Are punishments for sex offenders effective?
According to the National Alert Registry, there are 400,000 registered sex offenders in the United States and growing. This number alone is only the number of people register in America. Sex crimes not only affect victims, but also the people around them. Victims are more likely to suffer from depression, have post traumatic stress disorder, abuse alcohol and drugs and even contemplate suicide.
In the United States millions of dollars are bring spend on sex offenders. Sex offenders are treated unlike any other criminals, especially in the area of punishment and rehabilitation. For example, drug dealers are released back into the community after completion of their sentence. They can return back to their neighborhoods and continue to sell drugs. However for sex offenders, release from prison is not the end of their punishment.
Sex offenders create a fear in communities and these fears have lead to different policies being placed on these individuals. A convicted sex offender faces incarceration, required to register on a sex offender registry, prohibited in areas where children congregate, and in some parts of the world stoning.
There are many different forms of sex crimes; from aggravated assault to human trafficking. The question is what are we doing to punish people that practice these sex crimes and if what we are doing is actually being affective? There are different situations of these crimes that need to be treated uniquely in their own way.
Who decided what punishments sex offenders should have, like what kind of laws are there to prevent them from committed a crime again?
ReplyDeleteWhy are they treated differently from other criminals? I do like how used the example of the punishments and actions of a drug dealer to compare. What sex crime do you consider the most henious?
Yea I really believe that there are many flaws in the way we deal with sex offenders. However, they create panic and fear in our society so laws that are put into effect by law makers are more concerned with "looking" like the problem is being properly dealt with. In reality unintended consequences have arose.
ReplyDeleteit is difficult to believe that people would do things to children. Studies have shown that they can be rehabliated. their are rquirements that they need to follow when they are released on probation.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting topic. Sex offenders raise fear in the community. We all know the rehabilitation part of our correctional facilities is lacking. Thereof, I find it appropriate that laws have been created in order to track offenders and keep them away from the immediate area of children.
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