How should we monitor sex offenders?

Question

Do you think that it would be feasible to trust a sex offender to register on his own after being set "free"? In consideration of the crime/s commited, do they have the "right" to be trusted to keep registering after every time they move or change jobs...Do you think it would be ethical to "micro-chip" a pedophile, or do you weigh more to the offender's rights, and let him waste tons of tax-payer dollars and let the victim be failed by a corrupt paper system,(granted, I know PO's have a lot of workload to keep up with and things can get jumbled from time to time.), and let the offender get away practically scot-free if he/she does not comply with registering terms? Just think, if you can "micro-chip" your beloved pet at the local vet, to assure of his/her safety, why wouldn't you "chip" a pedophile to know where he is?

I only ask because I'm a victim.

Well, more like, "coping survivor".

Answer 1

First I hope you are OK,and deal w/ the whole nightmare OK.Please get professional help if u think you need it.Second These people can not be rehabilitated.Their wires are screwed up. They will commit this crime again. the chip is a wonderful idea and I really hope it happens.The argument of the perp having civil rights is BS. These people have devastate the lives of their victims.The trouble is that there are not enough people that care about the victims. They all say "well the poor perp wasn't hugged or loved etc etc..." Mean while the poor victim is out on their own.Some even try and make the victims the problem.The other option is that once you have obtained a certain level as the sexual predator then you should be put down,an ice pick in the head would work. The chip would solve most of the problems because the bad guy would be tracked anywhere they went and thus always registered. They gave up their civil rights when they harmed the victim.Sorry for them but too bad.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

The penal system tries to perform 3 functions:
1: Protect the general public from the criminal
2: Extract some element of "vengance" on the criminal on behalf of the
victimes
3: Rehabilitate the criminal
(and I'm adding a fourth that nobody ever remembers)
4: Protect the criminal from the rest of society.

At best, our current system performs 2 moderately well. Going to jail
isn't fun. However, people don't usually stay there long enough to
protect the public from them and in many cases they are not
rehabilitated.

In the case of pedophilia, most doctors who study the subject believe
that it is "incurable." It really wouldn't matter what you did with them - given
an oppurtunity to offend, many of them will take it - and they will all be
at a much much higher risk of taking it than the general public.

So, until there's a cure, we need to figure out a way of protecting the
public without exacting a punishment that doesn't exceed the crime.
It may be that you believe that fondling a 4 year old's privies should
be a "throw him in jail for life" offense, but most people, given time,
don't come to that conclusion. However, they DO believe that he shouldn't
be allowed anywhere near kids any more.

Unfortunately, since the planet is overrun with little persons, this means
that you can either try to prevent the ex-criminal from going near places
that have lots of kids (schools, playgrounds, etc.) or you give them a set
of places that they can go that you will keep kids out of (jail is the
simplest case of that).

Alternately, you could keep them apart by creating electronics that
both kids and pedophiles wear - when one comes to close to the other,
the authorities are warned.

You can imagine a huge country-wide program to have your child
"tagged" with this device for her own protection. Presumably,
you would also get her DNA and social security number at the
same time. When she reaches 18, the tag would be removed.

However, as with most technological solutions, I'm pretty sure people
would find ways around it seconds after it was released to the public.

Answer 4

Each case should be administered on a case-by-case basis, according to number and severity of the offenses. Obviously, there should be some monitoring on sexual predators to make sure they don't do it again, but I don't exactly feel that public castration would actually pass the 8th Amendment test. I ethically have no issue with a micro-chip being implanted on the offender, dependent upon the severity of the original crime and if it is determined that the individual has a high possibility of becoming a repeat offender.

However, if the offender has repeatedly failed to remain clean, then he should never be released again.

Answer 5

You used the terms sex offender and pedophile interchangeably as if they were one and the same. ALL pedophiles are sex offenders, but not all sex offenders are pedophiles.

