by James Kellard
May 18, 2009
There are quite a few laws these days meant to "protect" children when in fact they end up doing more harm than good. The most serious example (in my opinion) are the laws regarding sex offenders. To be clear, child molestation, rape, and other serious sexual crimes are deplorable and should be punished. That being said, sex offender laws have been perverted themselves and are being taken advantage of. The problem is that no politician will touch this issue with a 10-foot pole because it is more politically beneficial to appear as if you are tough on crime and "protecting" children, whether that is the case of not.
Megan's Law (the sex offender registry), requires sex offenders to "register," publicly branding them as sex offenders. On the surface, this seems like a good idea. If a convicted rapist or child molester lived down the street from you, you would want to know. There are many problems with this however.
Unfortunately there are people who take advantage of any law. There have been cases in which someone has been convicted of a crime as serious as rape based solely on the testimony of one witness. In some cases it is later discovered that the witness either lied or was mistaken, whether out of some sort of revenge or just as honest case of mistaken identity. Let us assume for argument's sake that a man is accused and convicted of rape based on the testimony of a woman who has mistaken him for someone else. Not only will this man most likely end up serving time in prison for something he did not do, but even after he is released he will have to register as a sex offender. Even if it is later discovered that the man is in fact innocent, he will have to fight through the courts to have his name taken off the sex offender registry. Once someone has been branded a sex offender, even mistakenly, that label generally sticks. No judge is going to want to be the "judge who excused a sex offender," even if it is the right thing to do.
The above example, while something that has probably happened a number of times, is a hypothetical and a seemingly rare occurrence. The problem is there are more and more situations in which Megan's Law is being taken advantage of by over zealous law enforcement and prosecutors. Recently it was in the news that a teen girl and her 16 year old male friend had been arrested for child pornography because the girl had sent him naked pictures of herself. If convicted, they would both have to register as sex offenders. This type of
situation appears to be more and more common, teens being arrested for "sexting." While it is not illegal for one 16 year old to have sex with another 16 year old, if one of them electronically sends the other a nude picture of themselves they can be arrested for child pornography.
Because of something seemingly minor that these teens have done in their youth, they will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of their lives. It will be difficult for them to find jobs, a place to live, they will not be allowed to be in areas where children congregate (a park for example), and a simple internet search will publicly show that they are a registered sex offender without giving many details about the crime itself. These teens will be on a list next to convicted rapists and child molesters all because they sent a nude picture of themselves to a peer.
There have also been cases in which an older teen has had sexual contact with a younger teen (for example an 18 year old with a 15 year old), in which case the older teen has been arrested, convicted, and forced to register as a sex offender. Using this logic, a senior in high school can be arrested for having sex with a sophomore. So now, because the older teen has had sex with another teen, only three or four years younger, they can be arrested for statutory rape and branded a sex offender for the rest of their lives. This is still the case even if the younger teen lies about their age. An 18 year old can still be arrested and required to register as a sex offender, if they have sex with a 15 year old who says they are 17.
It is of course illegal be send, or be in possession of child pornography. As with Megan's Law this seems adequate on the surface, but looking a little deeper there are problems. Obviously if the suspected pornography shows a child engaged in sexual conduct with an adult there is no argument and this should be punished. Consider however, a 2 year old child is taking a bath and playing in the tub with his mother and his father, finding it cute, takes a picture. Let us also say that the father decides to send some family photos to his own parents through e-mail, the bathtub picture included. Does this photo constitute child pornography? If so, what requirements must the photo meet to be considered pornography?
If both the child and mother are nude in the tub together does that make it child pornography? What if the child is climbing on his mother and one of his hands happened to be on her breast when the photo was taken? Since the father sent this photo over the internet to somebody else, if the authorities find it to be indecent the father can be arrested, charged with sending child pornography, and forced to register as a sex offender. This all over something that, to the family, was a completely innocent photo of a child's bath time with his mother.
What if a parent takes a photo of their children taking a bath together, would that be pornography? Does it matter if both children are the same sex or one is male and one is female? If they happened to be horsing around at the time and there was any physical contact does that rise to the level of pornography?
Of course, none of this is to say that we should remove all laws regarding child pornography, sex crimes, or even the sex offender registry. There is a need for some restrictions though. Charging a teen who sends a nude photo of themselves as a sex offender, or a parent who takes a photo of their child in a "normal" nude situation, is completely unreasonable and will practically destroy the lives of those people and their families.
Most of us do not think that situations like this occur with much regularity, but the fact is they are becoming more and more common all the time. While there are some situations, such as rape or actual child molestation, that fully warrant, and require, punishment, there are too many situations which most of us would consider completely innocent, or the actions of a teenager's raging hormones, in which an over zealous prosecutor or law enforcement officer can greatly effect the lives of law abiding citizens.
These people who get "caught in the shuffle," and are forced to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives, can have trouble finding jobs, apartments, homes, friends, be banned from being around children thereby restricting them from attending their children's school and extra curricular events, and basically become public pariahs. With laws such as Megan's Law, while originally well meaning, we are putting far too much power and trust in the government and law enforcement to get it right, and not ruin the lives of innocent people. There needs to be some type of oversight and restriction to find some sort of balance between punishing those who truly commit criminal acts, and innocent people being caught up in some sort of witch hunt that is unfortunately becoming more and more.
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