Fear and Outrage

"Hard cases make bad law." Criminal Justice truism.

Ben turned me on to a story about the fight over compliance with a federal sex offender law in California.

The federal "Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006," would require states to submit information on adolescents as young as 14 deemed delinquent in juvenile court of aggravated sexual abuse to a national public registry, and it provides penalties for non-compliance - the Attorney General can reduce the federal Byrne funds allocated to the state for law enforcement resources. (The article mentions a 10% reduction, but I don't know what the actual cut might be. For that matter, I don't know what "Byrne funds" are.) One thing that I'm curious about is the definition of "aggravated sexual abuse." According to the article: "If a 14-year-old touches an 11-year-old’s penis, the 14-year-old would be eligible for the public registry." THAT'S "aggravated sexual abuse?" Really?

The fear of sexual abuse of children by strangers, fueled by the (very) occasional high-profile child abduction, rape and murder has got people falling over each other to seek tougher and tougher sanctions, to show everyone that they're doing something about this intolerable scourge. And it's made me realize something. The very next time someone brings up the War on Terror, or the fact that people throughout the world are starving, and asks: "Where is the outrage?" I'm going to answer: "At sex offenders." Politicians may be conniving bastards, but they aren't stupid. You can't get any momentum up for impeachment proceedings against President Bush*, but you can get new sex offender laws passed on shakier evidence than you have against the Executive Branch. Misguided wars against heathen foreigners don't drive outrage in the Heartland. (Especially if we think they have something we want.) Fear of unapproved sexuality does. That's why President Clinton had to face the music for the Lewinsky affair - which, let's face it, was an absurdly trivial thing.

"Supporters of the law argue the high cost of putting the act into effect is worth the safety of the community."
Is Ricky Really a Sex Offender? - Los Angeles CityBeat

This reminds me of another truism - "Nothing is too expensive to the man who doesn't have to foot the bill himself."

* For my part, I don't think that a charge of intentional deceit would hold up against the Bush Administration, and I don't know that willful ignorance of reality is an impeachable offense. But if banging the interns IS, I don't see why it shouldn't be.