Sex Offenders In Iowa

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Anyone who has ever been convicted of a sex offense against someone under the age of 18 cannot live within 2000 feet of a day care center, licensed in home day care provider, or school. This law is being tried by the Iowa Civil Liberties Union because they feel that this law is not fair for these sex offenders. These laws have been in use since July of 2002 and are now being tried. Iowa has been trying to track sex offenders for 50 years and could not figure out a way to do so efficiently, so they came up with the Iowa sex offender residency law in 2002. In November 2005, the US Supreme Court refused to review Iowa's sex offender residency law. Whoever has been convicted as a sex offender in Iowa has to abide by this law or go to jail. Many…show more content…
These convicted sex offenders cannot live in most Iowa cities and are forced to live in rural areas. If you are a registered sex offender in Iowa it is no different than being in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Many politicians feel this law is unfair but they don't vote against these laws for fear they will be labeled as unsympathetic for victims of sexual abuse. The majority of citizens are in favor of this law but they don’t know that there are still many sex offenders around them who haven’t been convicted of it yet. This law should be banned because it is very hard for sex offenders to find a place to live, no matter how serious your offence was all sex offenders have to face the same punishment, and it is very difficult to keep track of all these sex…show more content…
There are schools in all major cities in Iowa so mostly all sex offenders are forced to live in rural areas and be isolated from the rest of the world. The Iowa residency law has packed sex offenders into rural and semi-rural trailer parks and motels simply because no other housing that complies with the law is available or affordable to these offenders. John Cremont is the owner of a motel in a rural area in Iowa. He stated that, “With just 24 rooms, the motel, the Ced-Rel, was home to 26 registered sex offenders by the start of March.”( Davey, Online) This shows how desperate sex offenders are to try and find a place to live. Last fall, Deputy Vrotsos told about 30 of the offenders that they would have to move to meet the requirements of Iowa's law, which he said made about 90 percent of the city of Dubuque off limits. The sex offenders are forced to live in very close proximity of each other since there is only a small amount of places where they can live. Which is very dangerous for families who live near these congested areas because it makes their children more vulnerable to these offenders? Many families who are living in rural areas near these sex offenders are moving because there are so many sex offenders living near them, they do not feel safe. How is a hardworking father trying to support his kids focus on his work while he knows that his kids are in great danger. The only way to get rid
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