Daniel Funez

Government 2306
Prof. Andrew Teas
One mistake, forever marked.
According to the American Psychological Association, sexual abuse is the
unwanted sexual activity using force, making threats or taking advantage of victims not
able to give consent. sexual offenders come in different size, race, age and gender but
they make one of the worst impact in peoples lives. Children and women are the mostly
victims of these acts; only the 16% of rapes were reported by women and the 18% out
of 120 million women in the United States said that they had been raped in their
lifetime. Sex offenders go through a process and they are release to society when
theyd paid for their crimes but is not easy for them to get everything together, and
society has access to their information making it even more difficult for them, as a
reconstructed person.
The society nowadays have an easy access to the information of the sex
offenders in their area, especially in the United States. In the state of California there
are one hundred thousand sex offenders registered and sometimes some of these
offenders did not committed an actual sex offense rather a body necessity such as
peeing outside because there was no restroom nearby, even though in extreme cases
someone can have these type of necessity and do it outside. The database of sexual
offenders say that in the zip code that I live there are ten sexual offenders. The offenses
committed by these people were sexual assaults towards children, exposing private
parts to a minor and aggravated sexual assault. As exposed before the target of sexual
offenders are often children having 1.8 million of adolescents being victims of assaults
and that 34% of assaults were children under 9 years old.

Sex offenders have committed a terrible mistake, might just be their first time,
their first thought, just their first and never before but that mistake puts them in a terrible
situation of being marked for lifetime. Sex offenders are seen as one of the most
dangerous people in society and even some say that they should pay their offenses with
the same act they did. As a member of the society knowing that ten sex offenders are
close to me and my family does not give any protection but tells me where they live,
how old they are and what offenses they committed. The database tells how they look
because they have to take pictures but it does not say if they have been in a program
where they have been restored. Paranoia and over thinking are one of the
consequences that a person with a family and with underage females get from this type
of information, knowing that they are sexual offenders close to my family members puts
me in a position where I have to be careful of where I want to move and gives me a
desire of moving to another place where there is less of this offense.
Fairness is not always in the society mind when it comes to sexual offenders.
Society and laws want to make sure that they are punished and sometimes punished for
lifetime. Sexual offenders are people too, even when they had committed a terrible act.
They have feelings, family members, dreams, and some of them want to have a normal
life. The laws make these people isolated and embarrassed, some of them need signs
on their door or where they live saying in this location lives this person that is a sexual
offender some of these people cannot get a decent job because they have children
around and sometimes cannot even find one legal job, putting them to an unbalanced
situation and they commit other crimes such as selling drugs and smuggling.

Sometimes society and law makers put these people into other crimes that they have
to do to survive, and society says that a criminal will always look to do crimes.
Sexual offenders have done a deeply serious scar in those people that they
assault in any matter, some of these victims will see light and some of them will never
pass the harsh situation of living with disgust towards a gender and sex. Society and
law makers have a harsh punishment for these people they totally do but what about
those that had been reformed, what about those that committed a mistake that they
regret. Are they the only ones that deserved these punishment? In society live old drug
dealers, killers, psychopaths, and other that have committed a crime. What about these
databases, why arent they available to the public? If a criminal is a criminal it should not
be exposed? A crime is a crime and shouldnt be available to every person to be sure
that they secured in their neighborhoods? A reformed criminal should have a second
chance no matter what he or she did, we all want second chances when we have made
a mistake; dont we need to be less self-centered and give other opportunities? As a
society we can give sex offenders a second chance if they done everything right, if they
have follow the law, if they have proven that they are reformed a second chance should
be granted.

Bill Update:
-

The bill H.B.171 on February 9 was read for the first time by Representative Alvarado
and at 2:47p.m. on the same date the bill was referred to the Public Education
Committee and it does not have any changes.

The bill HJR 8 on February 26 was read for the first time by Representative Otto and at
4:56 p.m. the bill was referred to the Appropriations Committee. On March 12, the bill
was directly referred to s/c on Budget Transparency and Reform by chair and in March
18 the bill has been scheduled to public hearing.

Bill SB 267 on January 28 was read for the first time by the Representative Perry and on
the same was referred to the Business & Commerce committee. On March 9 the bill was
authorized to have a Co-author being senator Don Huffines. The bill on March 10 was
heard and considered in public hearing, also on the same date a testimony was taken
and left the committee on pending.

Bill HB 827 on February 23 was read for the first time by the Representative Giddings
and on the same day at 3:22 p.m. the bill was referred to the Higher Education
Committee and it does not have any changes.

Bill SB 185 by the Representative Perry was read for the first time in January 27 and
referred to the Veteran Affairs and Military Installations Committee and to the
Subcommittee on Border Security. The bill was heard on March 9 public hearing and on
the same date the bill was tagged, following March 11 the bill was tagged and a Coauthor was authorized that is Senator Donna Campbell and the bill is scheduled for
public hearing on March 16.

Work Cite.
Sexual Abuse. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://apa.org/topics/sexualabuse/index.aspx
Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Website. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2015, from
http://www.nsopw.gov/en/Education/FactsStatistics?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
From Perverts to Pranksters: Problems with Sex Offender Registries. (n.d.). Retrieved March
11, 2015, from http://www.billtrack50.com/blog/civil-rights/from-perverts-to-pranksters-problemswith-sex-offender-registries/
Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Website. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2015, from
http://www.nsopw.gov/en/Education/FactsStatistics?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1
From Perverts to Pranksters: Problems with Sex Offender Registries. (n.d.). Retrieved March
11, 2015, from http://www.billtrack50.com/blog/civil-rights/from-perverts-to-pranksters-problemswith-sex-offender-registries/