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New York State Releases Sex Offender Facebook App
Just in time for Halloween, the New York state Division of Criminal Justice Services launched a Facebook application to help families know which houses contain sexual offenders. “Knowledge is power. New Yorkers now have another way to access up-to-date information about sex offenders in their neighborhoods,” DCJS Acting Commissioner Sean M. Byrne said in a release. “With Halloween around the corner, parents now have another tool to learn where offenders live so they can ensure their children stay away from those locations, as well as strangers’ homes. The Facebook app puts that important information at parents’ fingertips, whether they are at home or on the go.”
Might as well have them wear a big ol' S.
There's a lot of other crimes that are dangerous to neighbors, why just this one? And no I'm not advocating for all (or none), just asking why this one is singled out.
More ammunition in my daughter's quest for an iPhone 4s
Because if you're not registered as a sex offender, you can't molest children.
Yes. Sex crimes (actual sex crimes, not peeing outside) are bad. But honestly, some of this is witch hunting.
I don't like Child Molesters, but every 'sex offender' isn't a child molester. The sex offender label pisses me off.
And ban them from being in any position when their decision affect other people, regardless of what they own? It's certainly more of a problem in modern society, and it looks like there is suitable infrastructure already.
Pretty please?
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
http://www.theonion.com/video/shelby-cross-teaches-us-how-to-protect-our-childre,26438/
Of course over exaggerated, but not too far fetched.
We don't live in Shouldland.
Knowing where the bad guys are sounds great and all, but I worry about this "scarlet letter" of the digital age. Once information is on the net, it's difficult to erase, and while some may deserve lifetime scrutiny, what about people who genuinely reform?
And besides that, why is the government allowing a private entity to control, or at least assist, in the distribution of this kind of information?
Why would you avoid sex offenders on Halloween? They always have the best candy!
On a more serious note, while "knowledge is power"; garbage in still means garbage out. "Level 1", "Level 2" and "Level 3" are practically designed to tell you fuck all of actual use. Is a "level 3" forcible rapist with no interest in children more dangerous than a "level 1" pedophile? Well, that sort of depends on who you are, doesn't it? Are sex offenders(those who actually target strangers, rather than the common-but-less-polite-to-discuss trusted adults known to the victim) actually dumb enough to do their re-offending on their own doorsteps, rather than at less obvious locations?
This application seems like a fantastic tool for people afflicted with nebulous anxiety who feel the need to refine that into focused, concrete fear; but it seems magnificently ill-suited to any actual public safety objective...
Sex sells.
Fear, uncertainty, and doubt sell.
Providing a "solution" to fear, uncertainty, and doubt sells.
Combine all 3 and it's the politician's re-election trifecta.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
What it says
What it really means
Hmmmm... I wonder how many people will use this app to find a date.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
With Halloween around the corner, parents now have another tool to ...ensure their children stay away from ... strangers’ homes
For real? In NY kids only trick or treat at family and friend-of-families houses? That must be weird. Everywhere I have ever lived, kids visit every house that has a light on, like a candy assembly line or something.
Locally we worked around the whole offender thing by passing one law that forbids offenders from living within Z thousand feet of an elementary school, another law requiring elementary schools in the city limits to be within 2 * Z thousand feet of each other, and finally only permitting new housing developments where the most distant home is less than Z thousand feet of the local elementary school. There are weird corner cases of grandfathered in homes in the old parts of the city and bordering industrial areas where the offenders all live. I have checked the maps and its certainly a growth industry, the offender rate must exceed at least 0.1% of the population. They are forming dense little colonies of perversion within those restricted zones.
I frankly worry a heck of a lot more about my neighbor with eight DUIs running my kids over, or the biker gang down the street getting in a shoot out (note, move in "nearby" a biker gang, because they're smart enough not to soil where they sleep, and other criminals are scared of them, so its actually a very pleasant crime free neighborhood...
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
Once your registration expires or the conviction or registration requirement is overturned, sites that continue to claim you are a registered sex offender are not immune from libel/slander lawsuits if they keep the info up once they are notified that it is no longer current.
