From our last article Advocate Argues for End of Registry for Sex Offenders, a series of comments were made that readers interested in the topic might like to read as a separate post since a reasonable debate has ensued.
Rudy 101 has, for the most part, articulated a position that argues for a modification, if not elimination, of the sex offender registry and some of the readers, including longtime commenter, Nice Guy, have expressed an opinion that seems to support the traditional view that sex offenders need to be noticed to society.
Anonymous [Scott Johnson]
What does Rudy think about a 5-year sentence for the first offense and 50-years for the second one? LOL
Rudy
I don’t know why you think that is funny.
First off, let me tell you a little bit about the prosecution of sex offences.
They are the most difficult of all crimes to prosecute. They are usually he said/she said, and although no other evidence is required to convict, it is a sheer roll of the dice on whether a jury will convict. So a prosecutor rolls the dice and puts on the stand a victim and all the trauma related to that, and who knows what happens in the jury room.
Secondly, most sex crimes are in the family, close friends, or close relatives. These are people that are not easy to convince that the offender should get a life sentence. If family members don’t agree on the prosecution, is the prosecutor really going to send family members to jail? If the family doesn’t agree cases will crumble.
Thirdly, no matter where you go in the country between 1/2 and 2/3 of all sex crime accusation are simply not prosecuted. Why? You would have to ask the prosecutor. But a lot of the reasons is the reasons I stated above.
Fourth, sentences aren’t just given out on what can be proven. Sentences are given based upon factors, such as culpability, responsibility, and future dangerousness. Prosecutors just don’t hand out huge sentences to those that admit their crime and light ones to crimes much more difficult to prove.
It is a total twisting of justice to do that. A prosecutor wants to give the heaviest sentence to the most dangerous and lighter ones to the less dangerous ones. Sometimes it just can’t work out like that because of the problems with going to trial. Does a prosecutor gamble and go to trial with a weak case and let an offender walk scot free? Terrible conundrums.
Fifth, the registry is forcing more prosecutors to trial. Although the sex offender registry has been sold to the court as a civil law and not punitive, people facing it know different. Many people will take a prison stint over a lifetime on a registry. Even the registry is dealt away in a lot of cases depending upon who is negotiating.
Lastly, you all could have a million years in prison for sex crimes and the average sex crime sentence will barely budge for all the reasons I have stated above. Most crimes end in plea deals. You just can’t take everyone to trial. The system isn’t that big (even though it is the largest in the world) So you pick and choose and try and do the best you can.
I often hear complaints on why judges hand out such light sentences. But very few people realize it is the prosecutor who is making all the deals and they are the ones who are elected to the political position of prosecutor.
So to answer your question, as in everything dealing with sexual crimes, it is vastly more complicated then you think it ever could be.
Nice Guy
—Maybe legislation should focus on this cure for your disease instead of registration since that is bothering you sick fucks so much.
Most psychiatrists and behavioral neurologists now believe the following:
“Paedophilia is a sexual orientation,” he says. “Paedophilia is something that we are essentially born with, does not appear to change over time and it’s as core to our being as any other sexual orientation is.”
The old fashion or antiquated belief was that pedophiles were molested and absorbed or learned behavior from their abuser. This archaic theory has no merit. Are pedophiles a type of vampire who bite their victim and infect the victim with pedophilia? The belief is ridiculous.
According to modern conventional wisdom men and women are born either heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. Why is pedophilia any different than the 3 basic sexualities?
How do you explain the pedophiles who not molested as children? All pedophiles were molested, makes no sense too any intelligent logical person.
My belief is that pedophiles need to be identified and monitored. There is not a single credible psychiatrist who believes pedophilia can be cured.
Tag and bag is the only safe solution.
Rudy
You are conflating cures with treatments. Can pedophilia be treated? All psychiatrists believe that to be true. Lots of diseases can’t be cured, but can be treated. Diabetes is a perfect example of this. Also the vast majority of those on the registry are not pedophiles. Just like not everyone who has had a homosexual experience is not a homosexual.
Also, and this should not be understated, in many States they have laws that are “strict liability” when it comes to sex offenses. This means, the “victim” can lie about her age, show false I.D. of her age, be in a bar and served drinks through this false I.D. and if you have sex with that person, YOU are labeled as a pedophile for life. There is no defense to it.
Do you think that is fair?
There are 1000’s of people on a registry like that, who have no recourse. You all treat them the same as a serial pedophile. Looking at a registry won’t tell you the difference between the two.
Do you care?
There are kids as young as 9 on a registry? Do you think THAT is reasonable? Do you think every kid who did something sexually inappropriate should be listed on a registry for life? Do you really think everyone on the registry should be subjected to the judgements of novices, or those with axes to grind, or grudges to hold?
Nice Guy
Conflated? Hardly.
Treatment? How effective is treatment for pedophiles?
