To Control The Battle, We Must Control the Launguage

by Scott - RSOLCC Minute Men

There are many issues concerning sex offender registration laws. For those who live with the label, the list is lengthy. Many sex offender laws are unconstitutional, un-American, and ineffective. But that hasn't stopped lawmakers from passing more restrictive and unconstitutional laws against sex offenders. The driving force for lawmakers, like most people, is their jobs. The public accepts and encourages these laws, albeit under false pretenses using false statistics and a phrase that only the most callous among us can ignore: "to protect the children."

One subject that is often overlooked is the public perception of the label "Sex Offender".

Lawmakers use the term sex offender as a weapon to belittle those so labeled. It has also become a powerful tool for garnering votes by appealing to everyone's natural desire for protecting children. The media uses the term sex offender to sensationalize news related to registrants. For example, a person that is a sex offender who abducts or murders a child is sure to be characterized with the term sex offender. Yet, a person who does the same but isn't a sex offender will not be referred to as a "non-sex offender". The fact that the media only reports the most sensational crimes further distorts the term sex offender. A sex offender views the term sex offender as a symbol of oppression and a life-long debilitating label. What does the common public think of the phrase?

The public thinks sex offender means child molester and big time sexual criminals. Read the comments of any article written about sex offender laws and you will see what I mean. National news stories of a sex offender committing the most heinous crime of abduction and murder will especially bring out those comments and feelings. The public does not differentiate between sex offenders who commit child molestation and the one who pled guilty to single misdemeanor that didn't even involve a minor or child. It does not differentiate between the serial rapist and the teens who had consensual sex. The truth is that sex offenders include teens who have consensual sex, commit misdemeanor crimes, or get caught sexting, streaking, prostituting, or even urinating in public. The truth is that these categories of relatively minor offenses constitute the vast majority of registered sex offenders in the United States.

In New Orleans, for example almost half of registered sex offenders are either prostitutes or the men who have used their services. Of the 41 that live and work within a one mile radius of my residence only 11 committed a crime against a child (under 13) and one of those was exposure. So here we have a law to protect kids with a list of people where the vast majority didn't even commit a crime against a child. We have laws to protect kids with a list that creates the fallacy that we can predict crimes. We have politicians who will tell lies of how often sex offenders repeat sex crimes. Of the 41 sex offenders who live within a one mile radius of my residence, only one is a repeat offender.

Allow me to illustrate the public view of the sex offender. Take this recent TV news story. A murderer was recently released from prison and a local news team went to the neighborhood where he is allegedly living. One neighbor had this to say " We should know about sex offenders, murderers, you know big crimes like that." Does anyone out there think misdemeanors, teen consensual sex, teen sexting, public urination, or streaking are "big crimes?" Of course they don't, but they don't know that these kinds of crimes make up the vast majority of sex offenders. So we have a situation where the public believes sex offender equals child molester. The same way the term child molester incites feelings of rage and loss of common sense among the public so too, now, does the phrase sex offender. Take this comment about a bill that would make it a crime, punishable by two to 20 years in prison, for convicted sex offenders to use social networking web sites that are available to minors. "There's only one sure way to stop these perverts once and for all...its called castration. Now you tell me, how are you going to keep them off the internet or texting on the cell phone. Once they realize that they are going to lose their manhood...permanently, they will sure as heck give some thought before they try to contact our kids." Same article different poster, "This is disgraceful. We are going to pay people to become pedophiles-- what the hell has happened to our country?" Neither the article, the legislation, or the posters differentiate between sex offenders and child molester. None differentiate between those that prey on children and those that do not. This comment followed an article about the difficulty in finding housing for sex offenders. "I have a GREAT IDEA, why don't we pick up all sex offenders and bring them to plum island? Maybe we can do crazy experiments on them instead of using real innocent animals. Can we do that?"

The above examples show the attitude towards sex offenders, but the public doesn't know what crimes really make up the registries. I have never read a post that says, "A sex offender moved into my neighborhood I hope they don't go outside and urinate." Or "a sex offender moved into the neighborhood I hope they don't hire a prostitute." Or a sex offender moved into my neighborhood I hope they don't have consensual sex with their boyfriend/girlfriend." We don't read comments like this because the public recognizes that these types of crimes are not dangerous. The public understands that these types of crimes don't need or deserve the label sex offender. What the public doesn't know is that these are exactly the crimes that make up the sex offender lists. As far as the public is concerned sex offender equals child molester. Sex offender equals a man hiding in the bushes ready to kidnap a child. Sex offender means a man driving around in his windowless van trying to entice a child into it. We have to educate the public about what sex offender really means. We must inform the public that no children are actually being protected by the present regime of sex offender policies. Yet, hundreds of thousands kids and teens are having their lives destroyed by the same laws meant to protect them. We have to use the stories and faces of these kids and teens to illustrate the point, to drive it home.

There are many problems with sex offender laws and registration requirements. I have striven here to highlight just a few. The movement to bring some common sense to these laws, to have them rolled back, faces many obstacles; chief among them is educating the public about the difference between a sex offender and a child molester.