Signs still posted in Bradford County

In Bradford County, Florida they have taken the idea of notifying their community about the sex offenders in their area to whole new level. The Bradford County Sherriff office have installed large red signs that explicitly state that there is a sexual predator living at this address. Their reasoning behind this is so it makes the sheriff’s job easier so they don’t have to keep notifying the residents surrounding these offenders. The officer states that they still are residing under the statutory obligations. According to Florida, “the sheriff of the county or the police chief of the municipality where the sexual predator resides shall notify the community and the public of the presence of the sexual predator in a manner that is deemed appropriate by the sheriff or the chief of police.” So the manner in which this county chooses is to fragrantly post a large red sign outside the homes of these sex offenders. John Goodman was interviewed in relation to this story. He himself has a sign posted outside his home. He would state that “I’ve done learned my lesson, I don’t do things like that anymore” This is a very common statement amongst most sexual offenders.

There was a study that was done by Lynn University, in relation to Sex Offender Risk and Recidivism in Florida. The findings of this this study shows just how unlikely sex offenders are to reoffend with sexual crimes. Out of 499 offenders and a total of 2,752 new offences over a ten year period only a total of 4.2% of these new crimes were sexual related. The large number being 18% failing to register, 17% drug or alcohol related, and 26% victimless crimes. This is a large jump from the mere 4.2% of sexual crimes. This study shows how low the recidivism rate it is for sex offenders in the state of Florida. So when sex offenders like John Goodman make statements like “I’ve learned my lesson” they mean it.

When counties take this issue of notifying the neighborhood in the manner that Bradford did, it puts sex offenders more at risk to be either assaulted or thrown out of their homes. This does not in fact help the community only hurts the community. When sex offenders don’t have the right counseling or a stable living environment this can force offenders to commit other crimes in order to survive.