House Bill 2050 – keeping released sex offenders away from their child victims.

Representative Jeff Barker is a second term legislator representing Beaverton and Aloha.

As a retired police lieutenant, I know that victims of sexual assault are traumatized for the rest of their lives. This is especially true for child victims. That’s why I sponsored House Bill 2050. It requires that as a condition of probation, parole, or post-prison supervision, sex offenders are not allowed to reside within a three mile radius of their victim, if that victim is still a child, and if that victim, or a parent or guardian, requests this limitation. This bill is necessary because even years after the crime occurs, children who inadvertently encounter the offender can experience high levels of anxiety, sleep disorders, outbursts of anger, and are more likely to engage in self-destructive coping mechanisms. Children can be severely affected even knowing that the offender lives nearby. I imagine the pain that a child would feel seeing the person who violated them again would be a lot like a kick to the stomach.

House Bill 2050 was drafted in terms of victim protection – not offender punishment. The bill does not limit the offender’s travel, but only seeks to ensure that day-to-day activities are in a neighborhood separate from the victim. The bill provides three exceptions to the rule: first, if the victim resides in a county having a population of less than 130,000 (this is a compromise figure - it comes from the difficulty of implementing this in smaller counties) and the defendant is required to live in that county; second, if the defendant demonstrates to the court that no mental intimidation or pressure was brought to bear during the commission of the crime; or third, if the defendant demonstrates to the court, supervisory authority, or parole board that imposing this condition will deprive them, in a materially significant way, of an opportunity for rehabilitation. The bill does not apply to individuals who have completed their period of state supervision.