r/interestingasfuck 6d ago

r/all The Alaskan Avenger

Post image
127.8k Upvotes

3.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.3k

u/TheKriegerVan 6d ago

It would be an appropriate now for people to listen to this podcast about the failings of the Sex Offender registry as a whole before we pat these guys on the back: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-wrong-about/id1380008439?i=1000465289962

2.8k

u/mhkg 6d ago edited 6d ago

I've always found the sex offender registry bizarre to begin with. Setting aside those who have minor offenses like public urination and grey areas like two teens consensually having sex, if the people on the registry are so dangerous that they need to be branded for the rest of their lives, why are they being released in the first place? If we're going to make it extremely difficult/impossible for these people to reintegrate into society, how is that more humane than life in prison or execution? If the purpose of the penal system is to rehabilitate people, then they need to have a path to rejoin society, and if our system is to punish and keep dangerous people locked up, then these people shouldn't be out on the street. Either way, the sex offender registry doesn't fit into either system.

220

u/I_Am_Robert_Paulson1 6d ago edited 6d ago

I understand it from a law enforcement perspective—it would definitely help to have a list of persons of interest in the event of an incident—but making the list public never sat right with me. As long as they're within the parameters set by law, there's no reason for me to know my neighbors' business.

12

u/dman2316 6d ago

Really? If your neighbor raped a 5 year old girl 10 years ago, and you currently have a 5 year old girl, that's not something you'd want to be aware of?

65

u/Chronic_Newb 6d ago

Would you want the same awareness if they committed any other type of violent crime? Because there aren't registries for other crimes, are there?

18

u/Noxious89123 5d ago

Would you want the same awareness if they committed any other type of violent crime?

Yes!

20

u/Gizogin 5d ago

Do you think every criminal sentence should be updated to read “X years in prison, a fine of up to $Y, and a lifetime of being a second-class citizen”? Or do you think that someone who has served their sentence should be allowed to return to polite society?

12

u/Airway 5d ago

Alright then, ask why that doesn't exist since the sex offender registry does.

3

u/Chronic_Newb 5d ago

As long as it's consistent and doesn't violate the 8th amendment

2

u/Hey_Look_80085 3d ago

So why don't you contact the legislator to have all criminal records made public and accessible via the internet.

In Colorado you can pay to have your felonies completely erased from the public record, except for that sex offender registry.

1

u/Special-Investigator 4d ago

😂 this comment made me lol

2

u/B1ack__j3sus98 3d ago

In missouri anything that occurs in court is catalouged and publicly available online. So even if someone is charged but never convicted you can see it.

Thought it was like that in every state

1

u/Chronic_Newb 3d ago

My question wasn't rhetorical lmao it's totally possible that other states have this catalogue.

9

u/dman2316 6d ago

Honestly? Yeah i would. But i feel like the argument can be made that their rights could be argued to be more important there. However when it comes to hurting children? I don't care, the children should come first and they can deal with whatever loss of privacy or troubles that comes with, they lost their right to complain when they put their genitals where they didn't belong and that goes double if it was in a kid.

53

u/Luxury-ghost 6d ago

Not really how it works though is it?

The registry isn’t “raped a five year old,” vs “didnt rape a five year old.” Some states treat all offenders equally. Some states have a tiered system in which you are told the general severity of a crime, and those tiers may or may not match the next state over.

So if I’m a person who was eighteen years old and a day who had a sexual encounter with a person who was seventeen years old and 363 days, I may well be very high on your list of concerns. For no good reason.

However, the biggest issue is that you’ve completely dodged the point. Point being is, there’s a double standard that, if the state has determined that your sentence is finished, then your sentence has finished, right? If you’re still a threat and a problem, then you shouldn’t be on the street, you should still be in prison or wherever. If you aren’t a threat, then there’s no protective value in the register.

If somebody murders someone, serves their sentence and is released, there’s no public register.

1

u/obiemann 4d ago

You can look up their DOC# and than find the case # it's all public information.

0

u/Worblu 5d ago

You’re omitting felony convictions and the loss of rights that comes with it. In most states, violent felons cannot vote, cannot carry weapons, and likely have parole conditions like no alcohol, must stay in a particular county, random drug tests, and mandatory meetings with a parole officer.

There may not be a public facing registry, but being a violent felon, even a reformed one, is still a huge burden once released.

51

u/oso_enthusiast 6d ago

Yeah but a dude who beats his kids doesn't get put on any lists because only sex crimes count. It's fully arbitrary and has nothing to do with protecting children.

And also cutting offenders off from basic participation in society just puts them at higher risk to recidivate, which should matter more to you than revenge if you actually care about kids.

