Proposition 83

California is in the process of passing a law, proposition 83, that will ban all convicted sex offenders of coming within 2000 ft. of a school and also require them to wear global GPS trackers at all times.

I understand that sex offenders have done something terrible. I know there are lifetime effects on the victims, though I think very few can claim to understand them.

That said, there is no evidence that how close a sex offender lives to a school is related to repeat offenses. This proposition is going to be passed (and it will) not because it's an effective deterrent, it's going to be passed because it's safe for politicians to back it and difficult for them to oppose it. Everyone hates sex offenders, so defending them in any way is equivalent to political suicide. People accept that if a proposition like this exists, it's sensible - it must be because it's going to reduce problems. I don't think it does reduce problems, but it's simple and it's easy and supporting it makes a politician look good.

In California, where this law is being passed, it will be basically impossible for a sex offender to live in a city. It will be even more than it already is to find employment. Really, it will be difficult to ever re-enter society. It seems that what people really want is an execution, but we can't do that...so instead we do what we can to make them feel like they are no longer human. But why dehumanize them? If sex offenders are going to be allowed back into society, shouldn't the emphasis be placed on recovery (instead of doing something that could possibly cause them)?

Is it inconceivable that a sex offender might, well, recover? A study in Hawaii showed that only 2-6% of offenders repeated the offense ( http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Mar/07/ln/ln07p.html). According to the article these numbers are less than national figures, but it still gives you an idea. What proposition 83 is doing is making a sex offender something less than every other citizen, no longer fit to live with the rest of humanity (ever). I can only guess at the psychological ramifications, but I wouldn't guess that this ostracism is any kind of deterrent...it makes a road to recovery that much more difficult to find.

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Speaking of execution, I'm against the death penalty. To me, the death penalty says, "There is a justifiable reason to kill a human being." When an entire culture proclaims that as true, what's to stop people from making their own reasons?