 "Photo: Shaun Stewart")
Editor's Note: The Texan recognizes that for victims of sexual assault, the effects can be long-lasting and traumatic, and the perpetrators of such crimes can be dangerous criminals. This story examines the perpetrators' side of the issue and consequences including treatment and punishment.
He was 17. She was 14. They had been at a friend's house party, doing usual high school house-party things - kissing, necking, groping. He said they did not have sex. But when police broke up the party and assessed their age difference, the incident would affect the 17-year-old far more than he would have imagined.
Cody, who spoke only if his real name would not be used, said he and the girl both went to the police station and submitted statements. He said he thought that would be the end of it and never spoke to or heard from the girl again.
"I figured I was OK," he said.
Then, during Cody's freshman year of college, the incident resurfaced. He found out about the warrant for his arrest when he was pulled over for a speeding ticket.
"That was my first ticket, so I was scared, and [the officer] told me to get out of the car," he said. "The next thing I knew, he calls for backup and has me next to the car with my hands up."
Neither the girl nor her family pressed charges, Cody said, but the district attorney kept pressing the case.
After going in and out of court for nearly two years, the original charge of sexual assault was brought down by plea bargain to indecency with a child by exposure. His offense was deferred, meaning Cody was never found guilty, but the incident would remain on his record forever.
Now 21, Cody must live in a system that has labeled him as a sex offender. His life consists of probation visits, community service and therapy sessions. He is constantly reminded of that one high school party five years ago. For him, this is what it means to be a sex offender.
The story Cody tells of what happened that night, the groping and kissing, is probably not too uncommon at a high school party. But that's the problem with sex crimes, said Allison Taylor, executive director of the Council on Sex Offender Treatment. One label covers a wide range of offenses.
"The main thing is that sex offenders are not a homogenous mix you can lump into one category. You've got pedophiles, voyeurs, child molesters," she said.
Cody's offense may seem at one end of the spectrum, but under the umbrella of treatment, legislation and community reaction, he has been lumped in with every other sex offender.
"People make mistakes," he said. "Unfortunately, that was my mistake."
Registration and treatment
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, there are 45,000 registered sex offenders as of Oct. 11, 2004. But a 2003 study by the University's School of Social Work found that about 1.9 million Texans have been sexually assaulted sometime in their life. These two statistics do not exactly correlate with each other, according to Holly Bell, a researcher who worked on the study.
"Sexual assault prosecution is really hard on the victims in a way that prosecution of other kinds of crimes is not," Bell said. "There's this assumption that women have control over sex. If something happens, it's their fault."
She said the number of offenders represented only the ones who had been convicted and sentenced, while the number of victims in the study was far higher and the reported assaults could have occurred anytime in their lifetime. Also, since offenders could have had many victims, the number of offenders on the database is not equivalent to the number of victims.
"Sex offenders in the registration database only represent a small portion of those residing in the communities," Taylor said. "That's how under-reported the crime is."
She also said sex offenders are often able to reduce their crimes through plea bargains. For example, someone initially charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child might have that charge reduced to injury to a child and avoid having to register as a sex offender, she said.
Not knowing exactly how many offenders committed what crimes is one of the problems The Council on Sex Offender Treatment is trying to solve. As an independent board run through the Department of State Health Services, its role is to influence policy over supervision and treatment of sex offenders, Taylor said.
All sex offenders have to go through some period of treatment depending on the level of their offense.
According to the council's Web site, treatment increases public safety, contributes to the victim's treatment process and prevents further sex crimes. Austin-based treatment-provider Nicolas Carrasco, a graduate from the University, said sex offender treatment is still a fairly new concept that has developed over the last 15 years.
"The thinking [back then] was that the most effective way to treat people was to treat them harshly, put them on the hot seat, embarrass them," he said. "We've changed philosophy."
Not a problem with a cure
Carrasco says cognitive behavioral treatment is the most effective type of program to use with offenders. He emphasizes five aspects of his treatment: understanding the victim's perspective; recognizing their "thinking errors" or excuses and justifications of the crime; controlling any deviant impulses; preventing relapses; and working through the history of their own sexual development. His program typically takes four-to-five years to complete.
Carrasco said the patients he treats are offenders who have committed fewer violent crimes. But higher-risk offenders are often not treated because they are either in jail or have not yet been caught. Sex offenders in Texas are also required to undergo annual polygraph tests conducted through the office of their treatment provider. Four types of tests are given, Carrasco said, which either verify probation compliance, test offense history, monitor other offenses or check sexual history. Each year, only one of the four is given, and most of his patients completed the tests successfully, he said.
A misconception most people have about sex offenders is that child molesters and pedophiles are the same thing, Carrisco said. A child molester has eight or nine victims, usually within the family, he said, while pedophiles may have 200 or 300 and focus exclusively on children.
"When [the community's] trying to identify sex offenders, they're not watching grandfather or uncle. For the vast majority, it's hard to point at the family, but it's easier to point out the neighbor," he said.
While treatment does not distinguish between more serious crimes, Carrasco said offenders with fewer victims tend to have lower risk.
Even today, Carrasco said no one knows whether a cure for sex offenders exists. Like alcoholism, experts say you can only try to keep the problem in check.
"You control deviance and need to be cautious," he said.
Categorizing offenders
While offenders' cases are looked at individually during treatment, once on the database, they are categorized as more of a homogeneous group.
Sex offenders who are registered with the database are categorized by low-, moderate- or high-risk levels, assessed by a standard 10-question test, called the Static 99. Questions range from asking an offender's marital status to what arouses him.
The results of the 10 questions are used to assess an individual's risk level. A higher risk level determines whether the community will be notified of a sex offender's residency. But the test is only 60-percent accurate, Taylor said.
