Tuesday, July 15, 2008
In 2009, the national sex offender registry list will be complete, but Kansas already has a list of offenders within the state. The list includes current information on the offenders’ crimes, their appearance and their current addresses.
Although the registries are created for safety purposes, not all of the offenders are violent offenders.
Here are some situations that could land students on the list:
• A couple trying to spice up their relationship should think twice before doing the deed in public.
• If someone is on the losing side of a bet, it might be a better option to endure repeated harassment than striping down and running around the neighborhood.
• And if a person can’t hold it any longer, peeing their pants might be a safer bet than dropping their drawers and peeing on the corner.
Each of these offenses is considered by the state of Kansas to be lewd and lascivious acts. In court, if the lewd and lascivious act is deemed sexually motivated, then a person looking at a membership to the sex registry list.
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A complete list of the offenses are listed under the offender registry
If you’re curious who’s made the list check here
In Kansas, first-time adult sexual offenders are required to register for 10 years. A second conviction or some sexual offenses requires a lifetime registry.
A person’s picture, crime and address will become public knowledge. In 2009, the national sex offender registry list will be complete, allowing someone’s information to be looked up anywhere in the country by anyone.
District Attorney Charles Branson said he had mixed feelings about the sex offender list. Although a crime must be proven to be committed out of sexual gratification, the number of possible offenses continues to grow.
“The more it expands the less potency it has on the offenses that the registry was created for,” Branson said.
According to Branson, expansion also makes it more difficult to track offenders.
There are currently 67 offenders, including two women, on the Douglas County Sex Registry who live within Lawrence city limits. Nine of those offenders are within the ages of 18 to 22. Another nine live within the “student ghetto,” — which are surrounding neighborhoods of the University.
The Human Rights Watch, a New York City-based agency, said that sex offender registries did more harm than good. According to a report the agency completed in 2007, the lists have become a threat to offenders. In 2005 and 2006, four sex offenders were killed in the U.S. Their information was found through the sex registry.
Human Rights Watch has found six other countries that use a sex registry — Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan and the United Kingdom. However, the registries of these nations are kept in the hands of the police and are only released to citizens on a need-to-know basis.
The harassment and ostracism encountered by sex offenders has led Minnesota to tailor information about sex offenders to the violent nature of the criminal. Prior to being released from prison, the offender is given an evaluation concerning their mental state. Violent offenders’ information is still released, but non-violent offenders information is withheld.
Dan Winters, Executive Director of the Kansas and Missouri American Civil Liberties Union, said that sex registries brought up more questions than they answered.
Winters said that if there was a sex registry then it would be just as likely to create a driving-while-under-the-influence registry. He said he thought there was a problem with punishing people after they had done their time.
Winters said another problem with the registry was the compiling of violent and dangerous offenders with non-violent offenders. He said a man caught urinating in public is pictured next to someone who has raped a 14-year-old.
“I wouldn’t touch a 14-year-old but I have peed behind the wheel,” Winters said.
— Edited by Matt Hirschfeld
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Comments
Sex registry brings up more questions than it can answer
Thumbs up from Texas Voices for addressing this issue. Please read our stories at www.txvoices.com. There are literally thousands of no-risk individuals throughout the United States who have found themselves listed on the dreaded sex offender registry. Political grandstanding and media frenzy have resulted in the creation of feel-good laws. Common sense solutions are much needed as current laws are bordering on ridiculous. Unfortunately, the general public has been led to believe that all labeled "sex offenders" are dangerous pedophiles. This is far from the truth and research now indicates that our children are less safe. Thanks again for your efforts to educate others concerning the facts. Mary Sue Molnar (Tx. Voices).
Sex registry brings up more questions than it can answer
Jessica's Law in Kansas was lobbied for by GEO Group, the billion-dollar Boca Raton, Florida for-profit prison corporation. It wanted the Kansas law repealed that banned those prisons. Jessica's Law was expected to result in a need for 1,000 new prison beds in Kansas, and GEO unconvincingly proposed to build a prison in the unlikely venue of Yates Center to provide them.
The corporation spread a lot of money around in its efforts, maxing out contributions to Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, then-Attorney General Phill Kline, House Speaker and global warming denier Melvin Neufeld and Representative Patricia Kilpatrick, who turned out to be a criminal herself and who racked up collosal legislative ethics violation fines.
Schmidt and Neufeld also pushed through draconian sex offender registration requirements. A Kansan convicted of adultery (yes, it's still on the books) who lived in Wyandotte County, worked in Johnson County and went to school at KU in Douglas county would be be required to registered in all three counties, at considerable cost. Failure to register within 30 days produces rapidly escalating prison penalties.
Public registration websites have produced nothing but nightmares around the country. Deranged vigilantes have killed and maimed those appearing on offender sites from Maine to Washington state. Some victims were relatively harmless exhibitionists.
Actual sex offenders, unlikely to obtain a job, education or a place to live have simply disappeared in state after state. It is the "Law of Unintended Consequences." In many states, offenders are not allowed to live within many thousands of feet of a school or day care. Parolees in Florida, facing these housing restrictions, have actually been ordered by their parole officers to live under bridges.