Most states REQUIRE that sites that have the full sex-offender-database online (vs. just a blog that happens to mention that one particular so-and-so is a registered sex offender as of the date of the posting) check it against the official list on a regular basis and remove outdated information.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Now I have yet another source to see where every dude in town who had to take a leak really bad and went in the bushes lives. Newsflash, the vast majority of "sex offenders" haven't violated anyone's rights. They are not child molestors, rapists, or anything like that. Most are just people who took a discrete leak in public and someone happened upon them or other nonsense like that. This "war" on sex offenders is getting to be as ridiculous as the "war" on drugs. The "sex offender" label is just another way to collect taxes and ruin people's lives, which seems to be the goal of the police and courts anymore. There are already laws against assault, abduction, and other truly violent crimes. No need for "sex offender" laws as it's already covered under so many other laws.
then why don't we have 'life offenders'? You know, for murderers and batterers and people who use baseball bats or hacksaws in public view.
You mean BookFace has found yet another niche demographic to appeal to?
The "like" button is replaced by "offer candy to"?
Enable camera, scan neighborhood houses; when you point at sex offender's house, Pedobear is superimposed over the image?
I've always hated the "sex offender" label and how they are all lumped together and put on display. I've read articles about guys in some states being labeled "sex offenders" because of indecent exposure charges against them due to peeing outside. I've looked at the sex offender maps around where I live and there are poor guys on there because they were 18 and had sex with a 17 year old, visible right next to the 50 year old man who raped a 1 year old baby. How can we pretend these are equivalent crimes that require public warnings?
NYPD just tagged you in a photo.
my site of misleading and incorrect information!
This app is only to let people know where to group if they want to lynch mob a pedophile....as no pedophile would sit at home to "watch" their prey....they go out to do this....so as to be able to blend in and act casual, so if they go near a park, they might be reading a paper on some bench, with side glances towards their intended victim, I am not sure of any use that someone would have to use their personal home as the location of a stake out....?
Are these people safe reformed citizens who should be free intermix with normal people.
Or are the dangerous criminals who should be locked up.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
*cough*
Whoa, that was creepy to read.
How about parents just walk WITH their damn kids, go to a decently well-lit neighborhood, and if they happen to go up to the door of a sex offender's house, well, chances are they'll never even know it. And what they don't know won't hurt them, or their kids.
Like the number of spiders the average human will swallow in their sleep, this is one statistic some people are simply better off not knowing.
Guard it well.
I'll bet the main use of this app will be for teenagers to pick which houses to vandalize.
I wonder if features a map tagging the homes where "sex offenders" are registered with a bulls-eye or rifle cross-hairs.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
It's also perfectly legal in the US o' A.
I am a New York state resident, and I think it's ridiculous that taxpayer money (be it state or federal) was spent on this. If you're that concerned, check a state website before your kids go trick or treating - why do we need Facebook or an app for this? Now excuse me while I figure out exactly who paid for this and write a letter to the (ir)responsible party.
Teach your kids Common Sense when they go Trick or Treating. Don't go into the houses of anyone you don't know. Don't trick or treat alone. I seriously doubt any sex offender is going to snatch children out of a pack of Trick or Treaters and drag them into their house to molest them.
an app to discriminate and ensure recidivism.
Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once
Wait, so government money was spent on something that requires you to sign up for Facebook in order to use?
Is there a way to voluntarily register myself as a "sex offender"? Sometimes I have naughty thoughts and I've peed outside at least once... but more importantly I don't particularly want kids annoying me on 31 October and I figure if everyone's labelled a sex offender then the whole stupid list will become useless.
tl;dr I'm Sexy Spartacus!
I think most people would agree that homosexuality is not a choice, and most would agree that people do not elect to be sexually attracted to children.
They need counselling and in the extreme cases some form of chemical castration.
Agreed wholeheartedly.
