Sex Offender Registration: Averting Sexual Violence or Recidivism - Report Example

Introduction

In previous years, the federal and state legislatures have enacted laws to avert sexual violence. Among the numerous legal strategies that target sex criminals is sex offender registration. Registration is the act of necessitating convicted sex delinquents to register with law prosecution and occasionally update data regarding their details, employment, and residence. However, even after sex registering, several of these sex offenders will recur their criminalities, although the recidivism rate is lower than normally anticipated. For instance, according to Reed (2017), for a large population of 9000, the 3-year rate of sexual rearrests of formerly imprisoned US sex criminals was 5.3%. The rates of recidivism differ with follow-up phases. Still, the study has discovered that even over 20 years, the mainstream of convicted sex offenders are rearrested for other crimes rather than new sex crimes.

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A survey performed on the survivors of sexual assault by Catherine Simmons and Sarah Craun indicated that they are unresponsive regarding the preventive sex offender registries' capabilities. Less than 40% of the members believed sex offender registries defend the public from sexual violence, while 67.1% believed registries offer a deceitful sense of safety (Harris & Cudmore, 2018). Sexual assault is a substantial challenge in the United States and takes an enormous toll on survivors, comprising children. According to the US Department of Justice (DOJ), in the year 2009, there existed approximately 125,910 sexual assaults and rapes (Harris & Cudmore, 2018). The victims ranged between 12 and 19 years of age in about 24,930 of these cases (Harris & Cudmore, 2018). Thus, sex offender registry should be eliminated as it violates human rights.

Importance of the Topic

In the world today, sex offenders have become the main targets of some of the greatest far-reaching and new crime rules. The concept behind the enhancement of these laws was driven by the thoughts that minors that performed sexual crimes are less likely to compel them in the prospect after making their information public for a prolonged period. Sexual registry necessitates that offender's offer recognizing data to law enforcement and for the information to be fully published to the public. It was invented to provide parents with the tools they required to safeguard their children in the face of danger. For example, a person can identify a sex offender by searching on the website. The topic is controversial as it is illegal for individuals to utilize sex offender registries for persecution by promoting stigma. Research shows that registries do not influence the rates of reoffending (Reed, 2017). The inability or reluctance of victims of manipulation or their family members to report on sexual violence crimes has resulted in under execution of the law: the massive majority of sex criminalities do not result in convictions and arrests.

Sex offender registries not only make it challenging for registrants to incorporate with the society, but it is also an assault to an individual's right to privacy, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of article 12. The article states that 'No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation' (Reed, 2017). With the privacy of the offender published to the public, they experience subjection to hatred offenses and getting false blame for sexual violence that may occur in society. Thus, the presence of sex offender registries does not alter the fact that police handle rape survivors more incredulously than victims of other offenses. Unconstrained public access to virtual sex-offender records with no constraints discloses former criminals to the risk that people will act on this data in irresponsible and illegal methods.

Effect of Topic on Correctional Practices, Victims, The Public And/or System-Involved Persons Themselves

Numerous people convicted of sex crimes get singled out for aims of restriction and surveillance. According to Harris et al. (2016), there exist approximately 800,000 Americans registered as sex criminals. These new methods of reducing the behaviors of a sexual offense are, however, deliberated to offer a long-term penance for registrants linked to individuals that commit other sorts of criminalities. For example, sex offenders get published in the record for more than 25 years for a fault they performed during their teenage years (Harris et al., 2016). Although the procedure aids in minimizing recurring offenses to particular vital levels, it discloses individuals to public mockery. Many times, people recorded in the registries discover it challenging to get jobs in particular industries and organizations which observe high integrity levels. The condition leaves the registrants in a situation of anguish and hopelessness to the degree of facing family separation. Also, these situations result in suicidal cases attached to the problems and desperation in their whole life.

Moreover, most sex crimes tend to be committed by people known to the target, and thus, once recognized; they no longer have access to latent victims. For instance, 93% of all sex offenses against children are done by individuals recognized to the victim, such as a friend, community, and family member (Logan, 2020. When these offenders get released from prison, they always have a name from the community, which identifies them as outcasts. Numerous of these people discover it challenging to fit into society again. The condition of depression and loneliness provides them with the drive to repeat the same crimes to find comfort in the incarceration amenities. Residency constraints are counterproductive to the safety of the public and detrimental to former criminals.

Sex offender registries are expensive, and it is projected that once executed, each year, they cost countries more than 10 million dollars to conserve. Given that there exist suggestions to display that they minimize reoffending, the cash can be better spent on deterrence determinations. The state can utilize this money to support summer and after-school plans for kids whose parents could not cater for these programs. Research showed that most people who get abused during the summer months or in the after-school hours when there is partial parental supervision (Rose, 2020). Also, augmenting sexual assault averting education in schools helps in amplifying the cases of reported abuses, thus preventing future reoffending. These educational programs upsurge children's understanding of sexual abuse ideas and their skills in responding to hazardous situations. Schools should ensure that all child-serving establishments have programs on sexual assault prevention, such as open-door policies. Besides, there should exist determinations in minimizing the threat of unnecessary stigmatization to the offender and victim.

Conclusion

Informing the public of sex criminals is ineffectual and should be restricted if not disregarded. The existing registries do great harm to some individuals who, although guilty of several crimes, do not pose a substantial danger to children or people in society. Sex registration laws of the offender hamper with a person's right to privacy, which global human rights law identifies it as more robust. Even in situations in which registration is not incorporated with community necessities, the generations of such records by private and public actors in a diversity of ways and locations making it nearly incredible for the intensified privacy rights people to get respected.

References

Harris, A. J., & Cudmore, R. (2018). Community experience with public sex offender registries in the United States: A national survey. Criminal justice policy review, 29(3), 258-279.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0887403415627195

Harris, A. J., Walfield, S. M., Shields, R. T., & Letourneau, E. J. (2016). Collateral consequences of juvenile sex offender registration and notification: Results from a survey of treatment providers. Sexual Abuse, 28(8), 770-790. https://doi.org/10.1177/1079063215574004

Logan, W. A. (2020). CommunityBased Approaches to Sex Offender Management. The Wiley Handbook of What Works with Sexual Offenders: Contemporary Perspectives, in Theory, Assessment, Treatment, and Prevention, 411-426. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119439325.ch23

Reed, P. (2017). Punishment beyond incarceration: the negative effects of sex offender registration and restrictions. Journal of Law and Criminal Justice, 5(2), 16-30.
https://doi.org/10.15640/jlcj.v5n2a2

Rose, S. (2020). The Impact of Sex Offender Registration Laws on Offenders' Reintegration into Society. [Doctoral dissertation, Walden University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.