Collateral Consequences Of Sex Offenders

There are a surprising number of laws and rules that restrict opportunities based on a criminal history. Many collateral consequences can affect a convicted person's employment, business opportunities and for others, can deny access to government benefits, participation in certain programs to include student loans, housing, contracting and other forms of participation in their public lives. Instances of collateral consequences involve the refusal of government issued licenses or permits, disentitlement for public services and public programs, and the prohibiting of civil rights. However, there is a real concern on a social level that collateral consequences could inflict such punitive difficulties on individuals that are found guilty and
Sex offender registration was largely brought out as a means of increasing public awareness of sex offenders to support community safety. According to Sage Journals (2005), records of 121 registered sex offenders in Kentucky showed that, “social stigmatization, loss of relationships, employment, and housing, and both verbal and physical assaults are experienced by a significant minority of registered sex offenders." Sex offender registration is publicly accessible nationwide, basically for the safety and cognizance of those living in the same community. So now these sex offenders have a mark on their heads, and I could only image how damaging that can be to a person who may want to move on or just lay low. Another example would be the collateral consequences of incarceration alone. There are many states that where employment opportunities for people who have been behind bars are extremely limited. Most states authorize employers to deny jobs to anyone with a criminal record, despite how much time has elapsed since, or the individual's work background or even personal circumstances. For some locations someone doesn’t even need to be convicted to suffer from collateral
The effect of collateral consequences is occasionally deliberated about in the context of a re-entering offender, but they attribute not only to felonies and detained individuals, but also to misdemeanors and individuals who have never been confined. Collateral consequences are inclined to last for an unspecified period of time, even long after an individual is entirely rehabilitated. It seems as if these consequences are a lost cause for many former criminals, but fortunately for many others, there flawed pasts have no affect on their