When you have a biological need that can only be satisfied by harming others or, for that matter, doing things that are so strongly counter-cultural that you must not do it in the culture you live in (e.g. polygamy in many countries or cultures, including most devout religious communities in the United States), then society not only MUST make counseling available but do so in a way that doesn't DISCOURAGE people from getting it. If people are afraid to tell their therapist "I'm in love with 2 women but I know God doesn't want me to sleep with both of them" or "I'm in love with my 6 year old cousin who lives next door but I know God and society don't want me to take him to bed" then we have a serious problem, one that will result in higher incidences of child abuse.
As for chemical castration:
Very few people are so controlled by their bodies that they cannot "say no" if they want to badly enough. However, it should be available as a tool to tone down the biological urges for those who would rather have low or no libido than live with a libido which they cannot satisfy without hurting others.
Chemical castration as a way to voluntarily lower libido isn't just for pedophiles and sex addicts. I wouldn't be surprised if more than one devout Roman Catholic man who has a civil divorce would prefer to lower his natural libido than be forced to live with a life of celibacy with his current sex drive. Unfortunately, because of its unpleasant side-effects, these drugs are too dangerous to use as a mere "lifestyle aid" when a libido which cannot be ethically satisfied is a mere annoyance - when it is not driving a person to want to sexually abuse others and it is not driving them to crippling depression or suicide.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Can you use it to search for women sex offenders, ages 18-30?
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
This sounds like a marvelous idea. We definitely don't want our children molested by child rapists! Those guys who were registered for public urination might have been within 100 miles of a child when they did it. They may as well have just been pissing in the child's mouth!
The app should have a map layer for nearby trees to make pitchforks out of.
I need an app that will help me track abusive policemen.
At this point, it seems like there is a much greater need to track abusive policemen than sex offenders. After all, if a sex offender causes problems, you call the police and they get put away. But if you are abused by a policeman, then calling the police just gets you more abuse.
I have a much greater need to track Tony Boloney http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/10/19/tony-bologna-with-a-side-of-pepper-spray-docked-10-vacation-days-videos/ than some random kink.
Abusive police we have with us always. We can't get rid of them. Our only defense is to track them and keep our distance.
Miles
...takes on a whole new meaning.
Most states have Romeo and Juliet laws and those that don't typically don't AUTOMATICALLY put young offenders with close-in-age partners on the sex-offender registry even if they are convicted of statutory rape or equivalent.
Most states don't put first-time misdemeanor offenders on the registry. This includes the drunk exposing himself when he didn't know there were kids around AND when there weren't likely to be children around.
While some teens have been charged with sexting to age-peers, most states and prosecutors look for other charges or are modifying the laws so these aren't considered registration-required offenses. Even the federal prosecutors are loathe to prosecute things that teenagers commonly do as sex crimes.
it's that their daughter/son is more likely going to get abused by her brother or boyfriend than that creepy looking guy down the street.
Or, possibly even more likely, an older or same-aged family member or neighbor. I wonder how common forced/coerced incest is among 2-child families where the male is 2-10 years older than the female AND where, as the older child, he's routinely been required to babysit the younger one from the time he was 11 or 12 until the time she was the same age?
I wonder how often the parents find out but, because they don't want to ruin their son's life with even a juvenile sex-offense conviction, they handle it "within the family," depriving the younger child of helpful counseling and POSSIBLY (if the local prosecutors have youthful-offender pre-trial diversion programs that the family may not be aware of) necessary counseling for the older one?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Am I afraid of the registered sex offenders in my area harming my child? No, not nearly as afraid as I am of the gun owners http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshihiro_Hattori and there is no list for them. So some registered pervert might try to touch my kids wee wee or some unregistered pervert might blow his head off for knocking on the door... To hell with sex offenders, I am afraid of GUN OWNERS, they are far more dangerous and the law will protect them from you when they kill your kid... When will there be national and state registries for gun owners?
where is mine drugdealer app? running low on my shit...
