The two middle-school boys who faced a lifetime label as sex offenders for slapping girls' buttocks have had charges against them dropped. Corrections Sentencing had this to say:
Sense prevailing in OR. Those boys facing sex offender status for slapping girls’ butts in their middle school ended up having charges dropped after restitution and apologies. Which (sh)could have happened in the principal’s office. This all reminds me so much of the pre-school abuse hysteria of the 80s when so many other people were injured by “moral panic” and overzealous prosecutors. And this nation seems to be one of the world’s best at this stuff. Guess being the most highly educated pays off.
I generally agree with that statement, but I think a similar case would show a collateral effect of various sex offender restrictions. If these boys had been 15 or 16, maybe they should have been prosecuted. That would be up to the local prosecutor. But in a world where sex offender restrictions exist, prosecutors can't charge teenagers with small-time sex offenses without resulting in a lifetime of penalties. This means a sympathetic prosecutor could actually end up under-prosecuting juvenile sex crimes for fear of over-punishing offenders.
What we need is a CJ system that understands that different sex offenders entail different risk. In this case, I wouldn't even call this a sex offense (and hope most would agree with me). Rather, these are two misbehaved boys who just need a stern talking to by their parents.
Posted by: Steve | August 22, 2007 at 08:03 AM