[This is about the same person I mentioned in this previous post. By the way, the Xanga mentioned has since been shut down by its owner.]
The local paper ran a front page story about this kid, naming him and his mother, who sits on the school board. There were definitely mixed responses, from ardent applause to fervid reproach. I can't decide whether I think this was appropriate; I'm curious to hear the opinion of someone who has worked with victims. The information is already out there in the public sphere—you can easily do an online search of sex offenders in your city or county or by name, so it's not like the paper exposed something that couldn't already be known. I read two signed responses from later in the week: one from the editorial board and one from a rape-crisis counselor, both supporting the decision. The editorial board cited the relevancy of the mother's school board position, keeping its readers safe, and reporting public record. The rape-crisis counselor corroborated the "keeping other people safe" opinion.
I don't think the paper did anything illegal, but I question at least its consistency. A search on KBI's website results in 47 matches for the city, 58 for the county. Why is this one offender picked out and not the others? The only other time I remember a sex offender being named in the paper (other than in the Daily Record) was when there was one whom the state had failed to register. Or he had failed to register or whatever the proper steps are. I might be completely wrong, but my feeling is that this high school student is perhaps less of an immediate threat to others because he is 16. No, teenagers' parents do not know where they are all the time, what they are doing all of the time, but at least they have more accountability to someone than adults. I don't know. Opinions?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
What did he do?
One frightening thing about the recent sythesis of sex offender tracking sites (you know, like plotting them on Google maps) is that they often don't list the offence. Some people can be labeled sex offenders for urinating in public...
Daniel, I emailed part of my response to you. The part I want to post publicly is that the majority of offenses of registered offenders in Newton have to do with children, and others are sexual battery or rape. Not sure what urinating in public would show up as (indecent exposure?), but it looks to me like there are a lot of serious ones / other people who could be threats. So why should they be spared the same level of exposure? Should any of them have that? Should all of them have that?
Leah, the person I've been focusing on is not the youngest person on Newton's list. There are two younger ones, with birth years of 1991 and 1992. However, according to this Sex Offender Registration Information for Kansas, the duration of the registration requirement depends on the crime and/or how many convictions and aggravated offenses one has, so someone who is convicted at 14 (or any age) won't necessarily be registered for life. I can see where it would seem unfair for someone convicted as a child to have to carry that with them for years after—the primary example I would think of here would be something like consensual sex between a 15-year-old and a 13-year-old. Not that I would personally approve of that situation, but that does seem like a case where it would be unfair for the 15-year-old to have to live the next 10 years of his/her life as a registered sex offender. I know I check the Newton sex offender map every now and then (mostly out of curiosity, but I'll admit it sort of creeps me out), and I recognize people I see in public as being on the list; no denying there's a stigma. BUT, on the other hand, I've heard that reforming sex offenders is not an easy task and is often unsuccessful. So if someone commits a more violent/forceful sex crime as a kid, is it likely s/he will do it again? I haven't spent a lot of time researching that, but what I've found makes it sound like it's difficult to be conclusive about that. This study from the Center for Sex Offender Management talks about sex offender recidivism, and this article from sexoffender.com summarizes some of those findings. But again, that's just about recidivism (defined in this case as subsequent arrest, subsequent conviction, and subsequent incarceration) and not necessarily repeat offenses.
Post a Comment