Follow the money.
How often has this advice
been given, and how often has the heeding of it led to the unraveling of an
enigma or a crime.
The sex offender industry is
both, and following the money trail reveals what lies at the heart and
continues to drive this occasionally well-meaning but more often self-serving
complexity of businesses, individuals, and motivations that comprise this
billion dollar industry.
The industry is well
diversified. It has three well-developed branches and a fourth smaller but
highly important one.
The first, and certainly the lynch pin that holds it all together,
is the appeal to the public for security and protection, especially for the
need to protect our children. This branch encompasses, first and foremost, the
public sex offender registries; it includes varied screening, monitoring, and
alert products, from systems in
schools and libraries to cell phone and email alerts that notify instantly if someone on the registry enters the
building or moves into the neighborhood. It includes GPS bracelets and private sex offender registry
The second, and even larger, branch of this industry is the
management of those on the registry. Many of these are applicable to registered
offenders living in the community, especially when they are on parole or
probation. The first and most insidious is an industry unto itself, and that is
the sex offender treatment industry. The polygraph runs a close second, and the demand for the
polygraph creates a need for the polygrapher, and of course polygraphs must be manufactured and marketed. Many states
found the day to day management of their sex offender databases, aka
registries, too onerous and demanding for them to keep up with, and a new
industry was born, the sex offender database management companies, who, for a
fee, take care of all the day to day work of keeping the state online registry
updated.
Law enforcement has benefited as their budgets were increased to
allow the hiring of new personnel to do parole compliance checks, take care of
the constantly ongoing registration process, do home visits, and check on
compliance with residence restrictions; in some cases entire sex offender task forces were created. Their image
and public approval are enhanced with every
“sex offender” they report violated for a parole infraction or arrested for
failure to register.
The management of sex offenders not yet released has spawned
another group of
The third major branch of the sex offender industry is the role
the federal government plays. Under the Adam Walsh Act, the Federal Marshals are empowered to track and capture “absconded”
registrants, and they receive large grants each year with which to accomplish
their work. Additionally, most investigation of electronic/computer sex crime,
such as online solicitation, teen-age “sexting,” and viewing
illegal images, falls under federal jurisdiction. Federally financed sting and “bait and switch” operations are infamous. Under some
circumstances, the officers involved confiscate and keep the property of those they arrest. Special task forces have
been created and well funded. Some
federal prisons are filled almost exclusively with those convicted of sexually
related crimes.
Finally, rounding off the
components of the sex offender industry are individuals who have and continue
to benefit from their participation in the industry. Most notable, perhaps, is
John Walsh. Certainly his involvement was thrust upon him in a way no one would
ever choose, but it cannot be denied that he has built a career that has
spanned two decades using his son’s murder. Other parents and some victims have
to lesser degrees stayed in the limelight with activism, victim advocacy
organizations— at least one
of which has landed a contract as sex
offender compliance monitors —and
endorsement of harsher and harsher laws dealing with sex offenders.
Additionally, political
careers have been carved out of the
The offenses that require
public registration run the gamut from the ridiculous to the heinous. Proper
management of such a vast range of behaviors requires moving away from our “one
size fits all” model and actually reading the research and listening to the
experts in the field. Even more essential is focusing on the very real problem
of child sexual abuse and those who really do sexually abuse our children and
developing appropriate programs of education and prevention. But first we need
to dismantle the sex offender industry; we need to remove the financial and
personal incentives to keep the status quo; otherwise, nothing will change.
