Should Convicted Sexual Offenders be Required to give Religious affiliation

by Dragonlady76 7 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  Dragonlady76

  Should Convicted Sexual Offenders be required to give religious affiliation, so that it can be added to their personal information, like age, address etc?

  In Theory a church is the last place the average person would expect to find a molester. Plus church rules like the JW's make it easy for them to stay incognito, but if they had to give religious affiliation it would be posted for all to see, so let's say a dub looking to buy or move to new home were to look up their zip code or town on the sexual offender registry and find that Joe Smith *exm* lived near by and was.....gasp a JW?

  What do you think?

  DL76
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  blondie

  I don't see how it would help protect children. Affiliation doesn't mean attendance. Non-affiliation doesn't mean they won't and can't attend services that religion's facilities.

  The important thing is to give children and parents the means to recognize venues and approaches used by pedophiles and how to counter these things.

  Most children are abused by family members. Do not think of this as stranger/danger.

  A judge is the last person you would think is a pedophile.

  A police officer is the last person you would think is a pedophile.

  A teacher is the last person you would think is a pedophile.

  A doctor is the last person you would think is a pedophile.

  A respected member of the business world is the last person you would think is a pedophile.

  Sad to say, anyone can be a pedophile.

  Identifying the tactics of a pedophile and how to defend yourself is better.

  Blondie
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  hillbilly

  As much as I hate pedophiles and sex criminals in general, in the states, we tend to forget that the law sees them as convicts.While we should worry about ANY convict that lives near us the law provides for a probation system (of public record) for all covicts to comply with. We also forget that once a convict serves his term his "debt to society" is paid.

  In my opinion, registration of sex criminals on special lists is a real stretch of the US Consitution. They are the only class of offenders that have to be tracked on special lists ...above and beyond the normal Probation system.

  Asking for religious association would be over the top.

  Making sex-crimes a captial offense would take care of the problem.... many consider death to be reasonable punishment for sex crimes. And that is allowed in the Consitution.

  ~Hill
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  Dragonlady76

  In my opinion, registration of sex criminals on special lists is a real stretch of the US Consitution. They are the only class of offenders that have to be tracked on special lists ...above and beyond the normal Probation system.

  Asking for religious association would be over the top.

  Making sex-crimes a captial offense would take care of the problem.... many consider death to be reasonable punishment for sex crimes. And that is allowed in the Consitution.

  HB,

  You bring up valid points.

  I agree that the offender registry is a stretch of the US Constitution, however the reason for the registry has been due to the very high rate at which these individuals reoffend. I read somewhere that sexual offenders cannot be rehabilitated, this puts them in that special category to be allowed freedom outside of jail walls upon the completion of their sentence, yet they are still prisoners because of their past crimes once their debt to society is paid.

  Making Sex crimes a Capital Offense would take care of the problem in theory but that would be very difficult to enact. I'm not aware of any legislator or state considering that or having put it into place already.

  I don't see how it would help protect children. Affiliation doesn't mean attendance. Non-affiliation doesn't mean they won't and can't attend services that religion's facilities.

  Blondie,

  I realize it's a long shot, but we both know JW's are discouraged from using the net, search engines or from reading anything that the elders may construe as "apostate" literature, while Silent Lambs and other groups are out there trying to help get the messsage out, the society is getting tougher with the flock using their assemblies and literature to demand obidience from them, don't look at anything or talk with anyone that disagrees with us because they are....."apostates" , regardless of what the difference of opinion is. Thus making our attemps to help futile. So this bit of information being posted to an offenders profile would just be an eye opener for many JW's, even if the person is inactive.

  DL76
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  rebel8

  It would be nice if they were required to give lots of personal info so parents could know where the perp is likely to hang out in his/her free time. Religion is one of them. The down side is they lie, but I still don't think it would hurt to make them give up some of that info. NY requires level 3 perps (those who used weapons) to list where they are employed, which is nice to know.
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  hillbilly

  I guess my point is I can find out about all my neighbors criminal historys' now ... it just takes a little effort.

  I will toss this out for debate too... are sex-criminals really criminal or ill. The fact that they cant be re-habilitated makes a real case for mental health (confined treatment , mind you) instead of incarceration.

  Maybe the criminal system in not were sexual deviants need to be? As DL 76 brings to point, these folks are not "regular" criminals and Capital punishments are hard to deliver some times.

  Again.. just my opinion. Disccussion is encouraged. I may learn something.

  ~Hill
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  Dragonlady76

  I will toss this out for debate too... are sex-criminals really criminal or ill. The fact that they cant be re-habilitated makes a real case for mental health (confined treatment , mind you) instead of incarceration.

  I think this is the part where it get's very complex, in order to actually prove that sexual offenders are mentally ill the Law makers would need years of psychological data to back this up, I don't think they have enough conclusive data at this present time. Also we would need to consider that a child may molest another with out really being a deviant ( know what I mean?) it might have been more of a curiosity thing that happened once.

  1.So at what point do we label the offender as a lost cause or mentaly ill?

  2.And who decideds that diagnosis?

  3. Then what do we do with the offender once we have determined that they are a threat to society and likey to reoffend?

  DL76
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  Eyebrow2

  
  Hillbilly,

  I can see why we have Megan's law in place, but I too struggle with the legality of it as well. We need to protect our kids, but in this country you are supposed to be done "paying your debt" for your crimes when you are released and off parole or probation.

  I think they need to allow those with lessor offenses to be able to be removed from the registry after a certain time out of jail if they have behaved. I am not talking about hard core pedophiles here or rapists, but there have been some, for example those that were 15 years old charged with exposing themselves to a 12 year old. Inappropriate and worthy of some punishment? Absolutely...but should this kid have to be registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life? I have my doubts.

  It is a tough situation, where, since it involves the protection of children, that the governement is erring on the side of children. Not necessarily a bad thing, but still, I am not sure if the law is fully balances protection of our children with civil rights just yet.

  Regarding religious affliation...I am all for a study for something like this. Interview hundreds, or thousands of sex offenders and break down what the percentage of religious affliations there are amoung them. However, this is a study that should be done by some sort of think tank, not the government. Perhaps a good thesis project for some pyschology student? I think it would be interesting, but they would have to be careful with how they present the results. Although there are many cases of sexual abuse in JWdom...I would really be surprised to see that they have a higher rate than Mormons, or Baptists or Catholics, etc.