A parent worried about sex offenders (babies, parents, wife, boys)
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Hello, hopefully this is the proper forum to discuss this. I live in a small town...not sure if i am allowed to say the name, dont want to violate TOS. but anyway, i just looked up how many registered sex offenders, were in my town, and found 27 names there. If I were able to ask a question, I guess it would be, why arent these peoples names made public in the newspaper, or news , at least on a monthly basis, so those of us who are trying to live clean moral lives are more aware of these animals that have blended into our communities. As a parent with children, I guess I can only beg others to get on these sites to see for themselves who is on these lists. I was surprised to see who they were, and thankful none of them were people i knew, or would even associate with.
Hello, hopefully this is the proper forum to discuss this. I live in a small town...not sure if i am allowed to say the name, dont want to violate TOS. but anyway, i just looked up how many registered sex offenders, were in my town, and found 27 names there. If I were able to ask a question, I guess it would be, why arent these peoples names made public in the newspaper, or news , at least on a monthly basis, so those of us who are trying to live clean moral lives are more aware of these animals that have blended into our communities. As a parent with children, I guess I can only beg others to get on these sites to see for themselves who is on these lists. I was surprised to see who they were, and thankful none of them were people i knew, or would even associate with.
You're definitely allowed to say the name of the town, this is a board about cities after all, lol. I think they don't publish these names because if someone is motivated to find the names themselves, it isn't difficult. Most parents who would be concerned about this are aware that this information is made available online and is easily accessible. At the same time, there may be some people who don't care, but hear the names and decide to make trouble. Also, point of contention, they're not all animals and I hope you checked their individual offenses instead of just assuming that all of them molested babies or something equally repusive. Not everyone gets on the list for raping children, sometimes it's a 17 year old-22 year old deal or a public urination deal. Just make sure to check on that sort of thing before you go off half-cocked trying to run them out of town or something.
Because if people care, they can easily find out themselves. And because your scenario would make it too easy for these human individuals to be ostracized, mostly by those who wouldn't even care enough to look up the info themselves.
In some places, depending on the offense, the names are put in the paper. A poster here recently was asking some questions about Massachusetts, where she lives, and I was looking at the laws there. (I live in Illinois.) It varies by state and maybe county or city.
Should they all be stamped with a big red S.O. on their foreheads? That way it would be easier to tell who should be run out of town. They would be easily recognized so no one speaks to them, they wouldn't be served in restaurants or stores, buses and taxis could recognize them and drive past, their kids could be ostracized at school, they could be denied homes, etc.. It would be so much simpler to have them readily identified so they never fit in to any community or live on any street in any town.
What do you suggest? Maybe kill them all? No matter what their offense was? Maybe keep them all in prison for their lives, no matter what their offense was? Maybe, upon release, keep them all in a special community made just for them? That won't work, then people would be complaining that they are consolidated and will come in the dark and rape every woman and child within a 100 mile radius.
There is as broad a spectrum for sex offenders as there is for people in your community.
If, say, your brother robbed a person on the street and he went to prison. When he got out, should everybody in the community shun him and be afraid? Probably not, since he paid for his crime by being in prison.
If, say, your son got foolish in high school and was driving a car with other boys and, maybe had some beer and felt a little tipsy, hit another car and killed a family; as a result, went to prison. When he came out, should the community fear him and he be ostracized for life? No, you would want him forgiven and he be allowed to live his life in peace, and re-enter the community without the shame of killing an innocent family.
Crimes against people exist, folks. They are commited by an enormous array of offenders. What, exactly, makes a person on a sex offense more dangerous than a robber or drunk driver? Can everybody else be rehabilitated and the sex offender not?
What makes a 17 year old boy having sex with his 15 year old girlfriend more dangerous than someone who has killed another human being? What makes a man who inappropriately touched a date more dangerous than a teen who robbed a corner store?
What makes those two 12 year old boys from Washington who patted a couple girl's behinds at school, because everybody was doing the same thing, more dangerous than the man who beat his kids and was put in prison and came out to re-enter the community? (those boys were in front of a judge and nearly had to register as sex offenders)
I have not seen much rationality at all on this topic.
Say your son (18 or 19) had a girlfriend 15 or 16) and they were caught by her parents having sex. Say your son was prosecuted and put behind bars for a while. Upon release, would he be considered a monster by you, your family and community? He would be a registered sex offender, so why not? Would you expect the neighborhood to go into a frenzy and keep their kids out of the parks, away from bus stops and out of school by chance he might be near lurking?
It's time this was put in perspective.
Last edited by stormy night; 02-05-2009 at 09:11 PM..
I do get that the above situation happens, but that doesn't mean we should give every sex offender a pass either. There are very real and dangerous s.o's out there and we should know who is in our neighborhoods. I do have one somewhat near me - on the map, their info is shown as "green" which is "other"...if the marker would have been yellow (rape) or red (crimes against chilldren) I would certainly take the time to try to find out what the heck that was all about. Just because someone got out of jail doesn't mean they're fine. I would want to know.
maciesmom, Are you also as diligent about finding out who else has been in prison and for what? Like maybe on domestic violence charges, or drunk driving?
Wouldn't you want to know, for the same reasons, if the man next door beat his former wife or kids? Or when you pass a car, if the driver has killed or injured some innocent by driving drunk?
Would you be as diligent in finding out if the guy you pass every day or hangs out around the school is a drug dealer or been in prison for dealing drugs? Just because he got out of prison, doesn't mean he's ok. Doesn't mean any of them are ok.
The last town I lived in was small (around 4,000) and had numerous sex offenders. However, most of them were on the lowest level--meaning it was something more like 17 y.o./19 y.o. thing or date rape. Not saying that is good, but it puts it in a little different light. The main thing is trying not to live next door to one...which is where my story comes in.
I looked up the sex offenders and saw that none lived close by the rental we chose. However, after living there a few months I found out that our next door neighbor was investigated for assualting his daughter, but charges never came of it. According to others (it was a very small town), the girl's actions still correlate to those of a victim of abuse today. Meanwhile, his nephew lived across the street and played with our son and after awhile we started noticing strange behaviors with him. I talked to his mother, but I didn't have anything to go on besides suspecition.
So... it really doesn't matter whether your town has a lot or not or if they are listed--one never, ever knows. Sucks for us that move around a lot!
Here, the SO are listed on the county website. Howvever, the numbers are entirely skewed. Our property straddles 2 towns. One has something like 5 SO and the other ( the very much smaller) has way over 40. Why? They count the SO who are in the COUNTY and STATE prisons there!
FYI: Schools get lists of Level II and III offenders, usually with photos, that live in the school district. We had to go to the principal's offce to see them, but it was worth the effort (I am a retired teacher; I got hem at work and I asked about them in my girls' school)
Last edited by BuffaloTransplant; 02-05-2009 at 09:43 PM..
We can all be paranoid about our neighbors, but the spectrum of sex offenses isn't any more of an alarm than drugs and other violent acts. Why stop at sex offenses? Why not demand lists for drugs, robbery, b & e, drunk driving, etc.? Makes just as much sense.
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