Palmer Events Center
Sex Offenders Have Real Victims
RECEIVED Mon., Sept. 20, 2010
Dear Editor,
The article “Sex Offenders Exposed” [News, Sept. 10] is completely one-sided. Why are there so many who are willing to gamble with the innocence of a child? The typical child molester has 117 victims, most of which do not report what happened. This is one of the most underreported crimes there is. The problems this article talks about seem to be due to the wording of the laws and not the registry itself. We all start off as a stranger while we are getting to know a person, so why wouldn’t the registry provide useful information during that time? The Adam Walsh Act states that Tier I offenders have to register for 15 years, Tier II for 25 years, and Tier III for life. However, the state can decide to shorten the registration length according to the tier system for having a clean record for a certain amount of time and for completing certain programs. I believe the “risk assessment tools” that are currently being used are not accurate.
There are real victims behind these sex offenders whose lives are forever changed and who will never be able to apply to have that part of their lives fixed. Victims are told to be silent and to not talk about what we have been through. It’s not right to ask that we return to the silence where abuse thrives because it’s inconvenient to others. Articles like yours say that the victims of these crimes aren’t important enough to make sure that fixes are done properly and minimize our suffering. But it does say, “Let’s just use that same broad brush that we’re complaining about to set almost all of the sex offenders free from the registry list.” Where would be the justice in that? There wouldn’t be.
The article “Sex Offenders Exposed” [News, Sept. 10] is completely one-sided. Why are there so many who are willing to gamble with the innocence of a child? The typical child molester has 117 victims, most of which do not report what happened. This is one of the most underreported crimes there is. The problems this article talks about seem to be due to the wording of the laws and not the registry itself. We all start off as a stranger while we are getting to know a person, so why wouldn’t the registry provide useful information during that time? The Adam Walsh Act states that Tier I offenders have to register for 15 years, Tier II for 25 years, and Tier III for life. However, the state can decide to shorten the registration length according to the tier system for having a clean record for a certain amount of time and for completing certain programs. I believe the “risk assessment tools” that are currently being used are not accurate.
There are real victims behind these sex offenders whose lives are forever changed and who will never be able to apply to have that part of their lives fixed. Victims are told to be silent and to not talk about what we have been through. It’s not right to ask that we return to the silence where abuse thrives because it’s inconvenient to others. Articles like yours say that the victims of these crimes aren’t important enough to make sure that fixes are done properly and minimize our suffering. But it does say, “Let’s just use that same broad brush that we’re complaining about to set almost all of the sex offenders free from the registry list.” Where would be the justice in that? There wouldn’t be.
Regards,
Leah Kongbounmee
Leah Kongbounmee
[News Editor Michael King responds: As the story points out, the inclusion of many less serious or even dubious offenses among serious crimes makes real crime victims more vulnerable, not less so. Moreover, the "117 victims per molester" statistic, ubiquitous on the Internet, has no known foundation in research. It would mean, for example, that the 1,500 registered Austin offenders would have more than 175,000 victims, nearly a quarter of the entire population. Nationally, as one researcher notes, "If all 700,000 registered offenders had 100 to 300 victims like the myth claims, there would be around 70 to 280 million victims. The USA only has 300 million individuals and around 70 million minors."]