Being convicted of a sex crime carries penalties that are, in some ways, more severe than that of any crime short of murder. While nobody debates the seriousness of sex crimes, the punishments and penalties for these crimes can border on inhumane. Los Angeles sex offense lawyers regularly defend people who have already been convicted in the minds of the media and the public. Most, if not all, states inAmericarequire certain types of sex offenders to become part of a registry that is available for public viewing and are often severely limited as to where they can work or live. As demonstrated below, a sex offense lawyer may be the only friend someone has if charged with a sexual offense inLos Angeles. As one extreme example, the State ofGeorgiapassed legislation in 2006 that barred sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, daycare center, church, park or any other place where children may gather. This law would be simply on par with laws in many other states if not for the fact that it also included bus stops. Compliance with this law would render nearly all of the state, and certainly almost any major metropolitan area, off limits for a sex offender. Because of the difficulty in enforcing this, there is currently a restraining order on the bus stop portion of this law. InCalifornia, registered sex offenders are barred from living within 2,000 feet of schools, parks or other places where children may gather, and home addresses of many registered sex offenders are available online for anyone to view. The extent to which sex offenders are punished in other countries is almost limitless. A report released by the Council of Europe's Anti-Torture Committee in July of 2008 detailed the surgical castration of at least 94 convicted sex offenders in theCzech Republicin the decade preceding their visit to the country in April of 2008. Under Czech law, prisoners must "request" the procedure, but the committee's research found that a large majority of prisoners elected to have the procedure done because they had been threatened with lifelong imprisonment. The Committee's findings also uncovered at least five cases where the prisoner who had the surgical castration performed was legally incapacitated (mentally handicapped) and a court-appointed guardian had signed the consent form. In two instances of those five, the prisoners' legal guardians were mayors. The Committee called the practice "invasive, irreversible and mutilating, " and called for an immediate end to it.