I'll tell you where this is all headed. It's obvious. While I may think sex offenders are some of the most mentally sick and twisted people to walk the earth, if I were to continue to plot a line as to where all these laws against these offenders point to, it becomes very clear. The next step is to chip these people like cattle and brand them on their forehead. Politicians will be praised and hardly any of their political enemies will fight them on this. Too politically suicidal to do so.
I say, give it another 10 years.
Nazism was a warning, not an example. Godwin! There, I said it. Happy now?
Life is not for the lazy.
http://twitter.com/#!/zackwhittaker/status/29299981554
For some, rape and child molestation is intentionally about power. Sadists and sociopaths fall into this category.
For others offenders, it's about a distorted world view that the victim loves you and wants to go to bed with you combined with a distorted world view that says there is NOT an imbalance of power.
For the latter, fixing the distorted world views will generally render the person harmless and in the best case, will make him so over-protective of children as a class that he'll boycott being around them and encourage other pedophiles to do the same.
This still leaves some who, despite re-education, are driven by a biological drive too strong to ignore. For them, libido-lowering drugs not only will help, but if a drug that lowered libido without having nasty side effects like osteoporosis were available, he'd probably gladly take it.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
What does this app have do to with facebook? Why not just a NY gov't website where you can access the info? Why would New York pay facebook for an application that it could just as easily host on it's own website?
Can we, please, do the same for sociopaths?
It will never happen. Not any time soon anyways, at least in America.
Too many of them find their way to high-level elected office or into the boardrooms or executive offices of powerful corporations.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
If you are on the list for life, then getting outdated information erased OTHER than of course outdated addresses is a moot point.
Outdated addresses will be scrubbed as required by law, same as an expired registration.
Now, there will be inaccuracies where a person doesn't re-register after moving as required by law or where the agency he re-registered with after moving is slow to send their data to the state's central clearinghouse and to the state he was last registered in. But these problems should be cleared up when the new homeowner or tenant checks the registry and notifies his local police that the former registrant no longer lives there.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I can't wait to start breaking into all these homes! Who's gonna convict me when there's a sex offender living there??
When done correctly, level-1/2/3 combined with a "likely target profile" can be helpful.
If done correctly,
"Level 3, adolescent females living in the same household, level 1 or lower, everyone else" or "Level 3, infants and toddlers, level 2, children and pre-adolescents, level 1 or lower, everyone else" is very helpful.
However, most (all?) states do it wrong. Not only don't they not break it down by victim profile, but they rely too much on "static" factors and not enough on "dynamic" factors. A 20 year old who molested an 8 year old boy might get a lot of "points" based on the static factors of "young age at 1st offense" and "young age of victim" and "male victim" but depending on how seriously he took therapy, he may be far less likely to re-offend than the 54 year old who dates 16 year old young women in a state where 17 is the age of consent but who holds society in contempt for daring to tell him that he's not allowed to love the lady of his choice.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Locally we worked around the whole offender thing
On the legal theory that the state can't make it illegal for you to find housing, rules like this in aggregate enable judges to throw out all the relevant laws as soon as the last one "that breaks the camel's back" is passed and enforced.
Worse, a judge could leave the laws intact but neuter them by declaring that the state registration law is null and void for anyone living in a city with such rules. This would mean people who would otherwise have to register would have an instant incentive to move to your city because they would be in a judicially-dictated "you can't be arrested for not registering if you live here" zone. Then, once the city council rescinded the laws and replaced them with more reasonable ones, those who had moved in would get court orders to grandfather them into their current address, exempting them from the newly-passed, more-reasonable laws.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
This does have the potential for abuse.
This is cruel and unusual punishment. Listen, either these individuals are dangerous and shouldn't be let out of prisons, or they are 'reformed' (whatever that means) and they are let out of prisons because they are NOT dangerous.
You can't continue punishing people once they are done with their actual punishment, this is insane.
You can't handle the truth.
While convicted offenders may present a certain risk; its the ones who haven't been caught yet that you really have to watch out for.
