强奸犯，性骚扰名单该公布吗？

America’s unjust sex laws Aug 6th 2009 From The Economist print edition An ever harsher approach is doing more harm than good, but it is being copied around the world harsh: 残酷的，严厉的，或者指气候恶劣的 IT IS an oft-told story, but it does not get any less horrific on repetition. Fifteen years ago, a paedophile enticed seven-year-old Megan Kanka into his home in New Jersey by offering to show her a puppy. He then raped her, killed and dumped her body in a nearby park. The murderer, who had recently moved into the house across the street from his victim, had twice before been convicted of sexually assaulting a child. Yet Megan’s parents had no idea of this. Had they known he was a sex offender, they would have told their daughter to stay away from him. 这段解释了梅根法案通过之前，家长们并不知晓这些性犯罪分子的信息 1. oft-told: 这个词我也不确定，但根据字面和文章意思理解，应当是often told, 也就是反复讲述的。 2. horrific: 令人恐怖的。 恐怖片就是 horrific movie. 3. paedophile: 英式写法，美式写作 pedophile. Google docs 是使用美式英语，这个感觉非常变态，俺们中国人，美式英式一起用的。 paedophile, 恋童癖患者。恋童癖患者通常具有严重的心里疾病，需要接受心里干预。 在欧美西方国家，恋童癖和传播儿童色情是重罪，最高可以判处N年徒刑（他们那里没有死刑）。在我们国家情况不一样：成年人上黄色网站非法，但强奸幼女是不犯法的，并且新出台了一个强奸幼女罪，具体情况请Google之，我们保持和谐，否则豆瓣又不让发帖。 4. dump: 在不合适的地方扔下。Too much toxic waste is being dumped at sea. 这里是指把受害人的尸体扔到了一处公园里。 In their grief, the parents started a petition, demanding that families should be told if a sexual predator moves nearby. Hundreds of thousands signed it. In no time at all, lawmakers in New Jersey granted their wish. And before long, “Megan’s laws” had spread to every American state. 这段介绍 梅根法案的通过。 梅根法案的介绍，可以参见 百度百科: http://baike.baidu.com/view/2471845.html, 它是由克林顿总统于1996年签署通过的，之前讨论了两年。 America’s sex-offender laws are the strictest of any rich democracy. Convicted rapists and child-molesters are given long prison sentences. When released, they are put on sex-offender registries. In most states this means that their names, photographs and addresses are published online, so that fearful parents can check whether a child-molester lives nearby. Under the Adam Walsh Act of 2006, another law named after a murdered child, all states will soon be obliged to make their sex-offender registries public. Such rules are extremely popular. Most parents will support any law that promises to keep their children safe. Other countries are following America’s example, either importing Megan’s laws or increasing penalties: after two little girls were murdered by a school caretaker, Britain has imposed multiple conditions on who can visit schools. 梅根法案对性犯罪罪犯使用重型，并且出狱后，他们的名字向全社会公布，家长们随时可以查阅他们的信息。 2006年通过的亞當˙華爾斯兒童保護安全法案要求每个州都要向社会公布性犯罪者的信息。英国甚至对探视学校的人进行了规定。 1. molester: 性骚扰者,猥亵者。性骚扰是很难界定的，但是对未成年人的性骚扰是异常严重的，而且打官司很难赢，所以，有兴趣去美国的同鞋一定要当心。 Which makes it all the more important to ask whether America’s approach is the right one. In fact its sex-offender laws have grown self-defeatingly harsh (see article). They have been driven by a ratchet effect. Individual American politicians have great latitude to propose new laws. Stricter curbs on paedophiles win votes. And to sound severe, such curbs must be stronger than the laws in place, which in turn were proposed by politicians who wished to appear tough themselves. Few politicians dare to vote against such laws, because if they do, the attack ads practically write themselves. 但问题是这么严厉的法案是不是就合适了呢？ 实际上，现在已经很难退回去了，政治家们不可能愿意冒这个风险把方案的惩罚措施降低，这会伤害他们自己的前程，选票可不是开玩笑的事情。 1. ratchet: 防止倒转的棘轮。 ratchet effect,就是一个只能进不能退的效应。这让我想到了中国房价. The soaring house price in China large cities have been driven by a ratchet effect. 2. curb: 是指对不好的东西（如脾气）进行约束。 我们有: 40 Billions dollars were invested to curb the economic recession, unfortunately, the investment has all gone into the market and made no contributions to higher the consumption. A whole Wyoming of offenders In all, 674,000 Americans are on sex-offender registries—more than the population of Vermont, North Dakota or Wyoming. The number keeps growing partly because in several states registration is for life and partly because registries are not confined to the sort of murderer who ensnared Megan Kanka. According to Human Rights Watch, at least five states require registration for people who visit prostitutes, 29 require it for consensual sex between young teenagers and 32 require it for indecent exposure. Some prosecutors are now stretching the definition of “distributing child pornography” to include teens who text half-naked photos of themselves to their friends. 