Juvenile Sex Offenders
by Stephen Hauck
CBS 42 News
2008-04-24 20:00:00.0
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Sex offenders with your children…it could be happening every day and the law wouldn't allow you to know about it.
Thousands of sex offenders have gone through the court system in Alabama and sent back into local communities and classrooms, yet their identities are kept secret because they are juveniles.
When we think of sex offenders, we typically think of adults who have been convicted of sexual crimes, and they must register for community notification of their whereabouts.
But juvenile sex offenders are protected because of their age, their identity can't be released. And that means, even though these young offenders have committed equally disturbing sexual crimes as adults, you'd never be told if they were in your child's classroom.
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Rape, sodomy, sexual abuse...disturbing terms that we typically associate with adult sex offenders. But, the reality is, juveniles are charged with the same sexual crimes on a regular basis, go through treatment and detention, and, are secretly sent right back into the community.
Lou Lacey said, "That juvenile's record is protected and their confidentiality is protected, but, how to protect the other children who come in contact with that one particular child is a very tough situation."
Lacey is the director of the CHIPS Center at Children's Hospital which treats sexually abused children. She says there is no easy answer to deal with the identity protection that juvenile sex offenders receive under the law. And for parents with school-aged children, it's a tough pill to swallow.
"I'm in no way comfortable knowing that kids that have those sorts of problems are in school with my children, however, people who have those sorts of problems are everywhere my children go," said Linda Holland, a mother of two.
According to Alabama law, "unless otherwise ordered by the sentencing court, the juvenile criminal sex offender shall not be subject to notification upon release," and, that's often the case.
If the court determines notification is needed, it would be applied as one of three risk categories:
Low - the principal of the school would be notified and the information could be shared only with teachers supervising the child.
Moderate - all schools and child care facilities would be notified within three miles of the juvenile's residence.
High - the public would be notified as though the juvenile sex offender was an adult.
Alabama Attorney General Troy King has tried to get tougher juvenile sex offender laws in our state, but so far, nothing has changed.
“Yes, we need to understand that there are offenders who are juveniles who are just as dangerous as adults who are offenders, and the children of this state need to be protected from their peers," said King.
King adds that right now in Alabama, there are countless cases where juvenile sex offenders are in the classroom and no one has been notified.
"There's some juveniles who are a threat who aren't gonna reform, who have developed deviant behavior that they need to be carefully watched and society needs to understand this person is a threat," said King.
But, until the laws change, your child may be spending time with a convicted sex offender on a regular basis...possibly another child who was abused themselves, and then repeats that disturbing behavior with your child.
"We see that very frequently. We see children who have been in a situation with another child who was sexually abused and so then that child is what we call sexually acting out with them," said Lacey.
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