Sex Offenders? Where? Final Draft

It goes unchallenged that everyone in the world has their own problems and obstacles they have to overcome to live. And under most circumstances every citizen is protected by constitutional rights. However, when it comes to the security of the general public, perhaps some people’s rights should be limited.

When a criminal is caught, he is charged and serves time or pays a fine. After his release, the whole incident is in the past. It can come up in the future, when trying to apply for work, but that may not be enough, especially for sex offenders. Sex offenders are a different type of criminal. They’re so different from other criminals, that when they are incarcerated the other inmates treat them worse, the red headed step child of correctional facilities all over the United States.

Sex offenders can go unseen like a chameleon amongst the public, and has every right to do so. With that freedom we give them a chance to perhaps commit the same crime, or one similar to it. It is easy to find sex offenders in your area by simply looking in the sex offender database on the internet. But not everyone has the internet at their fingertips, especially in shopping malls, city parks, and sporting events. It is surprising to see parents letting their kids out of their line of sight without deep concern over their children’s well being.

It is unsettling knowing people with a history of convictions for sexual violence are allowed in society. What is more unsettling is that many offenders repeat their actions when released. The Cleveland State University Journal of Law and Health states “sex offenders in general with more than one sex crime arrest were about twice as likely to be rearrested for another sex crime when compared to those with no prior sex crime arrests.”

If more strict limitations were set for violators of sexual abuse, we can control the safety of the general public, and only be worried about the ones who have yet to be caught. Sending them to an uninhabited island would be too easy of an answer, but to label them with a ‘scarlet letter’ would be a little more appropriate. In Ireland government officials are toying with the idea of adding GPS monitoring devices to sex offenders with a high risk of repeating their crimes.

How would we label these ex-cons with out tampering with their civil rights? Well, the only way to do it is to take away some of those civil rights, and replace them with the allowance of not spending life in a correctional facility. This land of the free that we live in works great on many levels, and it is about time we begin making the club a little more exclusive.