January 2014:Sex Offender laws are gratuitously cruel and assume that all ex-offenders are dangerous psychopaths. However the vast majority can be rehabilitated and lead normal productive lives. Most sex offenders deserve compassion. Current laws make it harder for registered sex offenders to reform. by Ryan Hope (Pen name of a Colorado Therapist)(henrymakow.com)
I have chosen to take on this unpopular issue because I have something that needs to be said.
Contrary to popular belief that once a sex offender, he will always be a sex offender, recidivism rates are quite low for offenders that get counseling. At about 6%, they are much lower than many other types of criminal recidivism. That means 94% don't re-offend. This is compared to only 30% in the case of other offenses.
Yes, a minority of sex offenders are sociopaths or psychopaths. They are violent re-offender types, serial rapists and those that get sadistic pleasure torturing or killing. These people should never be trusted to reenter into society.
But the majority of sex offenders can be reformed, but the law won't let them or anybody else forget. Some of my colleagues work with ex-offenders and they report a high degree of depression, homelessness and suicide.
When they return home from prison, they may not be allowed to move into their own homes because it is too close to a school or park. However, 98% of molestations happen with somebody they know and not because of the proximity of schools or parks.
Supportive relatives prefer not to allow ex-offenders to live in their homes because their address is posted on sites like Megan's Law. Families can be ripped apart; the very people the ex-offender needs for healing are placed out of reach.
I have heard of several cases of ex-offenders receiving death threats from strangers knocking on their doors. Ex-offenders do get murdered. Since sex offender registration is required for life, an ex-offender can be harassed or violently assaulted decades after he had overcome his problem.
JOBS
Few will hire ex-offenders. Being cut off from their own families and support networks actually contributes to recidivism. Homeless offenders are harder to keep track of. Professionals and clergy are required by law to report suspected cases to the police. Offenders thus do not seek the help they need, and some even resort to suicide.
Victims of sexual molestation also avoid help because they don't want their cases dragged publicly through the courts. Victims then suffer a lifetime of unresolved trauma which in turn negatively affects their own marriages and children.
Many sex offenders were themselves victims and the law actually perpetuates the vicious cycle.
Many have to register as a sex offender for having consensual sex as a teenager. Some have to register for urinating in public and now their lives are ruined.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
Another unspoken problem is law enforcement. I have worked cases where police or CPS interviewers will tell children what to say before they are videotaped. Coercing children is sadly all too common. I worked with one young adult who was suffering from terrible guilt and depression because police coerced her to lie as a child and sent her father to life in prison. Try as she could the courts will not listen to her pleas. They claim she is being pressured by her family to recant.
Top polygraphers, estimate that one out-of-five people in our prisons are actually innocent. District Attorneys and police will lie and tamper with evidence. They have been known to confiscate computers and fill them with porn.
One young man accused of raping a 13-year-old girl, spent 13 years in prison. Project Innocence took on his case and discovered that the police had hidden exculpatory evidence. He was released and sued the city and won an undisclosed amount of money.
FALSE CHARGES
Women who want a divorce will accuse their husbands of rape or molestation of their children. This filthy tactic is often compounded by police, lawyers and courts not interested in truth, but interested in milking all the money they can get.
I worked with a gentleman whose wife accused him of molesting their two little toddlers. He was whisked off to jail and she emptied the bank account. He was unable to defend himself and was forced to get a public defender (who in many cases are useless). She had coached the two little girls on what to say and practiced with them over and over.
He awaited trial for over a year in jail, during the wait she sold the home and moved to another state. At trial the public defender actually did his job and the little children admitted that their mother had coached them.
He was released homeless and with only the clothes on his back. The law did nothing to his scheming wife and let her go without even a sigh. Even though he was found innocent, other areas of law enforcement won't let him have visitation rights and his struggle continues three years later.
CONCLUSION
So for all of you flag-waving Christians that want to punish and harass sex offenders, question whether you are Christian or not. You may be a Pharisee and the first to yell out "Crucify him!". I recall a certain sheriff in southern Florida, a proud Christian bragging about his program of putting up signs to identify homes of ex-offenders. He caused the man to take his life, a man that had been clean for 15 years.
Sex Offender laws prevent ex-offenders from rehabilitating and becoming productive members of society. Laws for ex-offenders are cruel and unusual, the vast majority can be rehabilitated and lead normal productive lives.
"Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." -Mathew 25:40. Jesus' message is all about repentance and that people can change for the better. ..Source.. by Ryan Hope
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