Why Didn’t the Registry Save Them?
If the sex offender registry were really the public-safety panacea it’s billed as, how do we explain incidents like these recent headline stories? An agent from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was found to have taken up-skirt photos of a flight attendant mid-air. And a coach at a private Christian academy in Broward County was arrested for molesting students while on campus. Several other Florida school staff were arrested within the past week for sex crimes, including a Palm Beach County teacher.
If the registry is supposed to “warn the public” about sex offenders in their midst, why wasn’t it preventing or flagging this kind of harm before it happened?
These examples aren’t outliers; they expose a deeper truth: the registry has become a veneer of safety — one that might make policy-makers feel like something is being done, without tackling the realities of risk, access, power, and prevention. Having a “registry” doesn’t close pathways to harm at all. If the registry didn’t keep kids safe in of all places school, what use is it? If we’re being honest, the registry is just an illusion of safety that distracts and diverts resources from education and prevention.
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‘ If we’re being honest, the registry is just an illusion of safety that distracts and diverts resources from education and prevention.’
Spot on!!
IF, and that is a big IF, if there is a registry, there should only be a LEO visible only. No reporting of SO’s etc. It should be incumbent on the parent to call and make inquiry. I would bet that number would be extremely low. I raised 3 daughters and never looked up anyone or neighborhood. Parents need to step and parent. And as pointed out the registry did prevent the storied mentioned examples.
“if there is a registry”?
There is a registry is the thing.
I am aware i speaking in jest. but that if there is going to be one and there is, It should only be for LEO only. I personally do not think there should be one or if there has to be it should only be for a specific time with end date.
LEO does not need a registry for private use. They already have realtime access to any number of local, state and federal databases that can provide background on previously convicted or even charged persons. Singling out former sex offenders merely perpetuates the myth that they present some particular danger to society.
The answer to the article’s question is obvious. Because somewhere in the neighborhood of 93 to 95 percent of prior sex offenders will not reoffend, society is looking in the wrong place. Society believes the registry is a panacea, and it allows them to pretend that the monsters are only “out there.” That comforting belief is a form of collective denial that blinds us to the real dangers.
You don’t get votes when it’s “visible to police only” you need mass hysteria to drum up votes. Hence the registry machine.
We’ve gotten to the point that they need to invent new crimes to put people in the registry (like pissing outside). You haven’t a clue how many ‘hooters’ waitresses I’ve seen piss outside after hours **rolls eyes** do they all belong on the registry?
Because we read in the headlines a couple of times per year about an offender on the registry committing a new sex crime. Officials use the excuse that if we can stop even one that that’s enough to keep the registry.
What they won’t recognize is there will be no zero repeat offenders. It is nice to think there will be but the stats show there isn’t any. It is unrealistic and they milk the TRUE repeat offenses for as much as they can, as we see. Those who are busted for other non-true sex crimes are not repeat offenders.
The second part of the mantra “If it just keeps one child safe” is “if it lines the pockets of politicians, law enforcement, prisons, treatment providers, and polygraphists with millions of dollars, it’s well worth it.”
But the registry didn’t stop them. I think that is a fallacy of the Registry. Politicos’ use it as a trigger button, and most voters know its hogwash.
#100
Awesome wording that drives home the point clearly!