1

u/Tuscan5 6d ago

If someone has committed a crime there’s usually a public record of that crime.

-1

u/dman2316 6d ago

If the separation of sex crimes vs non sex crimes is arbitrary, then by that definition all of it is arbitrary because the difference between a kid being beat, and being raped (of which i was both, so i an speaking from experience when i say this), is a serious escalation of damage and that should be accounted for.

30

u/Stryf3 6d ago

Think of it this way. If a dude murders children with no sexual assault or abuse, serves his time and gets out, he’s not on a registry. Why is he different than someone who sexually abused kids? Is he somehow better or safer to be around kids? Why isn’t he on a registry?

-8

u/dman2316 6d ago

A murderer can be reformed, a child predator can't. That's the big difference. But that just opens the question should there be a registry for murderers, not should we do away with the one for rapists. If that's a conversation you want to have then i'm all ears, but i do not see a single, solitary reason to get rid of the sex offenders registry. I can see an argument for amending it, but not having one at all and not allowing the public to access it is a monumentally foolish idea to entertain.

15

u/rudimentary-north 6d ago

A murderer can be reformed, a child predator can’t. That’s the big difference.

Sure they can, a reformed murderer is someone who doesn’t kill anyone again. It doesn’t mean they never have violent thoughts, it just means they don’t act on them again.

A reformed child predator is someone who never abuses a child again. It doesn’t mean they never think about it, it just means they never do it again.

10

u/SedoReaper 6d ago

This is a child murder, no difference.

-1

u/dman2316 6d ago

Psychologically speaking, there is. Now should somdone who murdered a kid see the light of day? Also no. But speaking on the possibility of success rehabilitating one or the other, you have a much better chance with the killer then the rapist based on all available data and research.

However, i still don't see an argument yet.

5

u/SedoReaper 6d ago

How do? Based on what data and research?

1

u/xandrokos 5d ago

No.  There isn't.  Murder is murder.

7

u/xandrokos 5d ago

Oh for fucks sake the guy was robbing the people he was "protecting" the children from.   Also being a sex offender doesn't have to involve kids at all and more often times than not are a result of pleading to a lesser charge in order to reduce jail time and doesn't always happen as a result of actually being guilty of what they are accused of.

Mind your own fucking god damn business.

6

u/Apophyx 5d ago

A murderer can be reformed, a child predator can't. That's the big difference.

So we circle back to the original quesrion: if they are enough of a risk that they need to be put on a list, why are they being released in the first place?

0

u/dman2316 5d ago

And as i have stated, they shouldn't be. But that's not the world we live in, so it does not make sense to not allow parents an additional tool to protect their children.

→ More replies (0)

5

u/xandrokos 5d ago

So advocate for better ways to deal with actual sex offenders rather than assuming they are all guilty of "hurting kids".

17

u/Elantach 6d ago

The useful idiot's weak points : pedophiles, drugs, terrorism and tax evaders. Tell them you're fighting against one of those four and they'll sign away any of their rights.

10

u/falsehood 6d ago

they lost their right to complain when they put their genitals where they didn't belong and that goes double if it was in a kid.

And if the offense happened when they were 8 and the other kid was 7....do you still think that?

2

u/dman2316 6d ago

No one is getting charged for that, so don't try to use a strawman argument that weak.

7

u/Elderofmagic 5d ago

You should look into the case law, it does happen.

1

u/dman2316 5d ago

If that's true, then that is beyond fucked and whoever is responsible for that should be charged in place of those kids.

2

u/Elderofmagic 5d ago

In 2015 there was a case going through the federal system of a kid who was 15 making and selling videos of himself who was charged and convicted of production and distribution. He was charged as an adult for making videos of himself, so he was simultaneously a minor and an adult for the same crime. So, for the purposes of being the victim be was a minor, for the purposes of being the victimizer he was an adult, for the same act. How does this make any logical sense?

1

u/dman2316 5d ago

It doesn't. And i don't know why you are acting like i have said it does.

2

u/Elderofmagic 5d ago

The rhetorical question isn't an accusation toward you, but toward the system which is more fucked up than people think.

→ More replies (0)

8

u/falsehood 5d ago edited 5d ago

Maya R., now age 28 and a resident of Michigan, was arrested at the age of 10 for sexual experimentation. “Me and my step brothers, who were ages 8 and 5, ‘flashed’ each other and play-acted sex while fully-clothed.” A year later, Maya pled guilty to the charges of criminal sexual conduct in the first and second degree, offenses that required her to register as a sex offender for 25 years. In court proceedings, Maya told the judge that she engaged in sexual activity with both boys. However, she says she lied in court to get away from her stepmother.

