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Sex Offender Registration Leads to Murder

By TChris, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 12:33:09 PM EST
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by TChris

Posting sex offender registries on the web provides a doubtful benefit to communities. Individuals who want to reoffend often move without registering, while those who seek to obey the rules risk becoming the targets of vigilantes.

Michael Mullen has confessed to killing two sex offenders in Washington.

"Mullen also said that he had planned the murders for some time and that on July 13, 2005, he had accessed the Whatcom County Sheriff's sex offender Web site, and from that selected at least one of the two victims," the release said.

As is typical throughout the state, the Web site includes the residences of sex offenders who are required to register with local authorities.

Publicizing conduct for which punishment has been imposed and completed hampers rehabilitation. It also encourages harassment and violence, as this case illustrates.

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    • Sex Offender Registration Leads to Murder | 8 comments (8 topical)
    Re: Sex Offender Registration Leads to Murder (none / 0) (#1)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:20 PM EST
    "Publicizing conduct for which punishment has been imposed and completed hampers rehabilitation." Now that's quite a statement, and completely unsupported by your linked article. Would you link us to your source for this claim?

    Re: Sex Offender Registration Leads to Murder (none / 0) (#2)
    by nolo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:20 PM EST
    I'd say being murdered would put quite a crimp in the progress of one's rehabilitation. But that's just me.

    Re: Sex Offender Registration Leads to Murder (none / 0) (#3)
    by cpinva on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:20 PM EST
    let me just say, up front, that i believe child molesters should either be executed, or sentenced to life w/o parole. further, i'll happily pull the switch, push the button or open the trap door. aside from them, i'm no big fan of capital punishment. yes, i realize that makes me a hypocrite, but it's a hypocrisy i can live with. that said, why single out sex offenders for, essentially, double punishment? why are they any greater risk to the community than a recidivist robberer or murderer? i know the SC has ruled it constitutional, but i believe their logic is flawed, and predicated more on the heinousness of the acts, rather than actual law. given the fact that all other classes of released criminals tend to represent just as significant a danger to society as sex offenders, why the disparate treatment? they have, in effect, created state sanctioned "hit lists" for any self designated protector of the weak and powerless. of course, this is the same SC that recently equated a commercial, for profit development with a "public good", with respect to eminent domain, using a tortured logic that i'm sure james monroe would have found convoluted at best.

    Re: Sex Offender Registration Leads to Murder (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:21 PM EST
    I'm about as left wing as you can go without falling off the edge, but I have to say that I just don't believe in rehabilitation for sex offenders. I think it's a waste of time, and a lost cause, and I'm not talking about 20 something year old guys who have consensual sex with teenagers, I'm talking about real sexual predators. I feel that kind of sexual predation is proof of a psychological disorder that just cannot be cured. I mean honestly, we could throw good money after bad at guys like Dahmer and never make any headway. At a certain point, I think we have to decide who in society is worthy of rehabilitation funds and who is nothing more than a resource consuming leech. I'd rather see the vast majority of rehab funds directed to programs for prisoners who come from disadvantaged backgrounds where they never had a chance to learn a trade than thrown down a bottomless pit at rapists and child molesters. Personally, you could take all the rapists and child molesters in this country, grind them up into dog food, and it would be just fine by me....although, my dogs are very discerning, spoiled creatures and probably wouldn't touch the slop.

    Re: Sex Offender Registration Leads to Murder (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:23 PM EST
    A crime is a crime is a crime. The problem with punishing sex offenders then (and now, to a lesser degree) was that they were being doubly-punished: complete your sentence and then be hounded for the rest of your life. The problem I had with this sort of thing was simple: if the post-sentence sanction was not a part of the sentence itself, then it was patently unconstitutional. I'm also sure this "new and improved" system has had a chilling effect on pleas. God knows, if my clients were exposed (pardon the pun) to this sort of legalized revenge, I'd normally advise them to take it to trial. Might as well go down fighting, right?Why make the People's case any easier?

    Re: Sex Offender Registration Leads to Murder (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:24 PM EST
    Fenria said: I have to say that I just don't believe in rehabilitation for sex offenders. I think it's a waste of time, and a lost cause, and I'm not talking about 20 something year old guys who have consensual sex with teenagers Thing is, you can't say that. Because the latter are indeed "sex offenders" under the law. Perhaps you meant to say you don't believe in it for those with psychosexual disorders? we could throw good money after bad at guys like Dahmer Not excusing Dahmer's perversions, but you are aware that he was a "normal" kid.......until his three uncles gang-raped him at age 8? I'd rather see the vast majority of rehab funds directed to programs for prisoners who come from disadvantaged backgrounds Oh that's good. Sex offenders are all from affluent white families, right? Blacks don't rape, right? They just rob, murder, steal and sell crack. Get them some education and that will all stop, right? Puleeeze.

    Re: Sex Offender Registration Leads to Murder (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:26 PM EST
    mystikwarrior, Dahmer was in no way a normal kid. He was torturing animals as a young child. That, as any psychologist will tell you, is the first step in a violent cycle that invariably will involve humans at some point. And as for the other part where you decided to throw in the race card, I haven't the slightest clue what you're talking about. When I said I wanted to see rehab go to prison programs, I meant for all prisoners, not just one race of prisoners, unless you seem to think that the only people in prison today are black, in which case, you show yourself to be far more racist than you insinuate that I am.

    Re: Sex Offender Registration Leads to Murder (none / 0) (#8)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:26 PM EST
    "problem with punishing sex offenders then (and now, to a lesser degree) was that they were being doubly-punished: complete your sentence and then be hounded for the rest of your life." Please. Having to register as a SO in addition to serving a sentence is no more "double punishment" than having to pay a fine in addition to serving a sentence. The "punishment" for some crimes is greater and has more facets than for other crimes, and so it should be. I grudgingly agree with your point regarding post-sentence sanctioning.

    Sex Offender Registration Leads to Murder | 8 comments (8 topical)