Tuesday, January 14, 2014

http://news.wjct.org/post/sex-crime-reform-starts-moving-through-florida-legislature

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

It drives you CRAZY that our group can tell you off and you can do NOTHING about it! We take great joy in your angst!

Valigator said...

While your thinking of pithy comments I was busy watching the shock collar amperage rise to death gripping current courtesy of the Florida Legislators..heee hawww..this is a great day..poor Gail changed her clothes to meet with the next set of legislators for nothing. Perhaps she should spend more time on her presentation than her wardrobe changes..

Anonymous said...

You are aware that many of these laws have lasting, life-changing consequences on victims, those convicted and their families. I think there is a misunderstanding of what a sex-offender is and the issue with many of the laws is that they don't consider there are different types of convictions under different types of circumstances. Unlike almost all other laws, sex offenses do not have the protections of mens rea, so what may have been completely unintentional will not be a defense. Furthermore, many offenses may not be considered so in other states. Lastly the fact that at least 85% of the sentence must be served in prison before being considered for release prevents people from getting a fair trial and coercion into pleas that should have been contested. Do you honestly trust our justice system?
If our goal is to protect children then I am all for punishing people both ways. If someone over 12 propositions sex or lies about their age in a way a reasonable person would believe them, a lesser punishment should be issued. I also would made drug laws for minors more stringent. Many have far worse consequences on development than many types of sexual activity.
The sentences are so severe that I would not be hesitant to offer many the option of suicide after 1 year of sentencing. We support many of these individuals through SSI and welfare and if we take that away, we still would be supporting them because after starvation or hypothermia they would be hospitalized anyway.
Lastly, change for those, especially the younger convicts who made bad judgments on dating partners (even John Walsh was fooled by his wife with regards to age).
Nobody argues with you that there are criminals who need stricter sentences and supervision, the serial molester. But please do not lump everyone and stereotype because then society makes that stereotype true.
Instead of pouring a billion dollars into some of these programs we should be funding better, non-partisan research into many facets of these issues. I would like to break apart many of the categories, such as ages, relationship to, frequency, types, socioeconomic data, coercion, initiation, treatments, victim-molester relationships, drug use, mental issues in relation to others. The problem is much is kept in secret and in my opinion, as a person that people trust to relay their secrets, is that for every one convicted there must be 20-100 others that have not. Let's get at the root of this.

Anonymous said...

To clarify above, if a minor above a certain age asks or initiates sex or does nothing to stop it, should the minor not be punished if our goal is to deter these types of crimes. It's just like alcohol. If a minor illegally buys alcohol, isn't there some sort of punishment? Again the goal is, as is the goal of these laws to deter the corruption of the morals of minors.

Valigator said...
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Valigator said...

I actually can't think of too much I disagree with on your post. But your expecting way too much for the judicial system to split hairs and take into consideration some of your aspects. I am not sure what protocol "therapist" will use in determining risk, but I venture once that is worked out you will start to see more legislation that encompasses some of your points. You will also start to see more verifiable data and it may not be the data you hope for, but who knows. I dont have any problems with much of any aspect of your thoughts.I am sure you will agree that from the public's perspective we have way too many people who do nothing but arise in the morning and look for ways to tear our families world's apart. What I have a real problem with is offenders who have atrocious crimes and or their advocates attempting to tell me and the world how "harmless" they are. I appreciate you taking the time to post, I hope you come back.

Valigator said...

I dont think the public and or myself consider minors having consentual sex (even with all the social repercussions) pregancy, STD's etc. on the same level of crimes we are use to reading about. Most states are not prosecuting for "Romeo crimes" and the small minority who were convicted under such circumstances, should be removed from the registry ASAP.