follow the money

My friend Shelly Stow, at With Justice for All, writes about the industry that has grown up around sex offenses.

... 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.

Occasionally well-meaning might be a generous assessment of what the sex offender industry is today.

Shelly outlines three branches of the sex offender industry:

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. 

Generating fear for our children is a lucrative business. Not necessarily an honest one but definitely lucrative.

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...

Keeping track of 850,000 registered sex offenders is expensive. Pointless and expensive.

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. 

 Ah, the government. It is here to help itself.

Read the whole thing. Shelly knows her stuff.