A national group called Reform Sex Offender Laws Inc. wants to end address registration requirements when offenders complete their sentences. The group also advocates giving access to sex offender registries only to law enforcement agencies. Once people have done their time…they shouldn’t be punished further by having their names on a public registry, said Tom Madison, a Gresham activist for changes to sex offender laws. It makes it nearly impossible to get a job and return to society, said Madison, a registered sex offender who completed five years of probation for prostitution offenses.”What good is a registry if they can’t reintegrate back into the community?” Madison said. “If we don’t want more sex crimes, shouldn’t we support these people?”…. “Anybody who has a felony offense has a hard time these days because of background checks, but when you add the registry to it, with the mugshot and details of the offense, it might as well have happened yesterday to the average person looking at it,” said Brenda Jones, executive director of Reform Sex Offender Laws.
There’s no doubt that sex crimes- whatever the particulars- are horrific. There’s something undeniably distressing about something so basic and beautiful being violently taken from someone against their will. Sex offenders occupy a space in which public opprobrium and disdain follow their every move…in most cases justifiably. Society needs to be protected from those who view women or children as vehicles for their sexual gratification by whatever means necessary.
Then there’s the case of Peter Shutt, a convicted Oregon sex offender who committed two rapes and an attempted rape…in 1981. He hasn’t re-offended since, he’s followed the letter of the law when it comes to reporting his whereabouts, and by all indications he’s been a model citizen. Shutt’s become a living example of why our approach to sex offenders is in serious need of re-examination.
In Shutt’s case, the question seems clear: How long do we marginalize a sex offender, especially one who appears to have been fully rehabilitated? Or should the fact of being a sex offender brand one permanently with a scarlet letter meaning that they can never again be allowed full admission to society? Does having committed sex crimes make one forever unfit to be treated as a human being…or can an offender be rehabilitated and become (or return to being) a contributing member of society?
[Shutt] shuttled people home from watering holes late at night, drove surfers and fishermen to the beach and delivered locals to doctor’s appointments in nearby Lincoln City. But Shutt’s Cape Kiwanda Taxi service lasted just shy of three months before his past caught up with him.
Classified as a predatory sex offender for two rapes and an attempted rape involving three women he didn’t know, Shutt and his makeshift cab bitterly divided the north Oregon coast community.
The sheriff and the high school principal distributed warnings about Shutt. The food bank restricted the hours he could show up. Friendships frayed as critics argued that as a convicted rapist he shouldn’t be alone with anyone in a van.
Supporters pointed to Shutt’s clean record of more than 30 years.
Shutt fought back, taking out restraining orders against his most outspoken detractors. He told a judge that he was “making a last stand” in Pacific City.
“I was going to prove to them that a person like me who hasn’t reoffended should have the opportunity for life, liberty and the American dream,” he said. “I paid my price.”
Yes, Shutt’s crimes were horrible, but the fact that they occurred in 1981 without subsequent re-offense would seem to argue that he’s been rehabilitated. Our penal system, at least in theory, is based on the idea that people can in most cases be rehabilitated and returned to society to lead productive lives. The other options are to lock people up and throw away the key, or, in the case of sex offenders, condemn them to the barest minimum of existence on the far fringes of society. As a registered sex offender, it can be difficult to find a place to live or find a job. Sex offender registries are designed to protect the public by letting people know where offenders live. While the purpose of these registries may seem laudable, they’re too often used to enforce the marginalization and hopelessness our current legal climate forces offenders into. What hope can someone have for their future if they know that, regardless of what they do to rehabilitate themselves, they’ll forever be consigned to the margins?
All Shutt wanted was to be able to make a living. Since no one would hire him, he went into business for himself- often the only option for sex offenders. He started a taxi service in the tiny Oregon Coast town of Pacific City. That the service he provided was necessary was not in dispute, but there are those in Pacific City who don’t believe a convicted rapist should be running a taxi service. Their argument might hold water if the driver in question was a frequent and fairly recent offender. Shutt’s crimes occurred 33 years ago without subsequent re-offense. How long should he have to pay for crimes committed during the first Reagan Administration? How many of us would want to be judged harshly for something we did in 1981…or is a sex offender unworthy of forgiveness and redemption?
I’m not about to discount the serious of Shutt’s crimes. Rape is a terrible thing to visit upon another person…and by all indications Shutt seems to recognize that. He’s made every effort to live within the law, and he appears to have done so successfully. So…how long must Shutt pay for crimes committed in 1981? Or do we simply brand him as irredeemable and condemned to exist forever on the outside looking in?
Danielle Tudor, who was 17 when serial rapist Richard Troy Gillmore sexually assaulted her in 1979 in her Southeast Portland home, shares her experiences with victims’ advocates across the country. She said the public deserves to know about Shutt’s past. The six years he served in prison was too brief, considering he carried out three stranger-to-stranger crimes, she said.
“By the mere horrific acts he committed, the safety of others must always come first, no matter how long he has been offender-free,” she said. “It’s part of the price he will pay for the rest of his life, just as his victims have to live with the darkness he brought into their lives forever.
“Maybe it seems cruel or unfair to others, but they would think differently had they or someone they loved been a victim.”
Perhaps so, but how long should someone get to play victim? I can speak to this subject with some authority. I was physically abused by my father, and it’s taken a lot of counseling over the years, particularly within the last few months, to recognize that my victimhood was harming only one person- me. I’ve done a lot of work to get past my victimhood, and I’m finally- slowly- beginning to live life on the other side. Carrying the weight of victimhood around for all those years exacted a terrible toll, something I didn’t recognize until very recently.
Of course, I by no means intend this as passing judgment on what someone else may be dealing with, but at some point being a victim becomes an excuse for remaining stuck. Forgiveness and learning to live in the present instead of the past- in my case, at least- was like realizing that I was dragging an anchor behind me and that I could cut it loose. I was stuck on being a victim, and I’d been stuck there my entire life. It meant that I and every person in my life I’d cared about was adversely impacted by what I was dragging through life.
There are those who firmly believe that sex offenders get exactly what they deserve, and that their offense(s) make them permanently unfit for inclusion among decent law-abiding citizens. Some of these folks seem to believe the best and most appropriate fate is for a sex offender to commit suicide so that society can be done with them…but people aren’t disposable. In Peter Shutt’s case, he’s lived 33 years without reoffending. He’s made it clear that he recognizes the severity of his crimes and appears to sincerely regret them. When does that become enough? When does society forgive and recognize that an offender has rehabilitated? How can we rationalize paroling murderers and allowing for a second chance while insisting that sex offenders be forever barred from having a choose to redeem themselves?
There are no guarantees that Shutt won’t reoffend…just as their are no guarantees that many of us won’t do something terrible that we’ll deeply regret. The odds of Shutt reoffending, giving what he’s done with his life over the past 33 years, would seem to be slim. So why do so many seem to be at peace with the idea of casting him aside as if his continued existence is an inconvenience at best and an abomination at worst? Whatever happened to rehabilitation and redemption?
