You will find many beautiful mountains in Colorado, but you won’t find any sex offenders. Colorado’s Sex Offender Management Board (SOMB) voted 10-6 to stop using the term “sex offender” and replace it with “adult who commits sexual offenses,” according to CBS Denver.
The logic for the rebranding is that the term “sex offender” is a negative label that does more harm than good. Do you know what is negative, harmful, and lacking goodness? Rape.
Where is the concern for victims!? Why is the Centennial state protecting criminals? People who commit heinous crimes should have to live uncomfortably with the bad decisions that they have made.
According to Jessica Dotter, sexual assault resource prosecutor for the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council and a member of the SOMB, this new terminology “fails to convey or represent any sort of victim-centeredness.” She further stated that victims of sexual abuse “want their offender to be held accountable and to be known as an offender.”
As heinous as this decision is, there is a glimmer of hope. The decision is now subject to a 20-day public comment period before final ratification by the board. Please flood the comments here. Hopefully public outcry will force the board to reconsider.
