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May 14, 2005
Sexual abuse is a life sentence
Regarding "Some sex offenders get to quit probation".
The effects of childhood sexual abuse last a lifetime. Ask any adult who has experienced childhood sexual abuse, and they will immediately feel the pain and vulnerability of having been abused as a child. For them, being sexually abused and violated has been a life sentence.
I am outraged that we as a community would allow the criminals who violate our children to be released from lifetime probation for their offenses. This development is unacceptable and we must fight to make sure the practice does not continue.
The Republic article states that nearly 15 percent of almost 3,000 sex offenders released from Arizona prisons were rearrested for new sex offenses, but only 2 percent of those specifically on Maricopa County's lifetime probation committed a new sex crime.
We must not tinker with the positive results of this program for the convenience of sex offenders. Think about this: Even with just the 2 percent in the county's lifetime probation program, 40 new children were victimized by a repeat sex offender. Letting any sex offenders out on probation is a risk we cannot take.
The sex offenders on lifetime probation talked about the major steps they have to take to avoid putting themselves in positions where they could violate another child. With lifetime probation we know they are continuing to take those steps. Without lifetime probation, what guarantees do our children have? Keeping sex offenders in a formal probation system for life says that our children are precious to us. We are providing some protections for other children in our community.
And we are sentencing a sex offender for the same length of time that a child feels the effects of his crime - a lifetime.
Posted by Nealus at May 14, 2005 12:56 PM
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