How effective is treatment for homosexuals? Ever hear of Conversion Therapy for homosexuals? Conversion therapy is any type of so-called “therapy” or technique used to make a homosexual man heterosexual.
Conversion Therapy does not work. Why? The reason is the homosexual brain is wired differently. Differently is not a pejorative. It just means an individual is programmed, by their DNA, to have a different sexual preference. Conversion Therapy is completely ineffective and is outlawed in over ten US states.
We are all slaves to our DNA. Gay men and women are born gay. There is no choice. Likewise, I know that child molesters like yourself are born with no choice.
No sane man or woman would ever choose to be a child molester. You are not insane, Rudy. You have no choice any more than someone born with a handicap like Autism.
I do pity you. I know you would choose to be normal at the first opportunity. You would probably give your right hand just to be normal.
Unfortunately, the ability to choose one’s sexual preferences does not exist.
Therefore, people such as yourself must be identified and segregated from the rest of society.
Rudy
Basically, what you are saying is, if I am not a pedophile, I am not to be segregated from society?
Pedophilia is NOT a requirement to be on a registry. Very few people on that registry have been diagnosed as such.
Maybe the registry would have a little credibility if that was a requirement. In fact, that is a real problem with the registry and part of the problem Frank had in interviewing his subjects. They can lie like crazy (and will lie) because of the inclusiveness of a registry to have so many obviously not dangerous people on them that even those who are dangerous will self-identify with those who are not dangerous.
You won’t reason with me, you won’t admit your registry is a hot mess of legislative overreach and all you do is point fingers at me trying to strip me of my credibility through baseless accusations so whatever I say in protest can be summarily dismissed.
Most of you all wouldn’t trust your government to do almost anything efficiently, effectively, or constitutionally. From regulating a pandemic to regulating a gun to even making high-speed internet safely. The whole idea is repugnant and a even a vast conspiracy to some of you.
But boy, you all hop on board when the government makes a registry out of a vast array of convictions and then make them all social outcasts, without hearings, challenges or appeals and you don’t care how they got there. You got a group to hate, to condemn, to point out to everyone that at least YOU are not one of them.
But I am not one of them. I refuse the jacket based upon all the reasons I have made clear on this forum. Your label is illegal and unconstitutional. And UNTIL I get DUE PROCESS, I refuse it.
Thank you for the space to air out my 1st Amendment rights to speak out. They used to say, I may not agree with you, but I will die for your right to say it. Truly, my 1st Amendment rights are what is keeping ME free, it is what makes America Great.
Sandy Rozek
Rudy
It should be noted, I am not alone, isolated, homeless, desperate, broke (though the pandemic is not doing me any favors), hungry, unemployed, looking over my shoulder, or afraid.
WHY?
Because I am not on a sex offender registry.
These comments are public record. I do this, (and have been doing this for over a decade) in order to create a clear record of the violence and the inability to reason with, those people who get registry information.
My sentence is over, for two decades now. I am a productive member of my community. My neighbors don’t fear me. I don’t fear my neighbors. My life is stable.
When I say the registry is not a punishment, that really is the truth. I have a reasonable fear of a registry that many of you are very nice about affirming that fear for me. I really don’t have to follow any laws that any reasonable person would conclude would take my safety and/or security. You all should realize that the foundation to your freedom is that basic rule.
If they can take it from me, outside of a court, solely by legislation, they can do it to you too.
I am arguing for DUE PROCESS. Not throwing away the registry. But to JUSTIFY it as it is applied.
There is nothing to be gained by holding me up to community condemnation and stripping me of all that I have created. Doing so would only be a punishment. As I said before, my punishment is OVER.
Frank Parlato 
Janine Morrison 
J.J. O'Hara 
Richard Luthmann 
Marie White 
Paul Serran
I would add to Rudy’s arguments this fact: The registry has been in effect over two decades; many studies, both academic and governmental, have been done evaluating its effectiveness; it has failed miserably.
It does not predict who will commit new crimes as 95% of new sexual crime is committed by persons not on the registry. It does not reduce re-offense; reoffense by those punished for an initial crime and then living in the community has held steady at, on average, 5% since long before the registry went into effect and is still at that percentage.
It does not reduce new offenses; it does not protect children as virtually all sexual crime against children is committed by persons in their lives, their family members, peers, and authority figures, persons who are not on a registry.
Two of the most popular (with the public) restrictions it has produced, residency restrictions and Halloween restriction, have ZERO evidence, based on a plethora of studies, that they make an iota of difference or produce an iota of public safety. If the registry fails to predict, fails to protect, fails to produce any increase in public safety, but instead goes against everything shown to increase public safety, interferes drastically in rehabilitation, and costs states many millions of dollars that could be spent instead on prevention programs that work and rehabilitation programs that work, WHY should the registry exist?