Felandrias Sedale Wright Professor Downs Correctional Counseling 1 December 2008 Sex Offender Registration, Notification, & Civil Commitment Statutes: Due Process vs Community Safety Whenever I have heard the term sex offender, I always pictured an adult who has had sexual intercourse with a minor child. As I began my research for this paper, I was informed that a sex offender is a person who has been criminally charged and convicted of, or has pled guilty to, or pled Nolo contendere to a sex crime. A sex crime can but does not always include sexual intercourse. In fact, crimes that are classified as sex crimes include: child sexual abuse, downloading pornographic material of persons under the age of 18, (child pornography), rape, statutory rape and even non-sexual offenses such as kidnapping. The term sexual offender is a broad term, with sexual predator being used to describe a more severe physical or repeat sexual offense.
On the other hand, television can “inform teens about risks and foster communication with parents”, which is a good influence on teens (544). She supports this claim using two recent studies. Those studies examine “the impact of television sex on teenagers’ sexual beliefs and activities” and “the results supported the view that watching shows with sexual content may influence teen sexual behavior, but also found that some viewing effects can be positive” (542). In the first survey, she points out the relationship between percentage of virgins initiating intercourse in subsequent year and age; the survey shows “teens who saw the most sex on television were twice as likely to initiate intercourse within the next year as were those who saw the least” (544). Finally, she closes her argument by suggesting that “teens’ expose[r] to sexual content on television” should be reduced, and that people should “…explore greater use of entertainment shows to
Children and adolescents, regardless of their race, gender, culture or economic status appear to be at approximately equal risk for sexual victimization. Statistics show that girls are the gender most subjected to sexual abuse. However, studies have shown that boys, and later, men are more inclined not to report their victimization; perhaps for reason of societal pressure to be proud of their sexual activity (regardless of how unwanted this may have been at the time) proving this crime to be categorized under the abstract theory. So how do we understand the behaviour of an abuser? It is a common place to attach labels to criminals in an attempt to explain and better understand their behaviour through describing them as possessing a certain characteristic trait.
Female rape would be conceptualized as acquaintance rape, also more frequently than male rape. Finally, the third hypothesis was that females will describe an acquaintance rape if asked to describe a male or female rape situation. Men however, will reproduce a stranger rape situation when asked to describe a male or female rape situation. To test these hypotheses the researchers asked 119 participants to describe a situation where a rape took place. They also informed the participant, by random assignment, whether the victim of rape of the situation was male or female.
Some sexual predators who are convicted of sexually abusing children and serve time in prison or treatment centers, continue to sexually abuse and victimize children even after their release. Yet, they are still allowed to live among the general population. As children continue to be sexually abused in today’s society, steps are being taken to deter repeat offenders. Though it will probably never stop, some organizations are helping to reduce the number of sexually assaulted children by having known sexual predators register within their communities as such. There are, however, some that continue to get away without registering.
In any way it happens, rape is rape, whether it is a random ambush on a dark street, a close relative or boyfriend, or even, as hard as it may be for most people to believe, a drunken night at a party or a club. Rape comes in all shapes and forms, but no matter whom it comes from, who it happens to, or how it happens, rape is rape. We cannot assume that all party girls are victims of rape; promiscuity runs in women just as it does in men. Women choose to have sex just as men do, and as long as it is consensual, even if it may be between two people who barely know each other, it’s fine. However, there is a huge difference
The crime of indecent assault and battery occurs when an attacker, has non-consensual physical contact with a person in a sexual manner. This could be any unwarranted physical contact to a person’s private body. This assault is punishable to up to five years in prison. The majority of sexual assaults are committed against women between the ages of 15 and 25, making college-aged women the group with the highest vulnerability to being assaulted. In fact, according to Kelly Walker from campusspeak.com, and a sexual assault survivor, one in four women will be raped during their college experience.
In a recent article published by The New York Times, writer Matt Richtel presents troubles associated with sharing passwords in the age group of about twelve to seventeen. Richtel writes, “Young, in Love and Sharing Everything, Including a Password,” an article describing how there is a societal belief that password sharing is becoming a new conformity and a sign of trust among teenagers. To further his rebuttal on sharing passwords, Richtel brings in a second topic, sex. He explains that much like password sharing sex brings along many of the same consequences. However, in my own opinion, I believe that conformities exist amongst sex and password sharing but I cannot accredit them as good comparisons.
And if they do, they know they have a better chance of getting off easy because they are tried as teens and not adults. I think we should be tougher on those teens who decide to commit violent crimes. There should be a law that states everyone over 12 years old will be tried as adults. I can’t say it’s going to stop all the criminals together but it will definitely convince potential and actual teenage offenders that committing adult crimes will get you hard adult time. If we were try teenage offenders of violent crime in adult court, adult charges would then force them to think like adults about their actions.
Heavy drinking during adolescence years, when the brain is still developing causes lasting impairment functions such as memory, coordination, and motor skills. Drinking interferes with good judgments leading adolescents’ intolerable behavior and making the vulnerable to sexual coercion. Adolescence girls who consume alcohol for the same reasons adolescents boys do are faced with challenges boys do not have to experience: for example drinking can delay puberty in girls while abusing alcohol can cause endocrine disorders during puberty. Teenage girls who drinks are more likely to have unprotected sex putting them at an increase risk of pregnancy and sexual transmitted diseases. Statistics have shown each approximately 5,500 young people at the age of twenty-one died of the result of underage drinking; this includes about 2,000 deaths in automobile crashes, 3,000 as a result of homicides and 500 from suicides.