How Your Son Could End Up on the Sex Offender List

I looked at one of those sex registry lists and most of those in my neighborhood where of the he was 18 having consensual sex with a 16 year-old.

Are you serious? What is wrong with you? How can you say that they should be allowed to be productive members in our community? I don't want them in my community. I want someone who is a decent person that is not charged with such horrific crime working around our children. Allowed in public wow really? They should be behind bars. They committed a serious crime. What about the poor children that their lives are ruined? They have to live with that for the rest of their lives so in my opinion, those monsters should be reminded everyday of what a horrible thing they did, not rewarded to work in our community.

Thanks Kelly for at least saying something that makes since.

...You're an idiot. First off, you're talking sex offenders, and not sexual predators. If you don't know the difference between the two, educate yourself. Second off, it's the reactions of people like you that have turned Sex Crimes into a god damned witch hunt. Spouses accuse their ex's of 'Sex Crimes' during a divorce in order to secure child custody, larger settlements, and sometimes just for the purpose of being vindictive. But because of the reaction any type of sex crime accusation has to the public, it means that an accusation can be damning without needing any actual evidence. It means lawyers take things to trial, because if they can throw enough accusations at someone, then 'something' will stick.

Just to let you know, Sex Crimes have the second lowest recidivism rate of all crimes, next to murder. Not that we can make much of these statistics, because given the temperament of the public and the way our system works, most of the people on these registries are likely innocent. I had a lawyer quote me 85% being innocent once. Reason is, most people being accused are pressured into pleading to 'something' under the sex offender title, because the chances of going to court on anything having to do with a Sex Crime is a huge risk. Doesn't matter if there's any evidence, it only takes a jury of people like you to get spooked. It happens a lot.

So, let's say the person is convicted by a spooked jury with little to no evidence? Well, they can appeal right? Sure, and there are a good number of over turns for that reason. However, once you're on the sex offender list, overturns don't matter. Once a sex offender, always a sex offender. Notice that I haven't even gotten to Sexual Predator yet. Did you know that selling a porn mag, or even giving one, to a minor, can land your ass on the sex offender list?

The system has become so bloated with insane laws, the public so scared into panic, and the topic become so political, that accusations are as good as convictions. And with a system that screwed up, how the hell is the public going to actually tell when an individual poses a real and serious threat to the community? You put enough names on the list, and pretty soon the list is meaningless, unless you're stupid enough to equate convictions of sex crimes to actually commission of crimes. Anyone who would, has obviously never seen the U.S. Justice system in action.

And I'd be willing to bet that there are a million more stories just like those. it's unfortunate that people who don't really belong on any such sex offender lists clutter them up so you miss the REAL sexual predators.

Silver Fang, I am the mother of the young men in this article.
Young man #1 was scared into a plea - Public Defender, and the prosecutor had in the meantime stirred up a real ruckus. He had gone to the local paper and several other children were questioned by their parents until they "admitted" that he might have touched them (on the buttocks through the clothing) as well. The prosecutor referred to the chat with the police as a confession, and stated he had 3 or 4 other children to whom the same thing had happened. Frightened that he could wind up in jail for decades (quite possible), he plead guilty to sexual assault of a minor.
Young man #2 has a speech problem. In talking to the police, he had a long pause in which he was trying to figure out how to express himself. Even he admits that it sounded like he was lying. Public Defender again. This one went to trial, but the tape was presented in evidence (should never have happened, he was not Mirandized) and without evidence (Public Defender, right?) that he has a speech problem, the verdict was almost a foregone conclusion. Guilty of Visual Sexual Aggression.
It happens. And, believe it or not, it could happen to you. Do you have a couple of tens of thousand dollars for defense? And even if you do, the assumption is in the system now that he would not have been accused if it had not happened, and certainly would not have been arrested if he was not guilty.
Many are on the registry who do not belong there. Indeed, the professionals who deal with sex offenders every day admit that the public nature of the registry does more harm than good.
There are only 2 possibilities. One is that the person is not a danger to commit another sex crime. In that case, you persecute someone unjustly. The second possibility is that the person IS at risk for repeat sex crimes - and then, you are destabilizing them by reducing the likelihood of stable employment and stable housing, which all experts agree makes it more likely that the offender in question will reoffend. Do we really want that?
Think about all this the next time someone points out that there is a sex offender in your neighborhood. Don't just assume he did it. And even if he did, the likelihood of a repeat crime is low - and lower if he is not continually reminded and persecuted for it.

