Articles Posted in Sex Crimes

In a recent case near Jacksonville, Florida a defendant was charged with the sex crimes of lewd or lascivious exhibition and transmitting an image harmful to minors by an electronic device. The criminal charges stemmed from an undercover operation during which a police officer posed as a thirteen year old over the internet. According to the police, the defendant began communicating with the police officer in a sexually inappropriate manner. The defendant and the police officer were chatting on Yahoo Instant Messenger. At some point, the defendant set up a web cam and exposed his penis several times. The defendant was ultimately arrested and charged with the two sex crimes.

At trial, the defendant argued that what he wrote on Yahoo Instant Messenger and what he showed on his web cam were protected by the First Amendment right to free speech because it was done through a public website. However, the court found that communications over the internet directed to children are not protected by the First Amendment and the state has a compelling interest to protect children from harmful materials on the internet.

One question that comes up regarding the sex crime of lewd or lascivious exhibition is what the words “lewd” and “lascivious” mean. Unfortunately, these words are not defined in the criminal statute. So, there is no easy answer as to what conduct is criminalized under this law. Whether conduct is lewd or lascivious is decided first by the police and the prosecutor who decide to make an arrest and bring criminal charges, but ultimately by a judge or jury. The statute gives an example of lewd or lascivious conduct as follows: exposing one’s genitals in a lewd or lascivious way. Of course, when the definition includes the words we are trying to define, that definition is not very helpful.

The article linked here discusses the various laws addressing sex crimes and dealing with sex offenders and the people who are required to register as a sex offender. The article makes several good points. One point is that the laws punishing “sex offenders” and the laws labeling someone a “sex offender” triggering the sex offender registration requirement are too broad. As a result, given the limited resources of the police and prosecutors, it makes it more difficult for them to monitor and focus on the truly dangerous sex offenders. For instance, the article notes that in some states, sex offenders include a woman who had oral sex with another guy decades ago when she was 17 and the boy was a couple of weeks shy of his 16th birthday, and they were in the same high school class. In other states, people were considered sex offenders for soliciting prostitutes, urinating in public and having consensual sex with a teenagers when they were teenagers themselves. As the article mentions, part of the problem is that when a sex offender law is proposed, even when it is over-reaching and includes people doing things that are far less serious than what one would normally consider a sex offense, it is always unpopular for politicians to vote against such laws. It is always popular with constituents to be tough on sex crimes, and no politician wants to risk being called soft on child molesters, even if he/she merely thinks a proposed law is too harsh on a 17 year old who has consensual sex with 15 year old. However, the best approach to sex crimes and sex offenders is to be tough but smart. Categorizing people as sex offenders who clearly do not deserve the label does not do anyone any good.

Florida has strict laws addressing what sexual conduct between people is considered a crime, some of which address sexual conduct between young people pretty close in age. Florida also has strict laws about when, where and how a person is required to register a sex offender, whether he/she is a resident of Florida or just a visitor. If you have questions about the laws dealing with sexual battery, registering as a sex offender and other sex crimes, feel free to contact us for a free consultation.

After a criminal conviction for certain sex crimes in Florida, the defendant will be forced to register with the local police department initially, and then periodically thereafter, as a sex offender. The registration process involves providing the police with identification and contact information about the person so the police know where he/she can be found at all times. If a person fails to register the first time, or fails to re-register thereafter, he/she may be charged with the crime of failing to register as a sex offender, which is a felony crime in Florida.

However, it is not clear from reading the failure to register as a sex offender statute whether the State has to prove that the defendant knew he/she was obligated to register. In other words, at trial, can the State simply present evidence that the defendant was a sex offender required to register and did not, or does the defendant’s state of mind come into play? In some cases, the defendant can argue that he/she did not know he/she had to register or that he/she thought he/she did register. In most cases, when a defendant pleads guilty or no contest to a sex offense that requires registration, he/she will be forced to read and sign paperwork that explains the registration requirement. The probation officer will also explain it to him/her. However, if that is not done, the defendant can argue that he/she did not know about the registration requirement. Likewise, we read of one case where the defendant’s probation officer came to see the defendant around the time he was required to re-register. Based on the comments of the probation officer during that visit, the defendant thought his re-registration requirement for that year was satisfied, and he did not go to the registration office. He was charged with failing to register as a sex offender and was able to use the evidence of the visit from his probation officer and those discussions as a defense to the charge based on his impression that his registration requirement was satisfied.

We believe that the prosecution of a failure to register as a sex offender case is not as simple as proving that the defendant was required to register and failed to do so. Where those elements are proven but there is an argument that the defendant did not know either that he/she had to register or that he/she did not register, there is a valid defense to the crime.

Law enforcement officials have been arresting more and more people for sexual solicitation of minors, according to an article on News4Jax.com. The article attributed the increase in arrests for sex crimes involving minors on greater enforcement efforts and better technology as opposed to more offenders. Arrests for sexually soliciting a minor over the Internet increased by five times when an undercover officer was posing as the minor, while arrests for the same crime increased by 21% when actual minors were solicited.

In Florida, the Attorney General’s office has increased efforts to investigate cases involving the sexual solicitation of minors and considers the protection of children from sexual solicitations from adults over the Internet to be the office’s top priority. According to the Attorney General’s website, Florida ranks fourth in the country in volume of child pornography over the Internet. As a result, the Florida Attorney General’s Office has established the Child Predator Cybercrime Unit to protect children and investigate cases involving child pornography and sexual solicitation and exploitation of minors in Florida. Florida also enacted the Cybercrimes Against Children Act in 2007 which increased criminal penalties for conduct such as possession of child pornography and soliciting children over the Internet.

In 2007, a large Cybercrime unit headquarters was opened in Jacksonville, Florida.