DEARBORN — According to Michigan State Police, 184 sex offenders reside in the cities of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights. In Detroit, a whopping 3,131 sex offenders are registered. 

Accessible to the public, the list gives an exact location of where they can be found in a local neighborhood, allowing parents to take precautionary measures with their children. 

Michigan doesn’t prohibit sex offenders from conducting business with children, nor does it limit restrictions in them participating in kid-oriented events such as trick-or-treating.  

One concerned Dearborn resident told The Arab American News that she was scrolling through the sex offender registry and discovered that a sex offender was driving an ice cream truck in her neighborhood during the summer months. She took it upon herself to bring it to the attention of local parents. 

As soon as a visitor scrolls through the local area records, it becomes evident that the list is dominated by Arab American males who reside in the 48126 zip code, as well as African American males who mostly reside in Detroit. 

Are the sex offender records an accurate representation of the local population or are males of certain ethnicities being racially targeted and over-charged with crimes that place them on such lists?

What we do know is that Michigan has some of the strictest laws in the country when it comes to labeling a sex offender.

The state’s registry includes vague categories of severity in crime that are numbered one through three. When each charge is brought forward against a perpetrator, details of the offense, the circumstances of the situation and other factors are taken into consideration when deciding where to place them on the scale. 

The registry site includes the name of the individual, a driver’s license or state ID photo, home address, age, height, weight and the sexual offense.

Regardless of the offense level, the individual is placed on the registry for a minimum of 25 years. It should be noted that Michigan is one of 13 states to include non-sex related acts, such as kidnappings and public indecency, on the sex offender registry.

With this being said, it doesn’t mean the majority of those who have been placed on the sex registry are males who were charged for urinating in public; this seems to be the dominant urban myth regarding the list, if some were to try to brush it off as inaccurate.

Offenses involving minorities

Criminal defense attorney Cyril Hall, who practices out of a law office in Dearborn, told The Arab American News that in his years of representing minorities who were charged with sexual offenses, he’s picked up on patterns in the court system that can only be attributed as “White privilege.”

Hall’s law office recently represented an Arab American man who was charged with “transferring sexually explicit material with a telephone” after he videotaped himself and a friend conducting sexual activities with an underage female companion at a Dearborn hotel. The Arab males and the female victim were all underage at the time of the act.

After the distraught victim learned that the two young men were circulating the footage among their friends, she pressed charges against them. The city of Dearborn referred the case to federal prosecutors, who ended up convicting both young men with more than 10 years in prison.

What’s striking here is that there was a nearly identical case in Macomb County in March involving three Caucasian teens from Chesterfield Township who photographed themselves on their cell phones performing sexual activities with an underage girl. The penalty those perpetrators received appeared to have been nothing more than a slap on the wrist. 

After the Chesterfield Township teens were found guilty of engaging in a sex act with the 15-year-old girl and posting the photos on Twitter, they were only sentenced to three years of probation and banned from using cell phones for an entire year.

Additionally, the attorneys on the case worked out a plea bargain with the court to leave their names off the sex  offender registry. If they maintain the terms of their three-year probation, the charges won’t appear on their permanent record, under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act.  

Hall cited a troubling pattern he’s picked up on in the Oakland County courts, where Caucasian males are sometimes charged with sex offenses, but are left off the registry as part of their plea bargain.

“Minorities are definitely being targeted and stereotyped,” Hall said. “I don’t think our youth would be more likely to commit such acts as opposed to any other race. It’s like the drug situation; Whites and minorities use it at the same level, but they only do policing in the Black community.”

Hall said he witnessed it himself recently when he was waiting to represent his client in the courtroom and the defense attorney representing a case before his convinced the judge to leave his client off the registry, despite the man having been charged with a sex offense.

When the judge reviewed a case involving an African American male, the court was persistent on placing him on the sex offense registry until Hall asked for the same privilege as the Caucasian man before him.

“I caught them, I saw it happen to the benefit of a White defendant,” Hall said. “I wouldn’t have known to ask for it had I not been there beforehand. I had to fight for it.”

Taboo in the Arab community

While the discrepancy in the penalties involving both cases is alarming, sexual predators in our community should not be overlooked.

Arabs in particular seem to sweep such issues under the rug, in fear that they are going to be shunned by the community and develop a bad reputation for the family name. 

Dr. Hoda Amine, a psychologist and social worker for Apex Behavioral Health of Western Wayne, has had more than 30 years of overseeing such cases involving Arab Americans. Amine told The Arab American News that there appears to be repeated patterns involving some men in the Arab community; and the problem starts at home.

“The most common issue here is a man or a boy needs to know their boundaries,” Amine said. “They should take accountability for their actions. These girls are somebody’s daughters, sisters and relatives. We have to help these boys with their egos.”

Amine said she’s dealt with many cases in the Arab community where a girl or woman was pressured to remain silent after she was sexually assaulted or harassed by a male relative. In some of these cases, it may grow into a repeated offense. Many times, the woman may go into a state of denial or even blame herself for triggering such behavior. 

“Some might think it’s permissible because they feel they haven’t been penetrated,” Amine said. “Girls will tell me their uncles put them on their lap and fondle their legs and breasts. I have to bring awareness and tell them that this is unacceptable. My job is to empower the girls and help them to be more assertive.”

Amine pointed out that some men who end up on the sex offender registry may have not had the intention to harass a woman— instead they might have crossed a line without realizing it. 

She referred to a case involving a local Arab immigrant who ended up on the registry for touching a female co-worker’s breast. According to Amine, his co-worker’s nipples were erect from cold weather and he jokingly asked her if she was aroused and touched her. Now the young man’s name will appear on the sex registry for 25 years.

“This boy, he hadn’t been in America long enough, but he should have known better,” Amine said. “He was joking with a co-worker and she freaked out. Now he’s registered on the sex offenders list.”

Amine said there are flaws in the sex registry system, but pointed out that it helps bring awareness to local neighborhoods. She encourages Arab American parents to do their part and find out who the sex offenders are in their area and look into what the severities of the crimes are.

“The neighborhood needs to be alarmed if there’s a sexual offender in the area,” Amine said. “Make sure you ask around and find out why somebody is on it. The more educated the community becomes, the better grasp we have on handling these cases. Awareness is key.” 

To search for sex offenders in your area, click on the following link //bit.ly/1WVlcUg