Louise Slaughter: “as the rate of rape continues to increase, it has become clear to me that our current approach to convicted sexual…”

“as the rate of rape continues to increase, it has become clear to me that our current approach to convicted sexual offenders is failing. Not long ago, my own community of Rochester, NY, was terrorized by Arthur Shawcross, a serial rapist and murderer. Shawcross had served less than 15 years for the sexually motivated murders of two children before he was paroled--and then his parole officer and the justice system lost track of him, setting him free to rape and kill again. Mr. Speaker, American children deserve to grow up free of the fear of rapists. Some national statistics indicate that rapists are 10 times more likely than other convicts to repeat their crimes. Since we cannot change the behavior of these sexual predators, we need to keep them behind bars. I am preparing a bill, the Protection from Sexual Predators Act, that will allow Federal authorities to keep the Nation's worst repeat rapists for life. The legislation also establishes a national data base to register and track sex offenders and their crimes. I urge my colleagues to endorse the bill as original cosponsors. We in Congress must act now. The current system does not work; it is time to break this cycle of repeated rape.”