Chapter Eight of the book Flawed Criminal Justice Policies, authors take the closer look at the laws and faulty policy regarding the sex offenders. According to the book policy makers started the myriad laws to protect the public from the sex offenders with increased prison sentences, and restricting the residences to the violators. Today we have very similar situation when it comes to treatment of sexual offenders. The process starts with the sex offender being committed to the prison sentence, and lastly to being registered as a sex offender on many public websites, so that the people could distinguish who the sex offender is and where he/she lives. In this chapter we can learn about a lot of different statues that were made to protect people from the sex offenders. Some of them include Community Protection Act of 1990 passed in Washington State, which was the first public policy made to release the information about any sex offenders released to the public. Next statues as follow; Jacob Wetterling crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Predator Program of 1994, which was inspired by an actual abduction of a young boy. …show more content…
The main reason for implementing policies that would actually work is to make the streets, and cities safe for children. There are a lot of states that already do thing differently and other states should allow those policies to be implemented into different federal levels. For example GPS monitoring the most violent predators. We should have strict housing proposals for protecting neighborhoods with large numbers of youth. According to the book we need to change the current policies and statues to make them work better toward protecting our communities. The most important change should be made to make all the policies actually work together, each statue should work on something specific, and not overtaking other policy
Due to the significant media coverage surrounding the case, changes in legislation and enforcement were made in a few different areas. The most significant outcome that was introduced following the case was the “no body, no parole” legislation. Initially, the legislation was only passed in a few states, with the Northern Territory (where the crime occurred) passing it in 2016. This was aimed partially at the Falconio case, pressuring Murdoch to reveal the whereabouts of Falconio’s body. Currently, most states have a law of similar calibre in place with most recently the NSW Government introducing the Crimes (Administration of Sentences)
Policy Analysis: Megan’s Law Sexual violence, particularly against children, is a significant issue all around the world. In the early 1990’s in the United States, there were multiple well-publicized cases of sexual violence against children. From kidnappings, to rapes, and everything in between, violence was being committed against children and something needed to be done about it. In 1996, Megan’s Law was passed in response to the sexual assault and death of Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old from New Jersey (Corrigan, 2006).
On July 29, 1994, New Jersey resident Megan Kanka was lured into the home of Jesse Timmendequas, a convicted sex offender, with promises of seeing a puppy (Corrigan, 2006). Once she entered his house, she was raped twice, strangled with a belt, and suffocated with a bag (Corrigan, 2006). Timmendequas was arrested soon after and confessed to this crime (Corrigan, 2006). This event outraged Kanka's parents and the surrounding community (Corrigan, 2006). They used this tragic death to create Megan's Law as an addition to the Jacob Wetterling Crimes against Children Violent Offender Registration Act, which required sex offenders to register within their counties (Welchans, 2005).
A final criticism is that it subjects sex offenders to indefinite punishments (Levenson,
To have a law passed under the name of a victim is world-wide changing, as the terrible acts could be restored into the criminal justice system today. Although, the circumstance of any law passed by legislation is too hard to understand why would anyone want to commit such a horrific crime, the answers, we may never know. As many Americans may remember it, the world stopped on July 15, 2008 as people heard across the nation on the news, radio, and perhaps social media. A two-year old little girl from Orlando Florida was missing, and her name was Caylee Marie Anthony. Casey Marie Anthony gave birth to Caylee on August 9, 2005 in Orlando Florida.
Megan's Law is a controversial law that requires sex offenders to register with law enforcement authorities upon their release from prison. The law was enacted in response to the sexual assault and murder of 7-year-old Megan Kanka by a neighbor who had twice been convicted of similar sex offenses and was on parole. The law requires offenders to provide their name, photograph, physical description, list of offenses, current address, place of employment or school, and automobile license plate number. In terms of the ideal characteristics of criminal law, Megan's Law can be seen as a positive step towards protecting public safety. The law aims to prevent future crimes by providing the public with information about convicted sex offenders in their
Furthermore, this leaves room for states to implement their own practices and ways to address status offenders. It has also been argued that the Act “fractured the juvenile justice system so that officials in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare handled white, middle-income youth” (Hinton, 2015, p. 816). Programs which labeled white youths as “children in trouble” marked minority youths as “chronic offenders” who were deemed a danger to society, and tried as an adult. The exceptions and revisions that have been made to the Act make it possible for repeat status offenders to be detained in secure
The term "sex offender" means an individual who was convicted of a sex offense. Research has shown that Sex offenders that commit a crime against a person has not previously been convicted of a violent offence before. They do these crimes unders a masks of a normal relationship. Most Sexual offences committed against the person are mostly perpetrated by family members and acquaintances, and the big majority of them are unreported. Not all crimes are the same because there is such a wide spectrum of sex crimes.
Should Sex Offenders Name be Public? It is debatable if sex offenders names should be public, some people believe is a invasion of there private life, “There is a real danger of vigilantism and publicizing their names (and the info required goes far beyond just their names) is an invasion of privacy of the wives, children and families of these offenders, which is an invasion of privacy no other class of criminal faces”(debate.org) . Others believe this is not even debatable, that Sex offenders name should be public, period, “Once somebody commits a sexual crime, they have given up their right to anonymity.
Sources: Department Of Corrections, Washington. Sex Offender Management Assesment And Planning
There are different types of sex offenders which make recidivism complex to handle. Unfortunately, recidivism remains a difficult concept to measure, especially in the context of sex offenders. The surreptitious nature of sex crimes, the fact that few sexual offenses are reported to authorities, and variation in the ways researchers calculate recidivism rates all contribute to the problem. The containment model approach should be used which was developed by Kim English.
Because these crimes have great impacts on lives, it is necessary that problem be eliminated. There are two aspects to solving the issue at hand, increased government intervention and increased efforts by universities to prevent sexual assaults. The former has already begun to happen. Janet Napolitano, president of the University of California, explains that “institutions of higher education have seen an explosion in new requirements imposed by the Department of Education, Congress, and state legislatures” (Napolitano 392). These requirements force colleges to take certain steps in protecting students from potential danger.
Victims of stalking often are ordinary people, with mostly just cases of famous victims being reported on the media. Victims are likely (but not necessarily) female, young, educated and single. Violence is more likely if the stalker and the victim had a prior relationship, resulting possibly from a sense of ownership over the victim. Many cases of stalking are not reported (around half of them). Still, the psychological harm done by threats, stalking and intrusion is often judged by the victims as more severe than actual physical assault.
Many ask should offenders have the right to live near schools, parks or daycares after serving their time for the offense. This is one of the most emotionally debated issues in criminal law today. How to manage the risk of sexual offenders being rehabilitated back into the community? “Beyond mandatory registration and community notification, over a dozen states have enacted residency restrictions that forbid sex offenders from living within a certain distance of schools, parks, day care centers, or even places where children normally congregate.” said Durling. Author Caleb Durling conducts a research to discuss his opinion how the law should modified.
There are three components that make up the criminal justice system – the police, courts, and correctional facilities – they all work together in order to protect individuals and their rights as a citizen of society to live without the fear of becoming the victim of a crime. Crime, simply put is when a person violates criminal law; the criminal justice system is society’s way of implementing social control. When all three components of the criminal justice work together, it functions almost perfectly. For a person to enter the criminal justice system, the process must begin with the law enforcement.