Are Sex Offender Registries Unconstitutional?

[airplanemechanic]

The balls don't commit the offense, the mind does. Removing testicles to stop them is silly, and would never pass legislation or court challenges.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

The balls don't commit the offense, the mind does. Removing testicles to stop them is silly, and would never pass legislation or court challenges.

Chemical castration's already the law of the land in some states. Demonstrate how chemical castration is ineffective, which it is according to studies into it, and propose physical and we'll see what happens.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Chemical and Surgical Castration - FindLaw

"A few states, including California and Florida, permit convicted sex offenders to be injected with Depo Provera, an FDA-approved birth control drug. Often called "chemical castration," Depo Provera is meant to quell the sex drive of male sex offenders by lowering their testosterone levels. The drug does not render any permanent physical change to the body. The treatment is believed to be most effective on sex offenders who possess uncontrollable biological urges that take the form of sexual fantasies that are usually only satisfied by acting on the fantasy.

Both the California and Florida statutes provide for mandatory injections for repeat sex offenders, as well as discretionary injections for first-time offenders. Despite the mandatory language in the Florida law, the law has apparently been invoked only a few times since its passage in 1997.

Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), charge that chemical castration violates sex offenders' constitutional rights. The ACLU contends that chemical castration violates an offender's implied right to privacy under the Fourteenth Amendment, rights of due process and equal protection, and the Eighth Amendment's ban of cruel and unusual punishment.

Pursuant to a 1997 law, Texas permits surgical castration of offenders. By May 2005, three men had undergone the voluntary procedure. Candidates must be at least 21 years of age, have had at least two sex offense convictions, and have undergone at least 18 months of sex offender treatment, including Depo Provera injections, to understand how their bodies might react with less testosterone."

 

[airplanemechanic]

It's VOLUNTARY. Not COURT ORDERED. And even then, the procedure was only approved after multiple convictions, not just one.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

It's VOLUNTARY. Not COURT ORDERED.

For now. Gimme time. We'll fix that. ...So to speak.

 

[airplanemechanic]

It'll never pass. Why stop there? Why not remove the hands of thieves? The tongues of liars? The arms of aggravated assaulters? Because we're not like Iran. I'd like to think we're a little more advanced than that.

As it is, Bobby Jindal passed an illegal law preventing sex offenders from using social media like facebook. A judge ruled it unconstitutional. You can't do that.

I'm with that other poster. I think you're on a list. Nobody I know has this sex offender fetish like you.

What do you think about the guy who was a vigilante and used the list to find a sex offenders home. He then proceeded to light the home on fire. Only one problem, the offender wasn't home, he was at work. Only his wife and kids were home, and they died in the fire. Do you care about them?

Or this instance, where they burned down the wrong house.

Vigilantes Use Online Sex Offender Map to Burn Down Wrong House

Here are tons of instances where the registry was used in an attempt to harm the offender.

Parents For Megan s Law and The Crime Victims Center - Sex Offender Email Alert - Report Sex Offernders - Report Child Abuse - National Megan s Law Helpline

 

[Disir]

Yes, change a lot of laws.

No. Get specific. Otherwise it advocates an all or nothing approach.

Scroll down to table thirty and look at plea bargaining:

http://www.drc.ohio.gov/web/Reports/Sexrecid.pdf

 

[whitehall]

Here's the dirty little secret in a nutshell. Society (left and right) admits that all the expensive therapy we offer to sexual predators in prisons and correctional facilities and probation and parole ain't worth crap because sexual predation is compulsive. A Baptist minister risked his career and his sanity and his soul because he could not resist his homosexual compulsion. Likewise Catholic priests. About 90% of sexual predators are male and of those who prey on male children 100% are homosexual. No democrat mom in the freaking Country would allow her daughters to be supervised by men. How in the world does the same society put homosexual employment above the physical and mental health of boys.

 

[airplanemechanic]

No. Get specific. Otherwise it advocates an all or nothing approach.

Ok.

