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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states may post photographs of sex offenders on the Internet, validating a practice Arizona has used for three years and opening the possibility of expanding the process.
Arizona residents can find photos and other information about sex offenders at www.azsexoffender.org, a site run by the state Department of Public Safety since January 2000. "It's a very popular site," said Val Biebrich, manager of the DPS sex offender compliance unit, adding that it gets 30,000 visits a month. "There's a lot more information than just pictures and offenders."
By a 6-3 vote, Supreme Court justices also rejected arguments by two Alaska sex offenders who contended they already served time for sex crimes before the Alaska registration law was passed and were punished a second time with the registry. The Alaska law requires convicts to give police personal information four times a year.
Full story: The Arizona Republic
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One should ask: Do we really want to stigmatize-for-life criminal offenders? Is Cain's biblical story so appealing that we seek to adopt it in the contemporary society in large-scale? Don't we practically prevent criminals from a fair chance for rehabilitation? How can we prevent the slippery-slope of stigmatizing all criminals and in a next stage maybe all "evil" people? How can we protect the released criminals from the constant harsh sanctions of social norms as shame and humiliation? And practically, without a fair chance to rebuild his life, isn't the criminal being pushed back to crime?
One should balance between the public's right for safety and protection and between individual rights to privacy and dignity. It is an hard balance to draw. To my understaing, the Court got it wrong! The Court's balance is not proportional and compromise individual liberties to an unreasonable extent. See more: CNN
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Re: Sex offenders go online (Score: 1) by phoneyman on Thursday, March 06 @ 12:49:55 EST (User Info | Send a Message) | When sex offenders are released back into society, the most common phrase associated with them is "high likelihood to re-offend".
Very often sex offenders do not fit the same profile as other offenders; what afflicts them is an illness that we have very little success in treating.
In my opinion the decision to post public information about any particular sex offender should be case by case: if the offender has sought treatment, completed the treatment, and is not a repeat offender, a "second chance" is not necessarily a bad thing. The same can be said about non-violent sexual offenders (such as exposers.) However, if this is a repeat offense or treatment is not sought or completed, ***** 'em.
Sex offenders are not driven to re-offend by public villification. They are more often driven to re-offend by whatever ailment drives them to offend in the first place. It's unfortunate that we have not yet found a way to treat them, but that misfortune should never mean that we allow our natural impulse to compassion override the necessary function of public protection.
It is simply true that some people are dangerous and cannot be made safe. If that is the case we have the option of imprisoning them forever or keeping constant vigil over them. Take your pick.
Frankly I have very little sympathy for sex offenders. Afterall once someone is murdered, that's it. The damage is done. Someone who has been violently sexually assaulted has to live with that for their entire lives. For some it can be far worse than a prison sentence; they never recover. For all it is certainly something that colours their life to the end of their days.
Pierre |
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Re: Sex offenders go online (Score: 1) by phoneyman on Thursday, March 06 @ 12:51:01 EST (User Info | Send a Message) | Ok, I have to say that the fact that a site such as lawmeme uses censorware is just sad.
Pathetic really.
How unfuckingfortunate.
Pierre |
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Re: Sex offenders go online (Score: 0) by Anonymous on Thursday, March 06 @ 13:02:07 EST | Php-Nuke evidently defaults to censor mode. I just disabled the filter, so you can curse with abandon. |
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