Cases like that are becoming common they just don't sell like "child murder" or child rape cases do so they get no press.

Both the Politicians and the Media have a "blackout" of sorts not wanting to kill their "golden goose" of ratings and votes.

The Internet is a wonderful tool the bloggers here are not deceiving you do your own research and see for yourself.

Most people arrested for a sex offense do not realize just how much potential crap they just landed in. Many will answer questions because they don't think the did anything wrong. Many, being told that they will get convicted and spend 20 to 40 years in prison unless they cop to a plea, do. And many simply cannot afford an attorney and trust they are getting someone who knows what they are doing only to find out they will be encouraged to take a plea even if they are innocent.

Never, ever talk to a police officer when being questioned about a crime, even if they tell you that you are not a suspect. Unless you want to spend time in prison and/or on the sex offender registry, do not give them the time of day.

For someone on here who says its "stupid" to take a plea in these kinds of cases, you have NO IDEA !! My mentally ill son was falsely accused years ago of sexually abusing an 8 yr. old girl in Baltimore. He had no idea why she would say what she did...and we had an awful time finding out even what she did say...the prosecutor wouldn't give any useful information. The girl was automatically believed. Even as my son's mother and knowing he'd never had anything on his record and he was 35 yrs. old, I couldn't understand why this girl would do this.
Well, years later, she recanted ,even gave a very strong deposition to my son's lawyer, said it felt really good to finally tell the truth and to an ex homicide commander of a Maryland police dept. (after she failed two voice detection tests).
This girl came from the most dysfunctional home imaginable...her mother and older sister (who my naive son was in love with) were both drug addicts and prostitutes...my son wanted to get the sister off drugs and marry her. There were three uncles living in the home who were dangerous, one was in prison for murder, one was convicted of raping a blind person and the other for armed robbery. This girl later said two women, her grandmother and a neighborhood watch person both gave her "the idea". They thought my son was "wierd" because of his appearance (bad teeth and skin) and he was overly friendly...he liked people, thought the best of everyone and of course, his ulterior motive with this family was his wanting to marry this older sister, who by the way was the only person in this child's life who she cared about.
Ken is still on the registry, after many lawyers and much money later... He took an Alford plea out of pure terror...and I agreed. His lawyer did very little...which I found out is pretty typical (I knew nothing about lawyers then...I sure have learned) anyway, when I asked his lawyer if it didn't matter if someone was innocent. The answer ...? he shrugged. The Baltimore City paper covered the story objectively. All the rest of the Maryland media did the usual ...running horrible pictures of Ken and pretty much making him out a monster. He spent almost 3 years in isolation in prison because of being a few days late in registering a change of address. HIs life has been ruined by this and our family is devastated. For anyone who cares, read : Baltimore City Paper
citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=14922

Silver Fang - They talked to the cops, it's as simple as that. Whenever a cop wants to ask you some questions, insist on your fifth amendment rights and get a lawyer. It doesn't matter if you're innocent and hiring a lawyer means you have to work overtime for 3 months, it is worth it. The justice system is looking for convictions not justice. Sometimes the cops and prosecutors might not even want to bring charges against you, but because of the machine-like bureaucratic rules they have no choice if you said something that might be a technical violation of the law, especially the sex offences laws that legislators went nuts with the last 30 or so years.

When your kids turn 18 drill these rules into them. 1. Shut up. 2. Demand a lawyer.

First, they want you to plead out in most cases so that you will have no right to appeal later. You cannot appeal a plea deal!

Second, you could have the best attorney on the planet and they could sell you out in a heart beat (you might meet that prosecutor once in your lifem but your attorney has to deal with them every day, so they will take your money and then cut a deal that is NOT in your interest).