Capito Wants Crackdown on Sexual Predators to Better Protect Children

Capito Wants Crackdown on Sexual Predators to Better Protect Children
9/14/2005

Supports Strongest Federal Measure since Passage of Amber Alert

WASHINGTON, DC - (9/14) - Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) today supported the strongest federal measure since the establishment of the Amber Alert to protect children from sexual predators and child molesters. Capito voted for legislation that will crack down on offenders with stricter penalties and will require a sex offender to register immediately upon moving into a new community ensuring an offender cannot flee exposure by moving to another state.

"We do a better job tracking over due library books then we do tracking sex offenders," noted Capito. "Nearly 100,000 sex offenders remain unregistered and moving freely about the country. As a West Virginian and as a motherI understand the importance of our childrens safety. This legislation improves the national sex offender registration program by making it a federal crime if a child molester does not register. This is the strongest action the Congress has taken to ensure the safety of our children since the establishment of the Amber Alert plan. By establishing tough new mandatory sentences, both for sex offences and for failure to register, and by checking more backlogged DNA samples of known offenders, we can stop some of the horrible crimes against children that occur across the country."

According to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children there are 2,236 registered sex offenders in West Virginia as of June 22, 2005 while over 100,000 nationally that are unaccounted for. The Childrens Safety Act of 2005 will establish new provisions to ensure that all sex offenders are accounted for and parents and law enforcement are aware if a sex offender has moved into their community.

http://capito.house.gov/press_office/detail-page.aspx?id=101&whichone=pr