Legislative Watch
Repeat Adult Child Sex Offenders to Get Life
"Two Strikes, You're Out" bill to put repeat
child sex offenders away for life passes U.S. House in JULY.
by Mark Green
According to a study by researchers at Emory University, the average
adult child sex offender claims 380 victims in a lifetime. Nevertheless,
the average child molester spends fewer than three years in prison,
according to the KlaasKids Foundation – an organization founded by
Marc Klaas following the murder of his 13-year-old daughter, Polly.
In July we won a significant battle toward changing those terrible
figures when the U.S. House of Representatives passed my "Two Strikes,
You're Out Child Protection Act." The bill is simple – it requires
a life sentence for anyone who is convicted twice for committing sex
crimes against children.
U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Green Bay), U.W.
1987, has represented Wisconsin's 8th Congressional District since
January 1999. He is a former chair of the Wisconsin Assembly Judiciary
Committee. |
It's about time our criminal justice
system realizes that every time a sexual predator reoffends, it destroys
a child's life. These are people who don't steal cars or money, they
steal something far more precious – the innocence of children. In
my opinion, that's a crime worth a life sentence. In 1993 a little girl
named Polly Klaas was kidnapped from her home in California and later
killed by a sex offender – a sex offender with a terrifying
history who had been released from prison after serving only half of
another sentence. Since Polly Klaas's murder, her father Marc has fought
a crusade to try and get the kind of people who murdered his daughter
put away so they can't victimize any more children.
These kinds of crimes aren't limited to California, New York, and
other large states – they're occurring in communities across the
nation, and have happened right here in our own backyard. As the murders
of Cora Jones and Lisa French prove, Wisconsin is not immune from these
horrible crimes.
As a father of three kids myself, I can only begin to imagine the
anger and agony people like Marc Klaas have gone through. Over the last
few years, he and I have become good friends — working together to
pass tough new laws to protect our children. In fact, three years ago I
authored a "Two Strikes, You're Out" bill similar to this one in
Wisconsin. In 1998 Gov. Thompson signed that bill into law, helping to
prevent Wisconsin kids from suffering the same fate as Polly Klaas.
But on the national level, no such law exists. That's why I
introduced a federal version last year. It requires mandatory life
sentences for any second-offense sex crime against a child that occurs
in a federal jurisdiction. If an offender is convicted of any previous
sex crime against a child – whether in a state or federal
jurisdiction – then commits a federal child sex crime, the
offender will spend the rest of his or her life in jail. Covered federal
sex crimes include sexual abuse, aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse
of a minor or ward, abusive sexual contact, sexual abuse resulting in
death, selling or buying children, and transporting minors for illicit
purposes.
This bill will become more useful as sexual predators increasingly
use the Internet to find their prey. Already, child molesters have gone
from state to state to stalk their targets – often meeting them on
the Internet and traveling across state lines in hopes of seizing
children. Many of these criminals could be prosecuted under my federal
bill. I believe that for these individuals, prison is the only thing
that will keep them from preying on other young people. This won't be a
cure-all, but it's a big step forward in our national fight against the
terrifying sex offenders who prey on our kids.
Wisconsin Lawyer