STAFF EDIT: Wrong approach to sex crimes

Members of the Boston University community should have been able to access a list of sex offenders living or working at BU by Oct. 28. But don’t tell BU or the state of Massachusetts that they just blame each other for failing to comply with a law intended to protect university and college communities from sexual predators and serial rapists. Though the law is poorly designed and is the wrong approach to eliminating rape, BU and the state are acting irresponsibly in not complying with the law by its target date and continuing to flout what is now a statute with as much legal weight as any other of the United States law. BU may not agree with the law’s approach, but it must now make quick efforts in concert with the state to come into compliance.

The law, the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, is supposed to be an extension to Megan’s Law, which requires all sex offenders moving into a new area to disclose their history to the local police department, which would in turn make a list of local sex offenders available to anyone requesting such information. Boston University Police Department officials say they have requested data required to make the law effective from the state, but state officials say the department has not provided them crucial information. At this point, nearly two years since the initiative was signed into law and nearly a month and a half after universities were supposed to be in compliance with the law, none of the state’s colleges or universities have fulfilled the law’s full requirements.

For numerous reasons, Megan’s Law and the newer university extension are the wrong approaches to dealing with what are truly some of the most disturbing crimes possible. First, they make people take their poor histories with them, though their sex crimes may have been mistakes of their younger days and though they may have reformed their ways after years of thought and service to society in jail. No matter where people go, Megan’s Law makes them carry heavy histories and prevents them from moving on, though they may be ready to. There is something to be said for forgiveness.

The law is also a poor substitute for what is the judicial branch’s responsibility. Judges and juries are assigned the job of punishing sex offenders appropriately and taking the most harmful rapists out of society. Sex offenders should be sentenced to jail terms long enough to ensure that their transgressions are far in the past before they are put back into society, if at all that judgment is up to the country’s judicial branch. Megan’s Law is a poor way of shuffling some of the judicial branch’s responsibility on to other areas of government in this case, local and university police departments.

And the law creates rape as an offense with a double standard it is, according to this law, apparently worse than murder. Though rape and other sex crimes are among the worst possible offenses against society, there are many other equally terrible, if not worse, possible crimes. Murder, for example, is at very least on par with rape. Rape is terrible in its own right, but punishments should be equitable across the board.

But as long as Megan’s Law and the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act are on the books, BU and the state must comply. Though they may not agree with the law, they are both abdicating civic responsibility by simply dragging their feet and ignoring statute. If state and university officials truly disagree with the law, democracy provides them avenues in which to express their discontent. They can and should make their disagreements with current policy well known and use their legislative connections to change the law and affect future policy. Publicly coming out against the law will likely not be popular, but if the university truly believes in the truth over political correctness, as Chancellor John Silber often asserts, university officials should air their true feelings and work to reverse it.

In the end, Megan’s Law is unlikely to be effective because it is so difficult to enforce. It is nearly impossible for BU to ensure that all community members are forthright and disclose touchy pieces of their histories. Elected officials should take new aggressive steps to prevent sex offenders from further harming society, but their steps should be more substantive than simply forcing former rapists to report to their local police department. Boston University officials must also take responsibility for taking steps toward sensible rape prevention. Creating a rape crisis center for the BU community would be a much more productive approach to dealing with the problem than the measures currently in place.

Megan’s Law and the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act are the wrong approaches to a serious problem. But as long as they are on books, BU and the state must comply. Luckily, our democratic system allows for ineffective policies to be changed. If state and university officials truly disagree with the policy, they must make their concerns clear and work to make more effective rape prevention policy.