1. Do away with mandatory reporting requirements post probation/parole. They are illegal and unconstitutional. You want to keep them on a list? Fine. But it should not be required that someone who is free to go where they want and do what they want must report to anyone. This is not freedom. Either keep them locked up or let them go, but this tether is ridiculous and expensive.
2. Ensure that how long the offender must register is part of his sentencing and that he signs the document, not to change later down the road. In our state, out of the blue they said all of the offenders who are level 2 offenders have to go from registering for 10 years to 25. It was retroactive, and thus, unconstitutional. How did they keep it on the books? By saying the registry is not punitive. Funny how if an offender fails to register it becomes punitive very quickly. So there were people who had followed the law, agreed to register for 10 years, and were weeks from being off and suddenly have 15 more years to go. This is not legal. If you're going to resentence them they should be re-tried. But since you can't do double jeopardy, you can't change things after the fact.
3. Make the registry only for the police. This is how it started originally. Society doesn't know how to handle the information anyway.
4. If you keep it public, make every offenders registry page show offender age at the time of conviction, along with "victim" age. If there was no direct victim, make this information prominent on the offenders page.
5. Remove all children from the registry. Everyone under age 18.
6. Remove the Halloween restrictions. Never proved to protect anyone.
7. In our state, remove the label "sex offender" from their drivers licence. This protects nobody and is only there to shame the offender. That's not what the law is about.
8. Remove all residency restrictions from offenders. This is illegal and amounts to "banning." The law prohibits banning people from going anywhere they want to go or living where they want to live. If you want to keep it, make it for all types of offenses, otherwise you're concentrating on only one type of offence, and that's illegal and apparently at least one judge agrees with me.

Englewood sex offender residency restrictions ruled unconstitutional FOX31 Denver

I'm fixing to go to bed, but I think that's a good start.

 

[ChrisL]

No. Get specific. Otherwise it advocates an all or nothing approach.

Ok.

1. Do away with mandatory reporting requirements post probation/parole. They are illegal and unconstitutional. You want to keep them on a list? Fine. But it should not be required that someone who is free to go where they want and do what they want must report to anyone. This is not freedom. Either keep them locked up or let them go, but this tether is ridiculous and expensive.
2. Ensure that how long the offender must register is part of his sentencing and that he signs the document, not to change later down the road. In our state, out of the blue they said all of the offenders who are level 2 offenders have to go from registering for 10 years to 25. It was retroactive, and thus, unconstitutional. How did they keep it on the books? By saying the registry is not punitive. Funny how if an offender fails to register it becomes punitive very quickly. So there were people who had followed the law, agreed to register for 10 years, and were weeks from being off and suddenly have 15 more years to go. This is not legal. If you're going to resentence them they should be re-tried. But since you can't do double jeopardy, you can't change things after the fact.
3. Make the registry only for the police. This is how it started originally. Society doesn't know how to handle the information anyway.
4. If you keep it public, make every offenders registry page show offender age at the time of conviction, along with "victim" age. If there was no direct victim, make this information prominent on the offenders page.
5. Remove all children from the registry. Everyone under age 18.
6. Remove the Halloween restrictions. Never proved to protect anyone.
7. In our state, remove the label "sex offender" from their drivers licence. This protects nobody and is only there to shame the offender. That's not what the law is about.
8. Remove all residency restrictions from offenders. This is illegal and amounts to "banning." The law prohibits banning people from going anywhere they want to go or living where they want to live. If you want to keep it, make it for all types of offenses, otherwise you're concentrating on only one type of offence, and that's illegal and apparently at least one judge agrees with me.

Englewood sex offender residency restrictions ruled unconstitutional FOX31 Denver

I'm fixing to go to bed, but I think that's a good start.

The list is for parents so that they can know if a person who is a neighbor or something is a pedophile. Also, if you happen to see one of these "people" with a child, you can turn them in.

I do agree with some of your points though. Only true sexual offenders should be on it and not the person who peed in public or other silly things.

 

[JoeB131]

Here's the dirty little secret in a nutshell. Society (left and right) admits that all the expensive therapy we offer to sexual predators in prisons and correctional facilities and probation and parole ain't worth crap because sexual predation is compulsive. A Baptist minister risked his career and his sanity and his soul because he could not resist his homosexual compulsion. Likewise Catholic priests. About 90% of sexual predators are male and of those who prey on male children 100% are homosexual. No democrat mom in the freaking Country would allow her daughters to be supervised by men. How in the world does the same society put homosexual employment above the physical and mental health of boys.

Well, first, comparing homosexuals to pedophiles is disgusting.

second, religion doesn't help 'curing' compulsion because religion is worthless and always has been.

Now, you are right, pedophiles and other sexual predators probably can't be treated.

 

[airplanemechanic]

Now, you are right, pedophiles and other sexual predators probably can't be treated.

