Saving Noah

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses pedophilia, rape, child sexual abuse and violence, possible incest, suicide ideation, and death by suicide.

Many of the checks and balances against sex offenders are necessary and created to protect children from predators; however, the novel suggests that this system can be improved if it works with offenders on a case-to-case basis. In other words, if offenders are treated as individuals, justice may be delivered more fairly. In an illuminating sequence, when Adrianne and Noah go to register Noah in the sex offender registry, they are met with disgust, suggesting Noah’s punishment is ongoing. A humiliated Adrianne notes that Noah continues to be ostracized though he has served his sentence. Worse, being on the registry means Noah’s offense is revealed to every prospective school and employer, biasing them against him. Though the goal of rehabilitation was “success in helping the convicted teen live a prosocial life without further legal involvement” (92), this goal feels difficult to achieve considering the automatic bias resulting from the label of sex offender. Noah cannot be prosocial when the disclosure of the registry marks him as different from society, as if he has a “a scarlet letter branded on his forehead” (92). Though Adrianne’s observation is about the efficacy of the sex offender registry when it comes to juveniles, it also illustrates the text’s central question of whether the justice system should work toward restoration or be guided by retribution.

When it comes to sexual offenses against children, the question of restoration versus retribution grows even more complicated. Child sexual abuse has an extremely detrimental impact on survivors, and the concept of maliciously touching a child also evokes a rightfully disgusted response from most ethical adults. However, the novel suggests that the situation is more nuanced when the offender is also a minor, citing only a 3% re-offense rate in juvenile offenders. Because “juveniles and adults aren’t the same” (64), as Dr. Parks notes to Adrianne, they cannot be treated the same. Many juvenile sex offenders may not be acting out of the same sense of cruelty and malice as adult sex offenders. Moreover, since their brains are still growing, juvenile offenders are also far more receptive to rehabilitating therapy. Yet in practice, the justice system continues to place juvenile sex offenders as young as 14 on the same registry as adult sex offenders, demonstrating a belief that the two are equally pernicious. Society does not distinguish between the degree of offense, automatically assuming every sex offender is irredeemable or undeserving of a second chance. This complex issue is made more nuanced by the fact that Noah openly admits to his crimes and wants to plead guilty from the onset, suggesting that some juvenile sex offenders are truly repentant.

The justice system socially disadvantages Noah in other ways that may or may not appear valid: When the police officers arrive to arrest Noah, they enter his room and cuff him without considering the public spectacle that is being made of him. The social impact of that spectacle has lasting effects on Noah when he returns from rehabilitation. The law leaves a provision for Noah to be tried as an adult, though he is only 15, and his lawyer fights to get him tried as a juvenile. When Noah is beaten and bullied later in the novel, the police drop the investigation. Adrianne figures that the police must have learned that Noah is a sex offender and thus consider his beating well-deserved: “We hadn’t heard a peep from them since. Nothing” (146). When she learns Noah was raped in the attack, Adrianne doesn’t even consider reporting the matter to the police because she fears they will not take her seriously. It is important to note that while Noah can be read as disadvantaged by the justice system, he is also let down by his parents. Adrianne could have reported Noah’s rape, no matter the resulting police attitude, to demonstrate to Noah that he is still a citizen with rights despite also being a registered sex offender. Likewise, Lucas could’ve shared his own past with Noah to help plan his reintegration into society. However, neither parent fully advocated for Noah he needed as a social target.

The novel suggests social and legal attitudes toward juvenile sex offenders are partly a result of the idea of justice equaling retribution. For instance, Adrianne observes that people often think rape is a befitting punishment for child sex offenders, since it equals the harm that they have inflicted. She has heard people say they “hope [Noah] gets raped in jail” (212). However, in real life, violence against juvenile sex offenders does little to erase the trauma of their victims, and additionally increases the juvenile’s chances of reoffending. Lucas embodies some of the effects of trauma on juvenile sex offenders: He witnesses horrifying violence in a reform home and takes out his pent-up fear and rage on Noah. While it is unclear whether Lucas reoffends, the anger he holds toward his own rehabilitation experience means that he neglects and ultimately completely denies Noah and his needs.