Sometimes the law doesn’t make any sense. Sex offender registration is one of those areas of the law that is so bizarre most people wouldn’t believe it. Any person convicted of any of the crimes listed in California Penal Code Section 290 need to register as a sex offender for life.
I have my own reservations about the sex offender registration system–in that it techincally isn’t a punishment even though it really is, due process protections are scarce, and there is no proven benefit to the whole scheme. It just seems like a big punitive measure taken to make these peoples’ lives hell (which I suppose in some cases isn’t sooo bad).
In this case a 37 year old man had sex with a sixteen year old girl. He branded himself her “love coach.” The shocker: which of the following acts make the man subject to sex offender registry?
A) sending text messages saying: “Can you keep as a secret our secret” and “I missing you”
OR
B) Having sex with a sixteen year old girl.
Well, I suppose my heading gives it all away, but statutory rape does not subject an offender to sex offender registry, while “annoying or molesting a child” does subject this guy to lifetime registry.
If you feel like reading the opinion, here it is, complete with defenses such as “by texting a sixteen year old girl that I loved and missed her I didn’t mean to take advantage of her” and “Oh, I was just joking.”
Losing faith in humanity in 5,4,3,2………….