But seriously, none of them present a threat as long as parents take care of their children and actually go with them. The people who present the threat, are the people prone to irrational violence or are running criminal enterprises out of their homes.
If someone is passing you on the right, you are an asshole for driving in the wrong lane.
It turns out that sex offenders have some of the lowest recidivism rates of any category of crime. We let far more dangerous criminals out of prison all the time, and we do not require them to wear the scarlet letter. The whole sex offender registry concept was a knee-jerk reaction to an exceedingly rare event.
Palm trees and 8
The general tone of responses is that you all just assume this app is for Big Brother/Vigilantes/Christian Milita to gun for pseudo-sex offenders. If you had adopted a child who was horribly and continually sexually abused by her so-called father for the first years of her life, and seen the results, and that NO amount of therapy, love, support, and time will completely heal that child, you would want that app. This information is public domain, as are all convictions. This app simply takes public information for a specific locale and makes it easier to find. You can go to most county/state websites and find the same information, this is just convenience. So get off your fopping high horses, and let FOIA take it's course.
If you're going to tack a life-long punishment to somebody for a "sex offense" then just send them to prison for life.
Nah, that's too much free room and board at taxpayer expense.
Have them on lifetime supervised release like the feds do for more serious less-than-life crimes.
"Life with parole - where parole is routinely granted after X years" also serves the same purpose.
Personally, I think anything beyond "police eyes only" registration only benefits society on a case-by-case basis and, since people change, anyone subject to public registration or any special rules that typically affect registered offenders such as off-limits or you-can't-live-there zones needs to be re-evaluated at least annually. I'd prefer this be done in a mental-health court that is not open to the public and whose rulings are as private as possible unless the person who is under the court's supervision requests the record be made public. Any decision by such a court to publicize your record or impose restrictions on you would have to be justified by demonstrating that 1) you are more dangerous than the average person or are likely to be more dangerous than the average person if existing conditions are lifted, 2) the imposed conditions will reduce your danger level to that of the average person or at least move it in that direction, and 3) the conditions imposed are the minimum conditions which achieve the desired reduction in dangerousness.
If you do this, "lifetime registration" will turn into a few years of post-prison or post-parole court supervision followed by nothing but telling the police where you live and what you look like every year but no other social consequences beyond that of being a convicted criminal.
I also predict that if you do this, crime will not go up because of it and eventually, states will drop the "lifetime registration" to something like "5-10 years of telling the police where you live and what you look like every year once the mental health court has discharged you as being no more dangerous than the average person."
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Are these people safe reformed citizens who should be free intermix with normal people.
Or are the dangerous criminals who should be locked up
Are you talking about registered sex offenders or people obsessed with finding out where registered sex offenders live?
Just curious.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
But which categories of criminals are most likely to commit new sex offenses against children and young teens? Or are they all less likely to commit such crimes that someone with no criminal record, everything else being equal?
It's just a hunch, but I'd guess the category of criminals with past sexual assaults against girls under 10 is more likely than the category of criminals with only drug offenses to commit a new sexual assault against a girl under 10, under identical conditions.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Waiting to see if this is a Joe-Job, er, Rick-Roll, er, NSFW photo of a person's non-clothed backside.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
The best way to protect your kids from outside-of-family abuse is to keep an eye on your kids and those who take care of kids and train the older ones to defend themselves both physically and mentally.
Focusing your energies on those who have offended in the past without watching and training your kids leaves your kids vulnerable to those who haven't offended yet or who haven't been caught yet.
If you do watch and train your kids then watching those who have offended in the past is redundant and wasted effort.
--
I don't have a solution for the problem of in-family abuse or abuse where the family doesn't watch their kids and train them to fight back.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I have a friend, 45, a rather attractive fellow who had sex with a girl who showed him a fake ID after he was intelligent enough to attempt to verify her age. Come to find out after the police knocked on his door, she used a fake ID and was 17.5 years old. (damn near looked 22). His life has been ruined and he's in prison now serving a three year sentence and the judge didn't even give him a chance to explain his side of the situation because A) The bible-belt town's DA wanted to get a notch in their belt for getting a sex offender off the street and B) The law enforcement is such that any accuser is given the benefit of the doubt; because we know ALL 17 year old girls are innocent angels and would never lie. Who wants to berate an already "scarred" little girl with "meanie" defense questions?
