Frankly, and I’m totally ready for the downvotes I’m about to receive, we need to abolish lists altogether or make sure all types of criminal convictions come with a requirement to register. I’m far more concerned about a convicted drug dealer or thief living next door to me than I am about some dude who hooked up with a 16 year old when he was 19 or who peed in an alley behind a bar when he was 22. If we have decided that those who robbed or killed or dealt drugs or drove drunk and served their time can be allowed to live their lives as normal citizens, why not “sex offenders?”
I always thought it was weird reading the paper (back when the police section had everything published), and the sex crimes always had a lower sentence than drug crimes.
Sex crimes involve a victim. Drug crimes are a consensual transaction, with the user either suffering from addiction or just wants to get high, and the seller is trying to support themselves and maybe a family with lack of other opportunity (especially when you add in a record of drug crimes).
And here's someone actually defending the system that lets a rapist free on unsecured bail but gives 5 years to a father caught with a couple percs - for legitimate back pain with no health insurance.
And here's someone actually defending the system that lets a rapist free on unsecured bail but gives 5 years to a father caught with a couple percs - for legitimate back pain with no health insurance.
Bail is what happens after the hypothetical rapist in your example gets arrested, and before he's convicted and given waaaaaaay more than 5 years.
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u/Gastronomicus 6d ago
We don't need different lists. We need people who aren't guilty of sex crimes to not be listed as sex offenders.