I disagree with Jeremy’s comment and to me Maestro’s comment makes common sense and hits a very important point. In my opinion, people who act’s like Maestro’s example of Elvis are abundant. I would be willing to bet that nearly all of those individuals (who are not caught) do not think their actions were in anyway criminal (many probably are not even aware of the laws they may be breaking). I would also be willing to bet that their so-called victims never once thought they were a victim in any way (again referring to Maestro’s personal example). Now, think about it- when you can go back one generation and something is perfectly acceptable, and in the current generation it is still extremely common- why should those people convicted of such minor acts tell themselves they are sickos like the gov and treatment givers often want them to feel? Why can’t they make their own judgement of themselves based on their own level headed minds based from their own experiences? Why do we not want to build a support group of like minded and self confident people? After-all, changing peoples attitudes on what is morally right and wrong is what got us into this mess, put another way- some puritanically minded individuals lobbied public fear to exaggerate what is a sexual crime worthy of huge punishment and marginalization. They have done this to the point that the registry blankets a huge range of acts of varying severity. Can’t we start to reverse those thoughts?

Here is another story to support Maestro’s common sense. I recently rented a room from a nice older lady. A dinner story she randomly told us one night went like this: When she was a teenager she had 3 sisters and there was a peeping tom in the neighborhood. She said that he would get a step ladder and come up to their window and look in and one time she saw him right in the face! She told her dad about it and her dad later caught the fella. Her dad scared the boy and said if he ever does it again he will tell his parents and the boy never did it again. Now here is the kicker, remember the so called victim is the women telling the story. She said and I quote “there was nothing wrong with the boy, he was a young healthy boy, of course he would like to look at us girls. Nothing bad ever came out of the situation it was all in fun.” The point is, some people used to use their own minds, they can put two and two together. They don’t want people to be peeping toms but they understand that boys want to look at girls at the same time. They understand that human nature should not be criminalized but taken and dealt with as a community in the best way possible to reduce harm done to all. In this case her dad took care of the issue. What we should not be doing is extending the list of sex crimes to include more non-violent, non-contact acts that are extremely common among youth already, e.g. romeo & juliet. With the current list of offenses that put you on the registry it is only fair to say we are all sex offenders as Galen Baughman put it so well. In no way am I advocating to commit any such act, I am simply making the point that offenses that many find minor are occurring, in my opinion by the vast majority of youth. There are criminal sexual offenses where the victim never felt like a victim and the offender never felt a bit of guilt. In my opinion, these cases should not be blown out of proportion more than they already have been, the goal of the law should be to protect people from harm.

In the 1980’s, I was 16, my teacher was 36. I was teacher’s pet. She was good looking and I consented to sex. It was great for me as she taught me a lot of things that a girl my age would not have. It was something that benefited me and my future relationships. I don’t see how I was victimized. I never have thought myself a victim or mentioned her name to anyone. I wouldn’t want to see her hurt by our mutual pleasure.

Pedophilia is before puberty (before 9 years old).

How about when is a sex sting operation? When the only child porn is sent by fake victims, AKA undercover officers? The punishment for child molestation attempt is the same with statutory rape even if the defendant didn’t commit any real crime.

There is a very good documentary called “Witch Hunt” which is narrated by Sean Penn. It is about the nonsense that happened in the 80’s in Bakersfield, California where multiple sets of parents were sent to prison for decades and then released when the interview tapes with the children were exposed to be coerced accusations.

A lot of those people who make these laws call themselves Christians at the same time. Talk about hypocrisy!

In The Bible, Jesus says: “But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins.” In Christianity, you are told to turn the other cheek, to forgive freely, and to love one another. But, those who seek vengeance and those who profit from the suffering of Registered Citizens are hardly what I would call Christian.

I am not a Christian myself. But, I can definitely see hypocrisy pretty easily!

You may not like it, but here’s a primary reason. The Feds consider each child photographed a victim. So if there are thousands of images, presumably there are thousands of victims (not true with a video, which each fraction of a second counts as several hundred). But I agree that in levels of seriousness, direct contact with a child is much, much worse. But again, I will state that when it comes to the registry, no matter who we are, we all deserve a second chance.

And again, I have to reiterate that the severity of these laws are all the more disgusting to me in recent light of the fact that we know that the FEDS have taken over CP sites to catch people. We all know that downloading child pornography is a horrible thing to do, let alone running a CP website, except if you’re the FEDS, that is. Apparently the FEDS have no problems violating the same community standards that can put away mere mortals for decades. Think about this for a moment: The same people who call victims to make victim impact statements at sentencing are the same people putting the images of these children out there as “bait” WITHOUT their individual consent. Does that send a chill down your spine? If not, I don’t know what will.

Actually wheather someones claims to have remorse or not is of no concern to me. My only concern is that the person never reoffends in his or her lifetime and lives out their lives as God intended for them to live. That is the only way they can honor those people that they have harmed and offended.

Maestro, please tell me you are not going to keep complaining about the law? When Elvis was 24, it was 1959. America still had some really screwed up laws back then, don’t you think? The Civil Rights Act didn’t get signed into law until 5 years later!

What I’m trying to say is there have been good laws and there have been screwed up laws in American history and the history of the world, but many times the good laws address a problem that was never addressed before. That doesn’t make it any less of a problem though.

The sentencing for sex offenses has actually been proven to be quite effective especially when requiring extensive treatment, so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

What is broke, though, is the registration system for people who have served their sentence and their families.

I hope you seek out more extensive treatment because you do not seem to have any remorse for your crime at all. I’m not suggesting that you change your view on what you think is right or wrong (I met offenders who thought having sex with a 5 year old wasn’t morally wrong), but what I am suggesting is that you admit you knew the law prior to committing your offense regardless of your moral beliefs.

Having sex with anyone is a privilege, not a right, and if the law says they cannot consent, they cannot legally consent, period. It is up to you to have the self control to avoid breaking the law.

Obviously, the situation when you were younger has affected your thinking and has caused at least one distortion, so, yes, you are a victim. It took me a long time to realize that situations that may have felt physically good at the time when I was young led me to the path I ended on to be a current registered sex offender.

Most offenders that I heard continue to talk like you do now (which aren’t many at the end of treatment) end up either reoffending sexually or acting out in other inappropriate ways. Please don’t be one of them and get some help.