DENVER - The Denver Post reported this week that crime is on the decline here - that is, except for sex crimes. This is what we in the news biz call "burying the lead." While statistics for certain crimes dropped by a few percentage points, some sex crimes jumped by eye-popping double digits.
In 2010 arrests for prostitution increased an astronomical 73 percent, while arrests for viewing child pornography rose by 15 percent. Has Denver become the sex crime capital of the nation or are other forces at work here? According to congressional budget records, in 2009 the federal government funneled $75 million from the stimulus package directly to law enforcement to combat sex crimes, a 471 percent increase over previous years. The result has been the hiring and training of an estimated 230,000 prosecutors and police officers nationwide specifically to investigate and prosecute these crimes.
In addition, since the announcement last year of the end of "The War on Drugs," thousands of drug cops were facing professional extinction - now, the new "War on Sex" has everyone employed hatching prostitution and pornography scams while keeping the state's prisons full. To put things in geographical and moral context, just one state to the south prostitution is a legal taxable business.
Unfortunately, our penchant to declare war on social issues has led to unintended consequences and left law enforcement, not lawmakers, to establish public policy. Much like the drug policy that saw the prosecution and imprisonment of millions of small time drug users while never stemming the flow of drugs or violence from cartels and exporters, the new war on sex focuses on easy marts to justify continued budget growth and personnel strength.
The rise of arrest rates by 73 and 15 percent respectively indicates that law enforcement are criminalizing individual behavior instead of addressing the social conditions that led to the behavior, or targeting those who profit from exploiting the vulnerable.
The bigger problem created by law enforcement's war on sex is that, in Colorado, many of these crimes have lifetime consequences. Those convicted, the lucky ones, are subject to prolonged sex offender registration and sex offender specific therapy for years. They will have restrictions on where they can live, who they can see, and the jobs they can have. Many will be forced to separate from their families for years. Administering this program is time and resource intensive sapping the state's already tight budget.
The unlucky ones are sentenced to prison for life - yes life. The state's indeterminate sentencing laws have also had unintended lifetime consequences. The parole board has interpreted the term "lifetime supervision" (registration and lifestyle restrictions) in the statute's wording to mean lifetime incarceration.'' Their misconception has turned the indeterminate sentence into a life sentence with the opportunity of parole, however, over the 12 year history of the sentence only 0.8 percent have been paroled while many languish in prison for life with nonviolent victimless crimes.
A 73 percent increase in any crime statistic is more than simply better policing, it is a policy sea change, especially in Colorado where these crimes have unlegislated long-term social and fiscal implications. The city of Denver alone will not pay the price for this policy shift - the entire state will pay for more police, more prisons, more parole officers, more government administrators to monitor and supervise a growing list of nonviolent sex offenders, and more families ripped apart. Before such a reckless policy is pursued and everyone from taxpayer to perp pay an incredible price, shouldn't there be a public debate about policing priorities and acceptable human costs?
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