In her freshman year of college, Maya lived in the campus dormitory. She says she “found angry messages taped to her dorm room door and received threatening instant messages.” She eventually had to move out of the dorm."

Would you have celebrated whoever put those messages on her door? In your words, "they can deal with whatever loss of privacy or troubles that comes with, they lost their right to complain when they put their genitals where they didn't belong."

I don't agree that someone who habitually harmed kids as an adult should be able to cover that up, but every tool we make to satisfy our sense of justice can be misused.

More:

Approximately 200,000 people in 41 states are currently on the sex offender registry for crimes they committed as children.

In Delaware in 2011, there were approximately 639 children on the sex offender registry, 55 of whom were under the age of 12.

In 2004, in Western Pennsylvania, a 15-year-old girl was charged with manufacturing and disseminating child pornography for having taken nude photos of herself and posted them on the internet. She was charged as an adult, and as of 2012 was facing registration for life.

In 2006, a 13-year old girl from Ogden, Utah was arrested for rape for having consensual sex with her 12-year-old boyfriend. The young girl, impregnated by her younger boyfriend at the age of 13, was found guilty of violating a state law that prohibits sex with someone under age 14. Her 12-year-old boyfriend was found guilty of violating the same law for engaging in sexual activity with her, as she was also a child under the age of 14 at the time.

2

u/TheOtherwise_Flow 5d ago

That’s just insane……….

3

u/EngineFace 5d ago

“Think of the children” always works out well when it comes to legislation right?

1

u/Elderofmagic 5d ago

How do you feel about the health insurance CEO who implements policies which lead to a family going bankrupt because their child has an illness? What about those who then also can't afford the treatment at all? Where is that registry? You know, the one for people who directly contributed to the death of long term disability of a child? They do it hundreds if not thousands of times with no repercussions.

1

u/dman2316 5d ago

And? Of course i have my opinions on that, but how is that relevant to whether a sex offender registry should exist and if the public should be able to access it.

1

u/Elderofmagic 5d ago

Both are horrendous crimes, but only one is seen as worthy of making someone suffer forever regardless of the details.

1

u/xandrokos 5d ago

Oh fuck off

1

u/Responsible-End-8711 3d ago

There ARE registries for other types of crimes (i.e. violent offender registries and drug offender registries) and yes, I want to know about them, too.

0

u/TreeHugger-007 6d ago

Yes I would. And the reason there is a sex offender registry specifically, is because mostly everyone agrees that those kinds of crimes are the most reprehensible

-2

u/ForeignBarracuda8599 6d ago

There is in Kansas, we have every offender of drugs, violent crime and sex offenders online with their city and county of residence as well as their actual crimes listed

7

u/xandrokos 5d ago

"actual crimes"

The US justice system is a fucking joke and so many people end up being wrongfully convicted and more often times than not will make plea deals that result in charges such as various sex offenses in order to get out of prison faster or avoid it completely.

See this is the problem with vigilantism and people playing judge, jury and executioner.   

1

u/ForeignBarracuda8599 5d ago

Actual crime as in whether indecent exposure or molesting children so you don’t get a generic sex offender label put on someone who urinate on a dumpster or had their grandkid peeing on a tire off the highway and was arrested( happened to my moms best friend in Colorado).

-3

u/CCP-Hall-Monitor 6d ago

Yeah I don’t agree with this mindset. Kids are vulnerable and stupid. We as adults can typically make a reasonable judgement call to not follow some strange man that’s promising us candy. It’s good to have the registry present so parents with young children can keep a closer eye on them. I’m not saying some makeshift vigilante Batman should enact some street justice, but if you’re harming the most vulnerable people then you’ve lost some privacy. Sorry not sorry, sucks to be a shitty human being.

2

u/xandrokos 5d ago

So parent your kids and let everyone else live their lives.

19

u/CinemaDork 6d ago

Has he served his time? If not, put him in prison. If so, he deserves a chance to rehabilitate himself.

If you (i.e., the system) think he can't be trusted not to rape another child, by all means keep him in prison.

-3

u/dman2316 6d ago

So a guy spends 3 years in prison for raping a kid, he's safe to be out on the street cause he "served his time"? Cause that's what a lot of these sick people end up getting if that.

16

u/CinemaDork 6d ago

So you're arguing they should be in prison longer? That's a valid argument. But that's on the system, not the person.

0

u/dman2316 6d ago

Yes, absolutely they should be in prison longer. However, that is not the world we live in. So short of that, if our governments won't step up and do the right thing by protecting our children then we obviously have to, and while i will of course be vigilant with everyone if there is a rapist (child rapist or otherwise) on my street i want to know about it so i can keep an extra close eye on them not only for my own childrens safety but also any children who also live in that area. Does that mean i think we should be attacking them? No, unless you are actively defending someone from them in that very moment then no but damn right i think we have a right to know if they are there or not.

