If you face a charge for an alleged sex crime, you should be aware of how and why sex crimes are different. This includes the fact that law enforcement and prosecutors can be more aggressive dealing with sex crimes, and penalties and punishments can be more severe.
Consequences for sex crimes are especially high when the incident involves a child, whether it is sexual assault of a child, possession or distribution of child pornography or online solicitation of a child. All are serious felonies which can bring substantial fines and long prison sentences.
Beyond that, collateral consequences of a child sex crime conviction can include:
- Loss of a job and difficulty finding employment
- Difficulty renting or leasing a house or an apartment
- Registration as a sex offender for 10 years or more
- Devastating damage to one’s reputation and standing in the community
- Loss of immigrant status followed by deportation
Why are child sex crimes, and other sex crimes in general, considered different and treated differently?
Largely because society tends to view sex crimes as worse than many other crimes — perhaps worse than all other crimes, especially when they involve a child.
Because of this prevailing attitude, elected officials such as district attorneys tend to focus more fiercely on pursuing highly publicized sex crime arrests and convictions as a way of satisfying potential voters that they’re tough on what are considered the worst crimes: sex crimes.
In effect, such crimes are the proverbial “political football.” And that’s become even more true with the emergence of the so-called #MeToo movement of women coming forward to report current and past sexual abuse and sexual assaults.
In this climate, a person accused of a sex crime often is presumed guilty from the start. Indeed, accusations in the #MeToo movement have led to men losing their jobs and livelihoods before any criminal charge is even made.
That belief in guilt places the burden of proof on the defense, which is the opposite of how our judicial system should work. In America, everyone should be considered innocent until they are proven guilty.
When it comes to sex crime defense, such cases are also different because their unique challenges require careful handling by special attorneys. Indeed, it’s vitally important when engaging a sex crime defense attorney to understand that sex crimes cases are different and not every lawyer has the expertise to deal with them.
An attorney who’s highly skilled at defending a person accused of drug possession or a violent crime may lack the expertise to properly mount a solid defense for a person facing a sex crime charge. If you or a loved one have been accused of a sex offense, you need a criminal defense lawyer who is skilled and knowledgeable in defending legal rights for this crime in particular.
In short, you need the Neal Davis Law Firm.
Our Houston-based law firm has succeeded in helping many defendants in sex crime cases avoid being charged at all after they were falsely accused. We’ve also managed to get sex crime charges reduced or even dropped after they were made.
Contact our law firm today for a confidential legal review of your case. And remember: Hiring a sex crimes lawyer is not an admission of guilt and shouldn’t be construed as such. Rather, it means you are protecting your legal rights in a system which threatens such rights when it comes to sex crimes.
