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http://baylorlariat.com/2013/11/08/viewpoint-sex-offenders-need-stronger-punishments/
Viewpoint: Sex offenders need stronger punishments
November 8, 2013 Filed under Opinion, Points of View Posted by Web Editor
By David Trower
A couple months ago, more than 100 people convened in Los Angeles for the Fifth Annual National Reform Sex Offender Laws conference, “Justice for All.” The purpose of the conference is to shed light and try to bring about reform of national and state sex offender laws that they claim deny the civil rights of more than 750,000 sex offenders.
I find this to be offensive. These laws exist for a reason and they exist to protect everyone, especially children. To think that, as a sexual offender, your rights trump the rights of innocent children is offensive and repulsive. In some ways, our punishments for those that commit sexual-based crimes are too lenient.
When the two Steubenville high school football players, Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16, got the minimum sentence of one to two years in a juvenile detention center on March 17, for transporting, undressing, photographing and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old high school girl incapacitated by alcohol on Aug. 12, 2012, that is a travesty. The humiliation and hurt that she will face is worse then the slap on the wrist that the rapists received.
According to Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, out of every 100 rapes, 46 will get reported to police, 12 will lead to an arrest, nine will get prosecuted, five will lead to a felony conviction and only lead to prison time. Think on that for a moment. Out of 100 rapists, three will spend a day in jail. Where is the justice in that?
Yet those that are labeled as sex offenders think that part of their punishment is unfair and too strict. They believe that laws that limit where they can live or where they can go are too restrictive and repressive.
Well what about their victims and the years of pain and hurt they go through? That is not something that they can just walk away from. The hurt and pain is always there with victims. They have been robbed of their innocence and their childhood. When you take that away from them, you forfeit your rights. I believe that sexual offenders that sexually victimize children should be treated the same that we treat felony murderers. You take away the innocence and childhood from a child through sexual victimization, you should forfeit your life.
David Trower is a senior management and information systems major from Waco. He is the web editor for The Lariat.
http://baylorlariat.com/contact-information/
Dave in the Philippines
Viewpoint: Sex offenders need stronger punishments
November 8, 2013 Filed under Opinion, Points of View Posted by Web Editor
By David Trower
A couple months ago, more than 100 people convened in Los Angeles for the Fifth Annual National Reform Sex Offender Laws conference, “Justice for All.” The purpose of the conference is to shed light and try to bring about reform of national and state sex offender laws that they claim deny the civil rights of more than 750,000 sex offenders.
I find this to be offensive. These laws exist for a reason and they exist to protect everyone, especially children. To think that, as a sexual offender, your rights trump the rights of innocent children is offensive and repulsive. In some ways, our punishments for those that commit sexual-based crimes are too lenient.
When the two Steubenville high school football players, Trent Mays, 17, and Ma’lik Richmond, 16, got the minimum sentence of one to two years in a juvenile detention center on March 17, for transporting, undressing, photographing and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old high school girl incapacitated by alcohol on Aug. 12, 2012, that is a travesty. The humiliation and hurt that she will face is worse then the slap on the wrist that the rapists received.
According to Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, out of every 100 rapes, 46 will get reported to police, 12 will lead to an arrest, nine will get prosecuted, five will lead to a felony conviction and only lead to prison time. Think on that for a moment. Out of 100 rapists, three will spend a day in jail. Where is the justice in that?
Yet those that are labeled as sex offenders think that part of their punishment is unfair and too strict. They believe that laws that limit where they can live or where they can go are too restrictive and repressive.
Well what about their victims and the years of pain and hurt they go through? That is not something that they can just walk away from. The hurt and pain is always there with victims. They have been robbed of their innocence and their childhood. When you take that away from them, you forfeit your rights. I believe that sexual offenders that sexually victimize children should be treated the same that we treat felony murderers. You take away the innocence and childhood from a child through sexual victimization, you should forfeit your life.
David Trower is a senior management and information systems major from Waco. He is the web editor for The Lariat.
http://baylorlariat.com/contact-information/
Dave in the Philippines
David Trowler sounds like he would be more happy with a third world judicial system. One that tortures people, humiliates people, tries people in the court of public opinion .... Etc. O wait that is America!
Hopefully mr Tower never needs to try to get a fair trail and convience a jury of his peers in a state like Florida that he wants to move on with his life after decades past of serving his sentence and not reoffending.
Self rightous people that want to judge others often have a closet full of skeletons and use so much energy trying to dominate, conquer and control other people.
From what I have heard all prisoners get treated better than ones in for sex offences. I know the one prison my husband was in they got treated bad, called names by other prisoners, CO's, got there meal time, rec time cut short, if there were fights they didn't just jump in and break it up, plus if a prisoner didn't do exactly what the CO wanted they beat them. One was a guy talking to a CO and another Co came up to talk and the prisoner walked away feeling he shouldn't be there during their conversation and got beat by the COs for leaving when he wasn't told to. How fair is that???? To me not fair at all.
Our culture doesn't do that. Our culture emphasizes victimization of BOTH. That is the real problem and this guy have outlined it extremely well. And there's that old question, "what about the victim?", as if that justifies such hate. Well, I'm sure to many people, it does seem to justify it.
When you start to look outside the box, however, you start to see that this kind of thinking is not only harmful to everyone involved, but keeps the pathway open for the next offender/victim scenario to occur. It does so by blocking methods of prevention.
People are going to write these kind of things. I'm not surprised some young person who has little experience in the world would parrot this kind of vitriol. The truth is that the real world is not so black-and-white, and that boundary violations happen and people are hurt. The conference is one way to start seeing things in a different light. That's why it is so important.
This guy just needs to grow up.
Dave in the Philippines
However, unless the perp is truly repentant and remorseful and gets whatever help they need, I find it difficult to empathize with a lifetime of effects for him/her when I know it lasts a lifetime for the victim. I was used in the sex trade and filmed as a teen, amongst a lot of other things. I am a very forgiving person, but that does not make me whole. I have healed a lot, but the effects are still there, even now.
So, yes, on one level, I can understand completely what David Trower is saying.
My son messed up my granddaughter. While I still love my son, I do not excuse what he did. She will live with it for the rest of her life. Therapy will NOT undo two plus years of incest. That is a fact.
As for the CP, which I understand my son also downloaded, all I can say is that, if people would stop downloading it and buying it, it would cease to exist because there would be no market for it!!!! So, no, it is not "only" downloading CP.
My heart goes out to those who accidentally download, but not to those who intentionally do it. The intentional ones contribute to the abuse of the children in the photos. Am I saying all child abuse would stop. Nope. There will always sick people who will do it for their own pleasure, but at least there would not be the volume we see now.
The truly innocent ones I totally empathize with.
OK...enough of my rant. Sorry if what I wrote is a bit disjointed. This is, as you can see, a very touchy subject for me.