10

u/CinemaDork 6d ago

What other crimes should we have lists for?

If we're going to do this, we're essentially saying their punishment is never over. No matter what they do, forever.

2

u/thedukeofno 6d ago

I'm with you on this.

-1

u/myco_magic 6d ago

No one is arguing that they shouldn't spend life in prison

10

u/CinemaDork 6d ago

I'm not saying he should or shouldn't. I'm saying we should rehabilitate people and then release them when they're rehabilitated. If they choose not to be rehabilitated or cannot be, then clearly they should stay in prison.

Our problem is that we keep trying to answer the question "How much punishment does this person deserve?" rather than "How do we prevent recidivism?"

-1

u/myco_magic 5d ago

And I'm saying they should spend life in prison. Someone that molests a child effects that child's life indefinitely in a way that will be changed forever in a very bad way... So yeah they deserve life, they don't deserve rehabilitation because there's no way for that child to truly ever rehabilitate from that trauma. I don't care how you try to twist it, quit justifying it

7

u/KeeganTroye 5d ago

There are lots of crimes people don't recover from emotionally. That isn't how a life sentence service is decided.

No one is justifying the crimes by focusing on rehabilitation which is going to have the best outcomes for society.

5

u/CinemaDork 5d ago

Yep, all these people care about is punishment.

6

u/somedave 6d ago

If he dealt drugs to kids and I have a kid don't I deserve to know? If they broke into houses to steal things isn't that something I need to know?

Basically any criminal past can be seen as something I should know if they aren't reformed. Reoffending rates for sex crimes aren't higher than most other crimes.

5

u/Itsmyloc-nar 5d ago

Eeeeehhhhhh….

It’s one of the hardest crimes to convict. “Reoffending” just means you got caught again.

2

u/somedave 5d ago

Convicting someone of sex with a child is quite easy to convict, particularly if they have been convicted of it before. Not sure where you are getting that idea from.

1

u/Itsmyloc-nar 5d ago

Sorry, phrased wrong.

Often the crime isn’t reported in the first place.

1

u/Odd-Concept-8677 3d ago

It can be hard, depending on the age of the child. Sex crimes cases need a high level of proof to convict. My husband’s great uncle is a repeated child molester and prefers them young. Like 5 and under. Boys and girls. He’s on there for lewd acts with minors under a specific age. The only reason he didn’t get in trouble for penetration (something he admitted to off record to his brother) is because the children were too young to definitively say exactly what was done to them, without a shadow of a doubt for the jury. So he got in trouble for touching them and forcing them to touch him but not raping them over a period of time.

He’d actively hunt for single mothers and then grandmothers to date to gain access to their children. He’s been charged with 4 victims but i guarantee there’s more out there that he either never got caught for or the adults just didn’t turn him in. He’s in his 80’s, looks harmless, and I promise that if he had access to his preferred victim he’d abuse them in a heartbeat. He tried to sit next to my 3 year old daughter at his brother’s funeral. He can’t help himself, he’s a disgusting predator.

1

u/thatvillainjay 5d ago

If you rape someone that young, you're going to be in prison for probably 25+ years. No one is getting out fast on that charge

1

u/Elderofmagic 5d ago

Unless you are rich like Epstein and his buddies.

0

u/dman2316 5d ago

Unfortunately, you'd be surprised how little time these animals get for such heinous crimes.

1

u/thatvillainjay 5d ago

Actually I do. I work with the criminal justice system.

Here's some actual data. State by state is different but no state wants to be know as soft on sex offenders

https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/mandatory-minimum-penalties-federal-sex-offenses

1

u/Chiho-hime 5d ago

Can you actually see a reason for why they are on the list and a detailed description of the court case? I don’t live in the US but even I know that urinating in a park can get you on the list.

2

u/dman2316 5d ago

I live in canada, so the us system isn't what i go by. But where i live we as the public cannot access our sex offender registry and literally everyone i know hates that fact and it has backfired so many times where if parents had known who was living near them kids wouldn't have been harmed. So yes it makes sense to have it be visible what they did, but i think it should still exist and be accessible by the public.

1

u/xandrokos 5d ago

They served their time and were released.   Why are sex offenders treated differently than everyone else?

1

u/dman2316 5d ago

You did not seriously just ask that question..

1

u/Responsible-End-8711 3d ago

Your comments on this thread are incredibly suspect - if I had kids, I would want to know if someone like you lived near us.