing is what it's doing to its own people. Sure, in theory citizens of the "home of the brave" have it pretty good but between the atrocious healthcare and welfare systems, the insane criminal justice system, the mass surveillance, the militarised po…

What you're seeing is the "though on crime" trap all politicians fall into. Vote for law X and show you're tough on crime. Oh you didn't vote for law X? Then you're not tough on crime, and that's why votes should go to your opponent in the next election. US politicians MUST be tough on crime or risk losing election.

> US politicians

In a lot of places in the US the Judges are elected. So never mind the politicians, the guy who just sentenced you to an absurd sentence did it because he needed the press for his campaign.

Re: The sex-offender registry can be a life sentence

#118

Post by bambax »

aanm1988 wrote: post #116
bambax wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no predators because a predator is an animal. Calling people who committed crimes of sexual nature in the past, predators, is the same as calling people who committed theft, rats or other epithets. The purpose of this naming scheme is to de-humanize the person, so as to justify the inhuman treatments one wants to subject them to. It's a technique as old as society. It never ends well.

Humans are animals. In fact humans as a species have evolved to become the greatest predators on the planet.

Well, ok. I would have no problem calling all humans predators, or rats, or whatever. The problem is when you use those words to single out some humans, and then proceed to give them a special treatment.

Re: The sex-offender registry can be a life sentence

#119

Post by ionised »

jgalt212 wrote: post #105
buro9 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe in it's entirety. Though Scandinavia is an outlier even then: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/11/sweden-closes-... I guess that in your binary pro/anti view of me this makes me pro-Scandinavian. I can think of worse things to be.

Europe is not doing a good job on recidivism. Please provide counter-evidence. And Sweden is rather mono-chromatic.

> Europe is not doing a good job on recidivism.

Where is your counter evidence to what the person you replied to just posted?

Re: The sex-offender registry can be a life sentence

#120

Post by ionised »

stagbeetle wrote: post #56
sgift wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That being said, liberal me still feel somewhat less lenient towards paedophiles; I guess any parent does. It's a sickness. And we have (mental) hospitals for sick people. Problem solved, no leniency required.

There was a short documentary about pedophilia showing the opposite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-Fx6P7d21o It's a sensitive subject, but treating pedophilia as something that can be cured with medical intervention is rash. This mindset is akin to treating homosexuality with shock therapy.

> This mindset is akin to treating homosexuality with shock therapy.

If like homosexuality it's not a mental illness then that means it is either a conscious decision to only be attracted to and target childrent (which I find unlikely) or it is natural occurence somewhere on the human sexual spectrum.

How do we reconcile that with the attitude most people seem to have, that paedophiles need to be severely punished for being what they are? Are they this way from birth like we consider homosexuals to be?

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