Raised By a Predator: Sex Offender Parents and an Effort To Keep Them Out of the Child's Home

• Date: 01 July 2020
• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Author: Rachel Prysner
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12515

RAISED BY A PREDATOR: SEX OFFENDER PARENTS AND AN EFFORT

TO KEEP THEM OUT OF THE CHILD’S HOME

Rachel Prysner

Registered sex offenders are obligated to comply with rules put forth by their state’s registry. While there are stringent

guidelines regarding the offender’s interaction with the public, a sex offender’s ability to obtain custody of their child

is less rigid. Statutes differ on the level of scrutiny referencing their right to parent, which leaves an opening for

offenders to abuse their child. This Note proposes the adoption of a model statute in which registered Tier III sex

offender parents who were convicted for a crime involving a minor are precluded from gaining physical or legal cus-

tody of their child.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

57,329 cases of childhood sexual abuse allegations are confirmed per year by Child Protective Services.

Of those reported, 20% of the perpetrators were fathers.

Children who experience sexual abuse are more likely to develop eating disorders, drug addiction, post-traumatic

stress disorder, and depression.

Sex offenders are required to submit their information to a registry that is accessible to the public following the Sex

Offender Registration and Notification Act, but individual states still have the ability to enact their own registration

requirements.

States are permitted to draft their own custodial rights statutes, some of which allow parents who are registered sex

offenders unsupervised access to their child.

Keywords: Child Custody; Custodial Rights; Grooming Behavior; Registered Sex Offender; Sex Offender Parent; Sexual

Abuse; Termination of Parental Rights.

I. INTRODUCTION

In 2014, during what began as a lighthearted afternoon, a disconcerting discovery was made

among a family.

1

Two young sisters were withdrawn and exhibiting depressive episodes.

2

Their aunt

wasted no time addressing their behavior and uncovered that sexually abusive assaults were taking

place at the hands of the girls’father.

3

She immediately petitioned the Monroe County Family

Court for assistance, which resulted in the aunt being awarded temporary emergency custody.

4

Later

that same year, the aunt was granted permanent custody of both the girls after their biological

mother relinquished her rights.

5

The father, however, decided that he wanted to challenge that and

seek his own custodial rights with the goal of obtaining as much access to his daughters as possi-

ble.

6

The father is classified as the highest possible risk level offender (Tier III sex offender) on the

registry for committing sex crimes involving a 15-year-old and a 6-year-old girl, for which he

served a five-year sentence in a Florida prison beginning in 1989.

7

This case progressed to the

Appellate Division and the court stated that the presence of “extraordinary circumstances”was nec-

essary to keep the children away from their biological father.

8

Evidence was presented that both the

girls showed strong signs that they were in fact sexually abused and that they continue to participate

Corresponding: rprysner1@pride.hofstra.edu; rprysner@gmail.com

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 58 No. 3, July 2020 847–861

© 2020 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts