Harsher Punishment

To prey upon, overpower and sexually assault children and women is an especially heinous crime to me. What is even more distressing is that the punishment for rape, child abuse (both physical and sexual), and other sexually based offenses is not in my opinion harsh enough. Lawrence Singleton whose case is well known, served only eight years after he picked up a 15 year-old hitchhiker drove her to a wooded area were he raped her and chopped her forearms off with an axe. He left her for dead on the side of the road, but she survived to testify against him. After he was released he brutally murdered a woman in his home. A child molestation case in Texas left the community upset after a man was due to be released after serving only a six year sentence for raping a six-year old boy. He told police that he got away with abusing over 240 children before getting caught for molesting a single child, and if he got out he would do it again.

Sexual predators repeating their crimes is no surprise to the justice system or anyone else. Sex offenders are among the highest reoccurring offense population in the United States probation system. The number of prisoners sentenced for violent sexual assault other than rape increased an average of nearly 15%. That’s faster than any other category of violent and non-violent crimes except drug trafficking. Its extremely alarming to me considering that there is not a good enough deterrent for these predators to not act on their urges. They are not being put away for life and there is a slim to none chance of rehabilitation for them. There are some people who believe that chemical castration is the best, and really the only option to prevent repeat offenses. In my personal opinion, to remove the organ completely would be much more efficient and effective. To some my notion may seem cruel and morbid, but the only compassion I feel is for the victims of these sick individuals who physically violated and mentally scarred them rest of there lives.

A legal way for citizens to protect themselves and their family is to utilize Megan’s Law. Megan’s Law is named after a seven year old girl named Megan Nicole Kanka. Megan was lured into her neighbor’s home with promise that she could play with a puppy, inside the home she was brutally raped and murdered. The perpetrator in this case was a two-time convicted sex offender who had been convicted in a 1981 attack on a 5-year-old child and an attempted sexual assault on a 7-year-old. This case led to Megan’s Law were sexual offenders name and address were made public so that citizens would be aware of the threat in their neighborhood. Doing the research for this paper I decided to look up the offenders in my area. This was an easy process you get on the internet look up search sex offenders in your area and pop in your zip code. The search turned up 75 convicted sexual offenders in my zip code alone. This was a scary realization considering all the late nights coming home when my parents were asleep having to park my car across the street from my house and walk home.