这段介绍了美国性犯罪者的数量和范围，这个数字一直在增长，主要是因为定性是终生不可撤销的，另外范围越来越广。 1. ensnare: 被诱骗进了圈套而脱离不了，这里说梅根被杀人犯诱骗到家里。如young homeless people who become ensnared in a life of crime. 2. consensual: 表示一致同意的，consensual sex 两厢情愿的性行为, 差不多就是通奸吧。 3. prosecutor: 公诉人 How dangerous are the people on the registries? A state review of one sample in Georgia found that two-thirds of them posed little risk. For example, Janet Allison was found guilty of being “party to the crime of child molestation” because she let her 15-year-old daughter have sex with a boyfriend. The young couple later married. But Ms Allison will spend the rest of her life publicly branded as a sex offender. Several other countries have sex-offender registries, but these are typically held by the police and are hard to view. In America it takes only seconds to find out about a sex offender: some states have a “click to print” icon on their websites so that concerned citizens can put up posters with the offender’s mugshot on trees near his home. Small wonder most sex offenders report being harassed. A few have been murdered. Many are fired because someone at work has Googled them. Registration is often just the start. Sometimes sex offenders are barred from living near places where children congregate. In Georgia no sex offender may live or work within 1,000 feet (300 metres) of a school, church, park, skating rink or swimming pool. In Miami an exclusion zone of 2,500 feet has helped create a camp of homeless offenders under a bridge. 上面说到对性犯罪者的一些惩罚措施，但实际上他们中的绝大多数人是没有什么危险性的。 Make the punishment fit the crime There are three main arguments for reform. First, it is unfair to impose harsh penalties for small offences. Perhaps a third of American teenagers have sex before they are legally allowed to, and a staggering number have shared revealing photographs with each other. This is unwise, but hardly a reason for the law to ruin their lives. Second, America’s sex laws often punish not only the offender, but also his family. If a man who once slept with his 15-year-old girlfriend is barred for ever from taking his own children to a playground, those children suffer. Third, harsh laws often do little to protect the innocent. The police complain that having so many petty sex offenders on registries makes it hard to keep track of the truly dangerous ones. Cash that might be spent on treating sex offenders—which sometimes works—is spent on huge indiscriminate registries. Public registers drive serious offenders underground, which makes them harder to track and more likely to reoffend. And registers give parents a false sense of security: most sex offenders are never even reported, let alone convicted. 谈及了三个改革的原因：1. 青少年性行为很早，没有必要破坏他们的生活； 2. 性犯罪者的家庭受到不必要的牵连； 3. 酷刑未必就产生好果，犯人太多，反倒让真正的罪犯隐藏起来。 1. impose: 我们前面讨论过这个词，指推行某个规章制度。 2. staggering: 大的惊人的，难以想象的。 It was reported that Bill Gates spent staggering 1.7 billion dollars for the small island. It would not be hard to redesign America’s sex laws. Instead of lumping all sex offenders together on the same list for life, states should assess each person individually and include only real threats. Instead of posting everything on the internet, names could be held by the police, who would share them only with those, such as a school, who need to know. Laws that bar sex offenders from living in so many places should be repealed, because there is no evidence that they protect anyone: a predator can always travel. The money that a repeal saves could help pay for monitoring compulsive molesters more intrusively—through ankle bracelets and the like. In America it may take years to unpick this. However practical and just the case for reform, it must overcome political cowardice, the tabloid media and parents’ understandable fears. Other countries, though, have no excuse for committing the same error. Sensible sex laws are better than vengeful ones. 最后对法律的改革提出了一些建议，请大家自己总结。 1. cowardice: 胆小，由coward(胆小鬼) 延伸而来 2. tabloid: 娱乐小报，通常都不负责任。版面小，但图片多，绯闻多，假消息多。 3. vengeful: 心存报复的。 报复： revenge， vengeful 就是 feeling the desire for revenge. 从本人的角度来看，中国还是有必要引进一下，嫖宿幼女这样的案件一定会写在历史上的。