Wouldn't a punishment that's applied only to one form of crime fall under the Eight Amendment?
This reminds me of this controversial app where you can lookup criminal records of anyone, they seem to be limited to one state for now, but they plan to expand to all states, quite frankly my reaction to this is a big WTF, but anyways there you have it.
http://www.docketinyourpocket.com/
Laws like what you describe are very common. Most counties have enacted similar ones. Unfortunately, by pushing people further and further away from normal society, they're making rehabilitation and reintegration more difficult than normal.
This is especially troubling, given the useless nature of the sex offender list in most states. Public urination? Sex offender. Take a photo of your own teenage body? Sex offender. Now the NIMBYs in villages like yours are pushing these people out of society.
It is getting to the point in America where a sex offense should just result in deportation or execution. Life on the list is brutal.
I welcome our new 99% overlords.
Why a Facebook app? Can you share your findings with your friends or something?
Are people really unable to visit another website any more?
Oh wait, maybe the answer is in the link...."This new app leverages the power of social media to connect New Yorkers to an important resource"
Oh, it 'leverages'... I see.
I am gravely disappointed that they have created an app for sex offenders to use! That is the exact opposite of what they should be doing! And shame on facebook for accepting it!
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
If it's anything like over here, 'Trick or Treat' mainly involves a gang of surly teenagers coming to your house and expecting you to give them money, rather than risk getting your windows smashed or a firework dropped through your letterbox. Kinda like blackmail. Or extortion. Personally, I'd prefer to hire a sex offender to come live in my house.
This is just politicians making noise to get attention, making it look like they're actually doing something for a living, and feeding on people's fears.
Is this even worth posting to /.? This has less to do with technology and more to do with attention whores needing their fix.
How did we develop a legal system so retarded that an argument that requires you to doublethink a single person into mature victimizer and immature victim doesn't get laughed out of court
I know the answer to this! I had the same double take teaching an intro physics lab in the US as a postdoc. I remember discussing with some 18 year old students a similar legal contradiction. Some students had been charged with possession of alcohol because they were under 21 and yet the whole point of the law is that an 18 year old is not mature enough to know how to behave with alcohol...so how can they be legally responsible if they get their hands on some?
The response was: "So what? We do it all the time and rarely get caught...and even when we do the penalty isn't much. Plus nobody would ever listen to us, we would never get the law changed.". So there is your reason: people have no respect for the law because rarely has an impact on them even when caught plus it is so much work with so little chance of success in making a change that nobody wants to even try. I really hope the US can fix this but, given the extreme rigidity of the political system there I don't see it happening in a smooth and easy way.
and therefore make a great target for any politician/newspaper wanting to drum up some publicity.
Ever noticed anybody willing to put their head above the parapet and defend them?
Attempting to do so is way beyond my personal abilities, but the f'in inconsistencies in the arguments beggar belief.
Just to take an example - is paedophilia a crime or a disease? If it's a disease, something they have no control over, then it should be treated like any other with care and compassion - but it can't be a disease, because then we wouldn't feel comfortable demanding they're strung up from the nearest lamp-post.
So - we're stuck with 'crime', a voluntary act they chose to make because they're 'evil' (we so so so want them just to be evil (like Nazis), rational analysis throws up so many 'hard-thinks'). So. Criminals they are - except they're not allowed to be rehabilitated. Their crime is so great that it must be branded upon them for life. Their houses must be marked. Neighbours must be warned. People must cross the street - I'm pretty sure these are all wonderfully well targeted techniques at integrating people back into society.
There are loads of parallels you could take as examples - how for example the USA gets pulled into politics in certain parts of the world.