Ninety-five percent of those committing sex offenses against children are known to the kids and most are relatives. No sex-offender registration list will protect them.
So if you vote in his district, remember the faux religious fanatic Kline. Schmidt and Neufeld unfortunately are without primary or general election opposition, though Melvin is likely to lose his Speaker's chair.
Sex registry brings up more questions than it can answer
Great Article, Brings up great points. Sex Offender, Child Predator, ...Those words bring to mind people who commit terrible things against children, right? The person above who committed 3 crimes, given 3 chances in life is definitely a troubled soul and deserves what ever the courts give him. HOWEVER.
Under current laws, and laws pending...Sex Offender, Child Predator may mean:
A man who when he was 19, 30 years ago, had sex with his underage girlfriend.. 1 time. That was 30 years ago, and now he has a family of 6 children, and all of a sudden, with these new laws passed, he is now a Sex Offender, after 30 years! His children are all so embarrassed now, as all the kids in school are picking on them saying their dad is a pervert. None of their friend are allowed to come over any more. He lost his Photography Business, because most of his work was with schools. His life, and his children's lives are ruined because of 1 crime, 30 years ago..
A boy, 17 years old, is in Yahoo Chat.. and a girl that he has never met starts talking to him. She says she is 17. Eventually they talk about sex. Her mother sees it, and he is arrested... the girl is 12 years old, but she lied and said she was 17. The boy is now, a CHILD PREDATOR for the rest of his life!
A man has a computer for the family; his 15 year old daughter has a girl spend the night. The two girls get on the net and go to the visiting girl's My space, and bebo, and tagged websites. On those sites, some of the FRIENDS have posted nude photos of themselves. The next day, the man has a business friend over, who needs to check his stocks, and somehow he clicks and sees the Naked Teens. He turns in the man, for child porn. The man who owns the computer never even seen the images, but now, he is a pervert, a Child Predator FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.
The above stories are happening EVERY DAY in America and these are the kind of people caught in the net of RESIDENCY RESTRICTIONS for sex offenders.
Possibly, some people need to be told where they can live, If they are a threat to society. But the countless thousands who are being labeled SEX OFFENDER do not.
Just think about it. We have put together a LOT of information for your reading... http://www.cfcamerica.org Read what Many Experts say about the Adam Walsh Act and Residency Restrictions... They all say they don't work.
Every person who is charged with a Sex Crime needs their day in court, and also, they need their case looked at INDIVIDUALLY. Some, need residency restrictions, Electronic Monitoring.. and more... but some, as those in the stories above, need not be ruined for life by Online Websites with their name and photo, residency restrictions.. all that. If a person commits a crime, and serves their time. They need to be left alone. If the court is too stupid to sentence a person
Sex registry brings up more questions than it can answer
Great Article, Brings up great points. Sex Offender, Child Predator, ...Those words bring to mind people who commit terrible things against children, right? The person above who committed 3 crimes, given 3 chances in life is definitely a troubled soul and deserves what ever the courts give him. HOWEVER.
Under current laws, and laws pending...Sex Offender, Child Predator may mean:
A man who when he was 19, 30 years ago, had sex with his underage girlfriend.. 1 time. That was 30 years ago, and now he has a family of 6 children, and all of a sudden, with these new laws passed, he is now a Sex Offender, after 30 years! His children are all so embarrassed now, as all the kids in school are picking on them saying their dad is a pervert. None of their friend are allowed to come over any more. He lost his Photography Business, because most of his work was with schools. His life, and his children's lives are ruined because of 1 crime, 30 years ago..
A boy, 17 years old, is in Yahoo Chat.. and a girl that he has never met starts talking to him. She says she is 17. Eventually they talk about sex. Her mother sees it, and he is arrested... the girl is 12 years old, but she lied and said she was 17. The boy is now, a CHILD PREDATOR for the rest of his life!
A man has a computer for the family; his 15 year old daughter has a girl spend the night. The two girls get on the net and go to the visiting girl's My space, and bebo, and tagged websites. On those sites, some of the FRIENDS have posted nude photos of themselves. The next day, the man has a business friend over, who needs to check his stocks, and somehow he clicks and sees the Naked Teens. He turns in the man, for child porn. The man who owns the computer never even seen the images, but now, he is a pervert, a Child Predator FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.
The above stories are happening EVERY DAY in America and these are the kind of people caught in the net of RESIDENCY RESTRICTIONS for sex offenders.
Just think about it. We have put together a LOT of information for your reading... http://www.cfcamerica.org Read what Many Experts say about the Adam Walsh Act and Residency Restrictions... They all say they don't work.
Every person who is charged with a Sex Crime needs their day in court, and also, they need their case looked at INDIVIDUALLY. Some, need residency restrictions, Electronic Monitoring.. and more... but some, as those in the stories above, need not be ruined for life by Online Websites with their name and photo, residency restrictions.. all that. If a person commits a crime, and serves their time. They need to be left alone. If the court is too stupid to sentence a person properly, then the court is to blame, not the person who commits a crime, gets out and then does NOT commit any other crimes. What do you think?
Sex registry brings up more questions than it can answer
Hey, my old bus driver is on that list
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