This post may end up being my least popular one yet. But it's something I feel strongly about, and frankly, it's tough to get me to sthu about something I feel strongly about.
I am all for protecting children in whatever fair ways we can. I am totally against doing it in a way that is unfair and doesn't make sense.
In Oregon, if you have a kidnapping I or II offense against a minor who is not a relative, you must register as a sex offender, even if no sexual offense occurred. Don't believe me?
Source: http://www.oregon.gov/osp/SOR/pages/or_reg_sex_crimes.aspx
(Scroll down almost to the last statutes, to 163.225 and 163.235.)
For anyone out there who is a parent or who cares about one or more children they know, the thought of one of those sweet innocents being taken somewhere against their will is probably one of the most horrifying things you can imagine. And I don't know why this law went into effect. Perhaps there was some research and some correlation between kidnapping and having a motive for sexually offending the victim.
BUT--what about people who have committed an admittedly horrible crime, but did not sexually offend the child? What if the kidnapping was due to believing the child was in danger? Also, if you look at the legal definition of kidnapping, it could be refusing to let someone else's child leave a certain space, against their will. If you think about the crazy things humans do, you can probably come up with lots of scenarios in which this is less serious than it sounds, and someone decides to press charges due to a personal vendetta.
What I am NOT saying is that there needs to be no consequence for kidnapping.
What I am saying is that it doesn't make sense to force someone who is not a sex offender to register as a sex offender.
If this rings true with you, please join me in writing your local congressperson about this issue.
Thank you.
If it's an Oregon state law, the Congress probably has nothing to do with the law.
ReplyDeleteWrite your local state representative instead.