The Eyes Of Texas Are Upon Sex Offenders -- At Home And Work
MayorBob.
Posted to Legal on Mon Sep 29, 2008 at 10:28:27 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.
Sex crimes seem to be the only crimes which are never forgiven. All states provide searchable databases (this is one with links to all states' databases) allowing citizens to find the reported residences of sex offenders. Sex offenders remain on these databases for the remainder of their lives. Sex offenders are prohibited from living within so many feet of places where children congregate: schools, daycare facilities, parks, etc. But, for those members of the public, knowing where one is living isn't enough - at least it isn't down in Texas. Just recently, the Texas state registry began listing places of employment of all registered sex offenders as part of their individual record.
Of course, this news is lauded by those who believe sex offenders are a special type of criminal and ones which aren't amenable to rehabilitation. Conversely, it is assailed by those who believe, just as strongly, that sex offenders don't necessarily reoffend, have already paid for their crimes in prison and are simply looking to make a new life for themselves. According to a Texas state trooper:"It will be new information to the public. It won't be anything new to us because we already collect this information anyway.
Thus, in the words of the news report, the public will be able to become acquainted with the sex offenders who "bag your groceries, sell and service your vehicle, even prepare your food." You can't search the registry by employer; you still need the name of an offender to search. But, once his or her record is located, there's his or her place of employment included. The question being, is this really information the public needs to have? According to reports, this broadening of public access to sex offender employment information is mandated by provisions in the federal Adam Walsh Act and other states may be following suit soon. According to other sources, that's not necessarily the case as the federal law is worded in such a way that states may, or may not, list employment information.
When Texas announced plans to add the information to sex offenders' records, the Attorney General said places of employment are public information. And the general opinion of members of state agency charged with maintaining the registry database was "the more information people have about who may potentially have access to their children, the better that is." But others called the move "devastating" with employers liable to "not ... even look at the capability of ... offender(s)." An official from the state ACLU said the issue should be will providing this information make "us more safe or less safe?" Now that the database includes the employment information, one professional working with sex offenders says it's already had negative effects on some of her clients. Dr. Betty Schroeder says, "we've had two in my groups already be fired from their jobs" and the net effect is "we're going to have a greater effort needed to rehabilitate these fellas." Lynn Blanco, from the Rape Crisis Center, agrees that this might make it harder for sex offenders to find and keep jobs. But she believes it's a small price to pay:"We're all here to ensure that our community, our business community, our school community, our living environment are safe. And we certainly ensure that we can stop and identify folks who have, that may have that predilection to harm children and others."
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