No, they can't be treated because they don't have a disease. You can't "treat" a heterosexual to become homosexual or vice versa. If someone is a true pedophile, and those are very rare by clinical definition, you don't treat the desire you teach them how to avoid the temptation. If a pedophile is tempted when going to McDonalds, you teach him to avoid that place. Stuff like that. The good thing is, very few people are pedophiles. Even child molesters may not be pedophiles. It's easier to treat a child molester who isnt a pedophile than a pedophile who hasn't touched children. It's also a common misnomer that all pedophiles molest kids. That's not true at all. Just like if someone molests kids it doesn't make them a pedophile. Many people molest children for power reasons, nothing sexual. That's another reason why castration doesn't work. The crime is committed in the mind, not the genitals.

There are so many misconceptions about this area of study. The public is so badly informed it's almost comical.

 

[martybegan]

The problem with Sex Offender Registries is that they take the serial rapist and put him on the same list as the guy who had sex with his 15 year old girlfriend when he was 18.

It really isn't so much a problem with jobs, as if you have a conviction for much of ANYTHING, you have to disclose it to a potential employer.

Holy crap, I agree with Joe on something.

Sex offender lists should be limited to kid touchers and rapists.

No more 17 year olds who have consensual sex with their 15 year old girlfriend. No more prostitutes or people caught with prostitutes.

 

[martybegan]

Some violent and sexual offenses have further penalties after you get out of prison. Namely controlling where you can live, where you can work, etc. Seems like a violation of due process to impose what amounts to a sentence after you've served your prison one. If you wanna control where a child rapist can live why not just keep them in prison instead? Ultimate in control and perfectly constitutional.

ACLU says offender registry unconstitutional CJOnline.com

ACLU says offender registry unconstitutional
Registry includes sex offenders, people convicted of certain violent crimes
Posted: August 12, 2014

Yup. I agree. Sex offenders that are really offenders do not get better. Change the law and lock them up forever. Telling someone that has legally served their prison term where they can live and what they can do is unconstitutional. It is a failure on the part of the Government, a refusal to create effective laws.

How can there be a due process issue if it is part of the punishment for the crime they have been convicted of? I can see putting people on the registry who were convicted before the law went in place being unconstitutional as ex post facto, but if its on the books before a persons trial, I don't see the constitutional issue.

I do see a problem where they have made the term "sex offender" overly broad.

How can there be a due process issue if it is part of the punishment for the crime they have been convicted of?

Suppose a law was enacted that said: "Anyone guilty of shoplifting shall be executed." The death penalty would then be part of the punishment for the crime. You wouldn't see a Constitutional issue here - at least several of them?

I see a logic issue, but as for the constitution if the DP is not cruel and unusual in general, how can it be in this specific case?

As long as the law in effect before the person commits the crime, I don't see a CONSTITUTIONAL issue with executing shoplifters. Again I do see a LOGICAL issue with with it.

 

[airplanemechanic]

Don't get me wrong, I hate child rapists as much as anyone, but most people are not child rapists. To say that all sex offenders are child rapists or treat them all the same is like saying everyone busted for possession of pot is a top notch Mexican drug kingpin.

 

[NLT]

Here's the dirty little secret in a nutshell. Society (left and right) admits that all the expensive therapy we offer to sexual predators in prisons and correctional facilities and probation and parole ain't worth crap because sexual predation is compulsive. A Baptist minister risked his career and his sanity and his soul because he could not resist his homosexual compulsion. Likewise Catholic priests. About 90% of sexual predators are male and of those who prey on male children 100% are homosexual. No democrat mom in the freaking Country would allow her daughters to be supervised by men. How in the world does the same society put homosexual employment above the physical and mental health of boys.

Well, first, comparing homosexuals to pedophiles is disgusting.

second, religion doesn't help 'curing' compulsion because religion is worthless and always has been.

Now, you are right, pedophiles and other sexual predators probably can't be treated.

An Adult male who molests and minor male child is both a Pedophile and a Homosexual.

 

[airplanemechanic]

An Adult male who molests and minor male child is both a Pedophile and a Homosexual.

Nope. Not how it works. Since molestation can occur for many reasons other than sexual. And you say minor, if the kid is 17 and the adult is 18, does that mean he's a pedophile? No, of course not.

Someone can be a clinical pedophile and have never touched anyone. Touching a child does not a pedophile make, just like refraining from touching one doesn't mean someone isn't. It CAN mean they are a pedophile, but it might mean nothing more than they were an easy target or someone who is controlling is exuding control over the child.

You need to learn what a pedophile is.

 

[Disir]

So, you side stepped the plea deals.

 

[airplanemechanic]

 

[Disir]

That was table 30.