Sex-offender list offers more harm than protection
I was recently on one of the city Facebook pages and noticed a posting that someone had discovered they have a registered sex offender in their neighborhood.
What I found disturbing is that the poster made a generalized statement with no details on the registrant other than that they are “Tier 3 most dangerous and most likely to offend.”
Nothing was stated as to what the crime was, how long ago, or the registrant’s age at the time the crime was committed. I doubt they ever looked at or considered any of those factors. They made an assumption based on that person being on the registration list, nothing else.
Without knowing any information or details about the reason that person is on the sex offender registry, people who read the post immediately jumped to conclusions and formulated in their own minds what this registered person must be like. Comments included “child molester,” “Scum,” “Sexual Assault,” and “So many people like that in this town it is sickening.”
What I find sickening is the vigilante-like, discriminatory attitude so many people took after simply hearing the words “registered sex offender.”
The sex offender registry was designed to be a list of those people we truly need to fear, pedophiles who prey on innocent children and violent rapists. What it has become is a joke — a catch-all of anyone and everyone who has committed anything from a minor error in judgment to a serious, horrendous sexual crime.
This does not provide us with protection. What it does is protect the predators amongst hundreds of people who are not a true danger to society but are also on the registry.
Keep in mind that a registered sex offender could be someone who did nothing more heinous than public urination; a 16-year old who had sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend and the couple is now married and raising a family, but he legally remains on the registry as a sex offender; a person who at age 10 was playing “doctor” with cousins and siblings and is now a 30-year-old successful business person; or a child that ran up and kissed another child on the playground, now deemed to be a sexual assault, and the list goes on.
It is important to remember that the victim never ages, but the perpetrator does. What does this mean? It means when you look at a registration and see the photo of a 35-year-old man registered for having sex with a person under 15, have you looked to see how long ago the crime was committed? That registered offender may have also been 15 years of age at the time of the crime.
Remember, everyone makes mistakes. Sex offenders have a lower recidivism rate than any other type of criminal. Most people who make the news for having committed a sexual offense have never been charged before.
If you have someone living near you on the list, instead of making assumptions about the type of person they are or what they did, ask. Approach them in a polite manner and say, “I see you are on the sex offender registry; would you mind telling me what happened?” Some registrants may not want to talk about the events that took place, but many will be grateful you asked rather than making incorrect assumptions about the type of person they are. As every registrant knows, incorrect assumptions by others can lead to violence.
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The reason given for the unconstitutional, ex-facto, draconian, laws being passed is public safety. Make a list from one to a thousand of things that kill people, in the Untied States. Sex Offenders will be number one thousand.
Sex Offenders probley wouldn’t even make the list.
The longer I live, the more I realize that the vast majority of Americans haven’t really changed much since kindergarten. All of their feelings about important issues seem binary – perfect vs awful, white vs black, saintly vs evil. Also, schoolyard bullies pick on the perceived weakest kids on the playground. Vigilante types who simply picket neighborhoods or even those who set fires to the homes of registered citizens wouldn’t pick on someone who is on the Level 3 Serial Murderers List (known for brutally killing family members of their enemies). Ironically, the registered people who are supposed be feared the most, per State propaganda, are actually feared the least, partly because many RSO’s (especially the white ones, sorry) are perceived as timid, reclusive losers. The easier they are to beat up, the more the bullying will continue. Until the amusement/self-fulfillment of picking on RSO’s becomes too expensive, too dangerous, or just too boring for the typical activist (under-appreciated) soccer mom or lifetime victim (see Lauren Book, John Walsh, etc.), the attack on registered citizens will continue. Speaking of dangerous, I wonder why I haven’t yet heard of any incidents where an RSO, with nothing left to lose in life, attacks a congressman or vigilante. No, I’m not trying to encourage anyone … not yet, at least.
I wish I could post pictures here. After speaking at a county meeting last year the local news facebook story about the being was FILLED with death threats against me. I have screen shots of all of it.
I have no criminal back ground, no prior offense, first time offender, no victim, pleaded to avoid prison. You wouldn’t know it by my charges nor by the comments against me. It was Frightening to say the least.