The risk levels were only instituted in 2002, so offenders who were entered into the database before that are registered as "unknown." Other reasons for an offender's unknown status include moving from another state or incomplete information from the local law enforcement agency, said Tom Vinger, spokesman for the Department of Public Safety.
The council would like to see a more dynamic risk assessment that takes more factors into consideration, Taylor said. Under the current system, an unmarried, youthful sex offender with no prior history of sex crimes could end up with higher risk than an older, married offender with multiple victims, she said.
"Sex offenders do not remain static," Taylor said.
There is no current valid risk assessment for juveniles, and the Static 99 is not valid for females.
In September, Austin Police Department Sex Offender and Apprehension and Registration Unit conducted sex offender compliance checks to verify a registrant's information. According to APD, 674 offenders were found in compliance, 10 were in jail, 14 were pending arrest warrants for failure to comply with registration requirements, and three were still under investigation because they could not be found.
APD also sends out notification postcards to the community for high-risk offenders, said Laura Albrecht, APD spokeswoman.
Law enforcement agencies such as APD are responsible for forwarding that information to the DPS, which then compiles all the information and posts the offenders online.
"DPS is like a giant chalkboard," Vinger said.
Safety requirements
In 2000, Congress passed the Campus Sex Crimes and Prevention Act requiring states to enforce sex offenders to notify the state if the offender begins or ends enrollment, employment or a vocation at a higher education institute. In 2003, a bill sponsored by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, amended the Texas Sex Offender Registration Program to comply with that federal act.
It further required the offender to notify at least two law enforcement agencies, either state, local or within campus.
The University established its own database in 2002 for anyone affiliated with it - either employed, enrolled or volunteering at the University. By mandating that each offender report to at least two enforcement entities, it's "kind of covering on both sides," said Roxanne Hodgins, UTPD records supervisor. All of the offenders on the UTPD database were either referred by APD or they volunteered the information themselves.
"It's just another aspect of safety that allows you to know your surroundings, know what's going on and adds to your safety on campus," she said.
But some sex offenders say that the length of time one must be listed on the database is too long. Depending on the offense, an registrant could be on the database for up to 10 years after their probation is served. If it's a higher level, they may be listed for their entire lives.
"I see the need for notification, but it winds up being a lifetime thing," said a registered sex offender who's an undeclared UT senior. "I paid my dues back, so to speak, even though I can't take back what I did."
He was charged with two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact in 1993 but has completed his probation. He said he feels that he is no longer a danger to the community; however, he's still listed on the database.
"They don't notify the community if someone burglarizes the house next door," he said. "It is a crime which has been solely selected for this type of lifelong 'harassment.'"
Aside from remaining on the database, sex offenders on probation must abide by a number of regulations, ranging from abstaining from alcohol to avoiding school zones.
Living arrangements must be at least 1,000 feet (or about a third of a football field) from places where children congregate and must be approved by an offender's probation officer, said Greg Jackson, manager for Travis County Community Supervision and Correction, who works specifically with sex offenders.
Looking at 74 elementary schools in Austin Independent School District, Rodriguez Elementary in South Austin had five registered sex offenders in the closest proximity - the most out of all the schools sampled. Principal Susie Cunningham said that for the six years she's been principal, the school has kept a list of sex offenders they received from AISD in a book by their front office as a resource for parents.
The book is updated yearly, and Cunningham said as far as she knows, no sex offenders have ever been a danger to the school.
"I'm aware [AISD] sends me a list, but we watch over our kids pretty closely," she said, adding that the school's playgrounds are fenced in and teachers monitor the kids outside.
Long-lasting impact
In dealing with all of the probation requirements, attending therapy sessions and complying with his community service, Cody said he understands he has to take responsibility for his actions - a routine to which he has become accustomed.
"I try to isolate myself and not be in public. It's affected my social life. It's a hard thing to deal with. I can't do things [my friends] do for fun," he said. "I spend more time alone than I probably would have if this didn't happen."
His friends and family have stayed loyal to him throughout, he said, and they do not look at him differently.
"Most were surprised [when I told them]," he said. "They can't believe I had to deal with all that."
But Cody said he is now acutely aware that something seemingly insignificant, like flashing, can result in sex offense charges.
Throughout conversation, Cody keeps coming back to what happened that night. He says over and over that he doesn't want to downplay the seriousness of the offense, but he still seems to feel wronged by a system which cannot distinguish between the severity of cases.
"I'm not angry. I feel it is unfair. I'm not angry, because I did admit it is something wrong in the eyes of the law," he said.
Cody continues to receive treatment and says he feels he is less likely to commit another sexual offense because of what he's been made to go through. He also reminds himself about the trauma a victim experiences.
But Cody says his counselor says that according to his status, he is likely to do so.
Both sides of the sex offender issue are difficult, and for both the victim and the offender, the offense will no doubt "have a long-lasting impact on their lives," said Bell, the UT researcher.
Ray Allen certainly knows the effects on victims' lives. The Republican representative from Grand Prairie has experienced the grief of a father whose daughters are victims of sexual assault, said Scott Gilmore, Allen's chief of staff. As vice chair of the House's select committee on Sex Offenders Statutes, Allen has also authored several bills relating to the treatment and registration of sex offenders, like one prohibiting sex offenders from working at or owning a sexually oriented business.
Because of the wide blanket of offenses "sexual assault' could fall under, Gilmore said Allen's office is committed to looking at the whole spectrum of offenders.
"It's crucially important that the public is protected from violent predators, but to also make sure not to be ruining other folks' lives who have undoubtedly committed a crime and used poor judgment, but nonetheless, probably don't need to be treated as a violent sexual predator," he said.
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