Featured Issue:
Why the Child Predator Act of 2005
is BAD LEGISLATION! Part-I
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3-31-2005 US Congress:
The Child Predator Act of 2005 |
.Introduced March 16, 2005 in the U.S. Congress, House of Representatives was HR.1355, The Child Predator Act of 2005 (as currently proposed), and is a very dangerous and harmful proposal. The very class it proposes to protect, children, it destroys many for a lifetime, affecting future generations.
We strongly urge everyone, including family members, to write to your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives, as well as your State Representatives, and ask that they OPPOSE this bill as written.
Why do we seem to take such a radical stance on this bill, because it is an improper knee-jerk response to a very serious problem of sexual offenses including the recent murders of two wonderful little girls by prior sex offenders.
Honorable Poe mistakenly believes that prior sex offenders have a high rate of recidivism:
"We know that the recidivism rate of a convicted child molester is extremely high. When many leave the penitentiary, they continue their evil ways against our greatest natural resource, our children." Honorable Poe's speech before Congress.
In a recent U.S. Department of Justice study (Recidivism of sex offenders released in 1994: Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report [Pub: 11-2003]), the study reported that, of two-thirds of all sex offenders released from prison NATIONWIDE, a small percentage (3.5%) commit another sex offense within 3-years of release. That is a small rate of recidivism as compared to other types of offenders.
Honorable Poe's belief is that, previously convicted sex offenders are the primary source of new sex offenses, when -in fact- 96.5% of all new sex offenses are committed by someone other than a previously convicted sex offender. Further,
today's statistics show that the victim knows the offender, or the offender is a person trusted by the family, in the majority -80% plus- of the time.
Honorable Poe, in his Congressional presentation speech on HR.1355, identified six key elements his bill is designed to correct, areas Honorable Poe believes are lacking in current laws.
1) REPORTING CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Child predators would have to report changes of address within 10 days of a move. That is already a provision of every state law;
2) INTERNET ACCESSIBILITY: The national database would be free access. Every state database is already free access. Further, there is no provision for folks who do not have a computer;
3) PROMINENT MARKING AS CHILD PREDATOR: Currently all state registries display the charge and a master list of charges and whether they were applicable to a minor;
4) FELONY FOR NONCOMPLIANCE: Most states, but not all, already charge offenders a felony for noncompliance, but none charge a FEDERAL felony. Accordingly, one would be convicted of a state and a federal crime for the same set of circumstances; double jeopardy means what? Hold this thought, see below as to children and juvenile offenders;
5) DEFINES THE TERM "CHILD PREDATOR": The term ‘child predator' means a person who is convicted of a criminal offense against a victim who is a minor, if the offense is sexual in nature and the minor is age 13 years old or younger. Has anyone read the news lately, juveniles are committing sex offenses, some as young as 6. Michigan recently published that they have over 2300 juvenile sex offenders on their registry.
Out of one side of our mouth we say they are redeemable, but out of the other side of our mouth, we are proposing to label these children as ‘child predators' for the rest of their lives.
In addition, this would change the current definition of the word ‘predator' see Title 42 Section 14071(a)(3)E):
(E) The term "predatory" means an act directed at a stranger, or a person with whom a relationship has been established or promoted for the primary purpose of victimization.
6) COMMUNITY NOTIFICATION: Child predators would have to personally notify, at a minimum, schools, public housing, and at least 2 media outlets (such as newspapers, television stations, or radio stations) covering that community, under the supervision of a local police agency. In other words, a police officer must go with them, including the juveniles, to these places to witness the total destruction and humiliation of the offender, remembering that some are as young as 6 years old.
This bill does not focus on STOPPING future sex offenses or murders of little children. This bill signals a mindset stuck in "secondary-monitoring" of former sex offenders and not on resolving the key causes of new sex offenses; a deeper problem.
This bill is dangerously close to a "Bill of Pains and Penalties" which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution.
eAdvocate
Part-II
What Congress and Legislatures have failed to consider. |
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