Society does need to jail, monitor, whatever for the John Couey's of the world (the man who raped and killed Jessica Lunsford.) However, most of the 570,000 to 600,000 sexual offenders on the states' Megan's Lists are not pedophiles. Some are included for such innocuous reasons as peeing behind a tree, mooning, skinny dipping or having sex with a teen-ager. So would you micro-chip those folks? And how would you monitor it? Who would pay for all these law enforcement officers? Ok, fine. Then let's micro-chip the arsonists, drug dealers, murderers, drunk drivers, thieves, computer hackers and people who speed. That way we'll all be safe and we can "know" where they are at all times.

Answer 6

I'm sure you meant this to be even-handed, but your question comes off as very biased. That being said, I agree with you.

IMO, repeat sex offenders should be confined for life.

Pedophiles should be confined to mental institutions, not regular jails. Pedophilia, as far as I'm concerned, is a mental disorder deserving of a fluffy white room locked up 24/7. Human beings are designed to find another member of the species as mates - if you fail to see signs of sexual maturity, instinct is supposed to tell you "wait 'till she's 18, dude!" However, people who are sexually attracted to children obviously have faulty wiring. They believe that children are appropriate mates - which both society and evolution tell us they are not.

Thus, a disorder.

More to the point (and separate from anyone who would like to wonder whether I am comparing homosexuality to pedophilia because homosexual relationships don't result in children - I'm not so I'm going to nip that in the bud right now) there is no way that a child, or a mentally-immature child, can consent to sexual relations. Children often do not know what sex is, how it works, what the results can be, and why we do it. Thus, there is no basis for them to say, "Yeah, that sounds great!" This is different from someon who is gay, because that person once they reach mental maturity can full well say that they are aware of sex and its consequences. Moreover, society has told us that once someone reaches a certain age, they are in control of their lives to the extent that we can't tell them who they can or cannot mate with.

Back on topic: Someone who is a pedophile is a) ignoring society's boundaries, and b) ignoring reality with regards to potential offspring-rearing qualities of this child. Thus, they are both sociopathic and demented. I say toss 'em in Bedlam and lose the key.

Answer 7

I spoke to a prison guard once in my ministry who told me that sex offenders do not get reformed. This was news to me. I thought that they could be corrected....adjusted...etc. This man, (the prison guard...I do not have his name...) said to me that pedophiles are just sick people waiting for the opportunity. In other words, they can go about their own business and conduct life as we all do.....but, "should" the opportunity present itself, they would act on that circumstance. I'm not sure this is true, but, I did do some research here on-line and found pedophiles themselves who have an open forum to speak. Several confessed they were not rehabilitated and could not be. Several too had already done prison time. In their own words they confessed that they would do it again should the opportunity come up.

Yes, I do agree with some sort of device that tracts location at all times.

Answer 8

Hi there

Good questions.

I think there is this website that every parent should know about. http://www.familywatchdog.us/ - This appeared on an Oprah Winfrey show and I am assuming that their database is accurate.

With murderers, you have a choice, you can either agree or disagree with their reasons. But with Pedophiles, I just dont give a damn.

Any person who attacks something as innocent as a child is worthless of any understanding. Chip them. Why should we care what they think? They didnt care abt a KID and they dont deserve to be cared about at all. Attacking a child is worse than murder.

I have no compassion for these compassionless brutes. I like to see them suffer.

Answer 9

you said "or do you weigh more to the offender's rights"

Once you commit a sex crime especially if it's against a minor, I don't give a damn about your rights anymore.

Here's what I would do. Wherever the criminal lives, his house should be painted white with purple polka dots. His driveway and mailbox should be painted the same. His car should be painted this way as well and he has to have his clothes given to him by the government.. I know I know. The taxpayers are going to pay for this, but since all of his clothes are going to be white with purple polka dots, I'd be happy if some of my tax money went to that.

Answer 10

I don't agree with the micro-chip because of other issues!! But typically sex offenders continue to do the same crime over and over!! I think that it should be considered like murder since it is like killing that person because it is something that will change them for the rest of there life!!