Schwarzenegger signs California's 'Chelsea's Law'

[alp227]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Anyone convicted of certain sex offenses against a child in California will get life in prison without parole starting Thursday, after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed "Chelsea's Law."

The law was named for 17-year-old Chelsea King, who was murdered this year by a registered sex offender who also admitted having killed 14-year-old Amber Dubois.

"Because of Chelsea, California children will be safer," Schwarzenegger said. "Because of Chelsea, this never has to happen again."

The "one-strike" provision applies to forcible sex crimes against minors that include aggravating factors, such as the victim's age or whether the victim was bound or drugged.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/09/09/california.chelseas.law/index.html

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Good. The one-strike provision will surely lighten up a database/parole overload and exactly fits those crimes; recidivism is far too likely for such offenders.

[cliffordu]

1. Excellent -

these sick fucks cannot be rehabbed into anything resembling actual human beings....

[applegrove]

2. Good.

[flvegan]

3. Mmmmm...the sweet, sweet smell of punishment.

[TheWraith]

4. You know that sex offenders are LESS likely to commit another crime than non-sex-offenders, right?

The actual recidivism rate for sex offenders being released and committing another sex crime is 5.3%.

[Zoeisright]

5. Well, that's Wikipedia. A more in-depth study found different rates.

"Incest offenders ranged between 4 and 10 percent. Rapists ranged between 7 and 35 percent. Child molesters with female victims ranged between 10 and 29 percent. Child molesters with male victims ranged between 13 and 40 percent. Exhibitionists ranged between 41 and 71 percent."

http://www.sexoffender.com/sorecidivism_review.html

Also, sex offender recidivism is highly under reported, and most offenders have far more victims than their prison records show.

[dkf]

6. I sure hope we don't have a recidivism stat for sex offender murderers.

Murderers with special circumstances should never be let out.

[Swagman]

7. the problem is-if you are arrested taking a leak in public you are

labeled a 'sex offender' if convicted.

Whilst this Chelsea case sounds absolutely horrendous I don't see locking someone up forever is actually going to prevent other cases. But someone like this murderer should be incarcerated permanently.

We need to remove the hysteria that has been built up around 'sex' cases which sweep up the smallest incident and cases of teen 'sexting' or one teen with a slightly under-aged teen and the very worst (like this awful murder) so that resources are directed toward some sort of preventative action IMHO.

[customerserviceguy]

8. If taking a piss in a semi-public place

is on the list of 'certain' crimes contemplated by this legislation, then you have a point. If it's not, then you're just an apologist for murderous perverts.

[TheWraith]

9. And thank you for demonstrating why it's so hard to have a civilized discussion on this.

"If it's not, then you're just an apologist for murderous perverts."

Trying to have a dialog based on actual scientific facts, such as the REAL recidivism rate for sex offenders, is instantly bashed as being "an apologist for murderous perverts." Pretty much the only step past that is accusing anyone who doesn't support immediately executing anyone accused of a sex crime of being pro-child-rape. And it's the exact same sort of bullshit non-logic which says that anyone who wants to question whether Iraq has WMDs is un-American. If the facts are on your side, you have nothing to fear from a fact-based discussion. And anyone who attempts to subvert that should be ashamed of themselves.

[customerserviceguy]

11. You're right, it is hard for me to stay what you call 'civilized'

when it comes to child murder and rape. Clearly, your life and your family must have been immune from it, so for you it's only an abstraction.

[October]

13. Quoting Wikipedia is not "scientific facts..." /nt

[thereismore]

12. Chelsea's killer would have been in prison for an earlier conviction - an assault on

a 13-year old, I believe. He was out on parole, which he violated a number of times. So the law would have saved both Chelsea's and Amber's lives.At least that's what I understand.

[Jackpine Radical]

14. There are many examples of kids being put onto the Registry

for having underaged sexual relationships. Since neither can give consent, both are guilty of having sex with a minor (statutory rape). I know of a case in which 4 troubled male adolescents, aged 13-14, were placed in a foster home. The foster parents had a mentally retarded 18 year-old daughter, and all 4 of the delinquent boys had sex with her. She was convicted on multiple counts of statutory rape with multiple victims.

A study of 20 years' data related to the Sex Offender Registry in New York turned up an interesting side-finding. Of all solved rapes (about 160,000 of them iirc), 95% were committed by people who had never before been arrested for sex offenses. It struck me that, if NY had executed all SOs instead of merely imprisoning them for a while and then putting them on the registry, they would have reduced the number of rapes in their state by a grand total of 5%. (Sandler, Freeman & Socia in Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, Vol. 14, No. 4, 284–302 (2008))

[Born_A_Truman]

10. Too bad it's too late for Jet Duncan's victims ...

He murdered a little boy in California before he killed Dylan and his family. Not to mention more victims he destroyed.