In a recent article, Patty Wetterling suggested that some strict sex-offender laws may do more harm than good, namely by making it difficult for ex-offenders to reintegrate into society.
This week it published a 143-page report, “No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the United States.” The researchers examined whether we are building safer communities with these laws, and what issues policy-makers should consider. HRW found that many laws may not prevent sexual attacks on children, but do lead to harassment, ostracism and even violence against former offenders. That makes it nearly impossible to rehabilitate those people and reintegrate them safely into their communities — and that may actually increase the risk that they’ll repeat their crime.
As a mother who lost her son and helped incite some sex-offender laws, Patty Wetterling makes some great points in the article.
I think most sex-offender laws and policies fail because they take to generic of an approach.
Teenagers who engage in consensual sex get classified as “sex offenders” and have to register as such. Classifying non-violent teenagers who have sex the same as forcible rapists undermines the whole system.
Additionally, some sex offenders may never get rehabilitated, while others may. The incarceration system needs to have a way to study and monitor these offenders to determine whether or not they can and have been rehabilitated. Namely, I suggest that the release of sex offenders depends on extensive psychological evaluations.
Finally, most correction facilities do quite the opposite. They can even make matters worse by further perverting offenders of all types. In jails and prisons, inmates often become more violent and criminal as a result of living with other criminals in a harsh, violent, and often inhumane environment. The correctional facility needs to focus on actually rehabilitating offenders. This includes psychiatric and psychological treatment, education and job-training. The inmates need to learn how to live peacefully, and the system needs to prepare them to live as a non-criminal, contributing member of society who can function healthily in society and take care of themselves.
What do you think?
