Blog Against Sexual Violence Day 3 - My Post

As advertised earlier, Abyss2hope hope is again hosting "Blog Against Sexual Violence Day" here.   There are a lot of interesting perspectives from persons around the web, including a lot of persons who have been victims/survivors of sexual violence.

I write today from the perspective of a detached scholar who looks at sexual violence issues from a legal and cultural perspective.  One of the oddities for me contributing to such an event as this is that many might feel some of my views are more in line with defendants who perpetrate sex crimes.  However, I've done my fair share of advocating on behalf of rape victim rights as well.  Ultimately, for me, as I've recently noted, I'm focused on finding this best possible sex crime policy.  In some cases this means adopting changes that favor victims and the prosecutors.  Sometimes, it will mean supporting policies that favor defendants and past offenders.  The end goal is still a marked reduction in sexual violence by designing policies that do more than satisfy short-term political interests.

To this end, I offer a few suggestions that every jurisdiction should consider in fighting sexual violence:

First, any policy that is borne entirely in the wake of a front-page news story about a sex crime is unlikely to be well-designed.  Because of that, there will often be substantial collateral effects that make such policies problematic for a variety of reasons.  So, take some time and if the law is a good idea, it will still be a good idea one year later when the media attention has died down.  Adopting a law in the midst of public outcry may be politically expedient, but it is usually a long-term disaster.

Second, create sex crime policies that make sense in relation to other statutes on the books. It is all too common for a state to drastically increase penalties for sex crimes in one state for a particular sex crime in a way that creates bizarre effects.  In Arizona, persons who possess child pornography will be sentenced much more harshly than those who actually produced the child pornography because of the 10-year per image consecutive sentence policy.  This has also been a problem with the six states adopting capital child rape statutes.  Such policies make the punishment for murder and child rape the same so that child rapists have an incentive to kill their victims to eliminate the only witness while not risking a higher level of punishment.

Third, "sex offenders" are a very diverse population. Everything from flashers, child molesters, adult rapists, beastiality practitioners, prostitutes, statutory rapists, public masturbaters, child pornographers, to peddlers of obscene pornography.  Each of these groups presents different problems and challenges.  Policies which treat "sex offenders" as a monolithic group are bound to be fundamentally flawed because such policies treat very different populations in a similar manner.

Comments

[abyss2hope]

Thanks for this post. This perspective is important when raising awareness. If a well-intentioned law wastes government resources or creates danger for victims it's better to know this as soon as possible.

[Michael Connelly]

Nice work. If Obama and Clinton deadlock the convention, would you consider throwing your hat in the ring?

[Ilah]

I'd add a fourth: spend at least half as much on first-offense prevention as on post-conviction policies.

[marj aka thriver]

Thank you for this post and for participating in BASV Day. Your words here help me understand your views better.

Mr. Yung, if I understand your blog correctly, you mostly agree with Eric Janus in his "Failure to Protect: America's Sexual Predator Laws and the Rise of the Preventive State."

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=936929

Janus is not "soft on crime" and does not "coddle criminals," but does favor rational laws.

[jjoe]

RE: possession cp v producing it

This seems to follow the pattern of the Drug War. Government pretends they don't know where the footage came from, but after the defense discovers it's commercial adult footage, government retaliates with new charges: http://amjur.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/defendant-charged-with-thought-crime-after-alleged-child-porn-revealed-to-be-adult-porn/

Then there is the government knowingly allowing companies to profit off footage they prosecuted as child porn: http://trewthe.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/why-are-the-us-feds-allowing-the-distribution-of-footage-they-prosecuted-as-child-porn/

It's so much easier to increase the statistics by going after the consumer/citizen who has no resources, money or experience and is easily manipulated. The statistics tend to drive legislation/fear.

[Kandra]

There should be no differences in sentences for these individuals when they are in possession of child pornography. Whether they produced it, look at it, trade it, sell it, or whatever; all of them should receive a strong sentence of 60 years. If the perp is already 50, well then it looks like life is the reality, but 60 is a good round number for these types of criminals.

Our justice system plays too many games, allows too many criminals to get away with this and that because of the technical crap. Lets stop and look again at the crime child pornography. This crime means that someone like yours or my daughter or son or neice or nephew had to submit to some horrific sexual act that takes the life right out of their innocent eyes in order for the image to be captured for trading online. Im sick of these light sentences for these offenders. 10-years an image is not enough. 60 years flat for one image. Lets stop fucking around and protect our kids god dammit.

KB