Scope of Problem

The Washington Post recently wrote an article on the explosion in the numbers of convicted sex offenders, the amount of law enforcement resources and the problems that accompany a heightened focus on sex crimes in this country.

According to the article, there are over 700,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S., although there are approximately 100,000 offenders who fail to comply with registration requirements and are often lost track of by law enforcement.

In response to the increasing number of offenders, the U.S. Department of Justice is hiring over 80 prosecutors, just to address sex crimes prosecution. State prosecution has increased from $16 to $75 million for such crimes.

In turn, sex offenders are getting creative in finding ways to access pornographic material online. For example, one offender was caught downloading porn on his portable Playstation device…while walking to meet with his probation officer.

To address the problem of sex offenders surfing the Net, many states as well as most federal districts monitor sex offenders’ computers. In fact, some are using a computer program that monitors each and every keystroke an offender makes on his or her computer. However, that does not eliminate the possibility of an offender using someone else’s computer, using a public computer or even accessing the Internet by using a cell phone.

How far do you think the Government should go to “monitor” sex offenders? Should sex offenders have any right to privacy after they’ve been convicted? How should they be punished if they fail to comply with registration requirements?

Update – 1/6/12 – Federal Government Will Finally Keep Count of Male Rape Victims in US

Since the 1920’s, the Federal Government has defined rape as “carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will” (according to a recent USA Today article). That means that for almost the last century, federal crime statistics involving rape have not included male victims.

According to the USA Today article, some were concerned that the crimes alleged in the Penn State case involving assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky would not be counted.

Do you think it was fair for the government to ignore rape crimes involving male victims in its crime statistics?

For more information about legal representation of those charged with sex crimes, please visit: http://katherinegodinlaw.com/areas-of-law/sex-crimes/

Katherine E. Godin, Esq.

The Law Office of Katherine Godin, Inc.

615 Jefferson Blvd.

Warwick, RI 02886

Phone: (401) 274-2423

Fax: (401) 489-7580

Email: kg@katherinegodinlaw.com

Website: http://www.katherinegodinlaw.com