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Tracking Sex Offenders via GPS for Life

Posted by timothy on from the no-railing-around-the-slippery-slope dept.

ecmcn writes "According to Yahoo! news, the governor of Florida just passed a bill that, along with increasing the jail time served for convicted sex offenders, requires them to be tracked for life via GPS. No technical details about the tracking, but it mentions "warning authorities when a sex offender is someplace he shouldn't be". Maybe they can get Google maps to add red zones around all of the restricted areas."

4 of 1,240 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Why stop there? by BrowserCapsGuy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Somebody needs a class in civics. The governor cannot pass a law. He can only sign it into law or veto it.

    --
    Alright! I know I'm in there! If I don't come out, I'll have to come in after me!
  2. Re:Why stop there? by Bodysurf · · Score: 5, Informative

    RTFA.

    From the article:

    "It establishes a mandatory sentence of at least 25 years behind bars for people convicted of certain sex crimes against children 11 and younger, with lifetime tracking by global positioning satellite after they are freed."
  3. Re:Why stop there? by Macadamizer · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hrm, if you've slept with someone whose willfully deceived you about their age, you're hard to convinct (if it's reasonable.)

    Actually that's not true. Statutory rape and associated sex crimes against minors are "strict liability" crimes, which means that your intent or other mitigating circumstances are irrelevant -- if you did it, that's enough to convict. Even if they had a fake ID showing they were the proper age, if the DA decides to bring the charge, then there really isn't any excuse that will work for you -- you have to give the jusy reasonable doubt as to whether or not you actually did the deed.

    --

    "That's not even wrong..." -- Wolfgang Pauli
  4. Re:Why stop there? by Seanasy · · Score: 5, Informative
    Because the rate of recidivism for violent sex offenders is nearly 100%

    Do you have a cite for that statistic? I could only find this:

    Of the 9,691 male sex offenders released from prisons in 15 States in 1994, 5.3% were rearrested for a new sex crime within 3 years of release. [USDOJ]

    but that only gives data for up to three years after. It doesn't say anything about recidivism after 3 years which may or may not be significant.