Thoughts on the Murder of a Little Boy

by C. David Hess
Representative of SOhopeful of New York 
dhess@rochester.rr.com  

I am a church pastor and also a member of the Board of Directors of SOhopeful International, a group which advocates for effective sex offender laws based on fact rather than myth and hysteria. SOhopeful’s membership is largely made up of registered sex offenders and their families. Our efforts usually fall on deaf ears. The fact, contrary to myth, that the vast majority of registered sex offenders do not repeat their crimes does not seem to matter. The fact that the vast majority of new sex crimes are committed by individuals who are not on a sex offender registry does not seem to matter. 

I just read the news that they have discovered the murdered body of 6 year old Christopher Michael Barrios in Brunswick, Georgia. He had been missing for a week. The police chief said a registered sex offender and three other suspects would probably be charged with his murder.

 My first reactions are purely emotional. I am filled with rage at those who did this to this little boy. I would like to torture them. My second reaction is fear. Such murders usually result in more harassment of registered sex offenders and calls for harsher laws.

 This time it might be different. This latest tragic murder has an arresting wrinkle. Little Christopher’s father is also on Georgia’s sex offender registry.  He was convicted of statutory rape in 1997 when he was at least 23.

 Georgia has some of the harshest sex offender laws in the country. Last summer they enacted a law which proponents said would banish sex offenders from the entire state. They are only the most extreme version of laws that are becoming commonplace all over the nation. Not only did the restrictive Georgia laws not protect this child, they may have endangered him. Such laws push offenders to the edges of society. All research shows that it is at the margins of society where the real monsters dwell. The primary responsibility for this evil deed lies with the perpetrators, but let there be no mistake, society plays a role in creating these monsters.

The father being a registered sex offender creates an emotional and moral dilemma for everyone. Society’s usual stance towards registered sex offenders is one of hatred and repulsion. The public’s attitude toward the parents of murdered children is usually one of overwhelming sympathy. I have a hunch most will grieve for and with this father. This is an opportunity for the masses to be forced to make distinctions between sex offenders. They are not all alike. It is wrong to lump them all together as Georgia law and the laws of many states do.

There are other facts that must be squarely faced in this situation. Sex offender residency laws don’t just banish former offenders. They banish their families and children as well, or force the family to break up. Georgia law sought to either banish the child along with the father or banish the father from his child. It is a terrible way to say it, but the torturers of this child and his father tragically completed what Georgia had already begun.

If Georgia chooses to react with harsher sex offender laws, they will be punishing the father of a murdered child too. What a moral and political conundrum for the people of Georgia and the citizens of all of our communities!