The "USA" is a great big complex thing, that's done some good things and some really bad things. It's not an actual thing you can point, shout or reason with - it's an amorphous concept. Yet - in many parts of the world, if things are going a bit badly locally, you can guarantee you can just rip into the USA, blame it for all your ills, chuck up a statue of your crusading-pig-dog image of choice, start making some nukes for them and get the crowd cheering. Sure it might screw things up a bit in the long term, but it gets you through that tricky patch.
And to summarize...(I believe this is what you're supposed to do at the end).
The concept of a state publicly marking its citizens, for any reason at all, is distasteful and dangerous. No special cases, no exceptions. Quite likely not to end well, if history is anything to go by.
Actually - bit presumptuous of me to tell you what you should think. I also know damn well if the list went online near me I'd be on there like a shot.
Outlaw "Trick or Treat". Or "demanding moneys with menaces" as it's known in the rest of the world. Only in the USA is such an odious 'tradition' encouraged and made part of the culture. Unfortunately it's spreading to other countries through the usual cultural imperialism. JUST SAY NO!
This marks a sad, sad day in the lives of sex offenders everywhere.
But seriously, none of them present a threat as long as parents take care of their children and actually go with them.
Yes. Because there is no way children should be out and about on their own. Mommy and/or Daddy should always be present to watch over their little bundles of joy and protect them in the 1:1,000,000 chance that something were to happen to them.
Or, Mommy & Daddy can give the kids a flashlight and some bright-colored clothing and maybe a few tips and let them go out by themselves to the other houses in the neighborhood. I'd bet that they'll return safe and sound in an hour or so with a bag of candy and a belief that maybe they can actually accomplish things on their own without Mommy & Daddy.
Or you can buy this app instead.
And so's the rumor that a sex offender is likely to hurt your children. Especially if you're accompanying the children.
I get that certain sexual offenses can be horrifying and violent (although they usually include separate crimes such as kidnapping or aggravated assault), but where's the big push for the "I shot someone in the face for no good reason" watch list? I'd be MUCH more interested in which people in my neighborhood had murdered someone than which ones whipped their dick out in public or had a "no means no" incident.
Buy your next Linux PC at eightvirtues.com
I agree with what you said but it's not related to my comment.
I said "everything else being equal."
In other words, take 1000 people who are 34-year-old fathers living with their 9 year old daughters and who are otherwise in similar life situations.
500 of them have records of sexually assaulting girls under 10 in the past (although, statistically, a small number of these records may be incorrect, e.g. false convictions).
The other 500 have no such record (although, statistically, a small number of them might have sexually assaulted young girls).
Now, which of these two groups will likely commit more sexual assaults of girls under 10 during the next few years or during their lifetimes, or is the risk difference too small to care about and/or statistically insignificant?
My hunch is the first group. In particular, my hunch is that this difference will be much higher when comparing those with past sexual-assault-of-girls-under-10 records against those with no such record than when comparing otherwise-identical groups where the only difference is a previous drug conviction or some other crime that's not strongly related to child sexual abuse.
Change around the "situation" to "14 year old boys living in the same house with 9 year old girls," etc. for each of your named situations and I'd make the same hunch.
The only time I can see when this hunch would break down is if circumstances unique to the former offender such as therapy, fear of returning to prison, religious awakening/conversion, accountability systems, effective denial of opportunity to re-offend, etc. reduced the risks down to or below the level of the non-offender.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
If I'm a plant low on nitrogen I'd want to know where these people live so I could send them an engraved invitation!
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I also check mine when I'm bored.
By far the most are male.
My own spot-checks show between 4 and 6 males for every female in my area.
I've heard from police statements in the media that in my state the arrest ratio is about 4 or 5 males for every female and that between arrest and sentencing, police try to treat males the same as females.
Now, that's not to say this equal treatment actually happens. Women probably get more sympathy in bond hearings and from juries, and women's prisons tend be "cushier" than men's prisons. But the point is that in my state at least, the male offenders who are arrested outnumber women 4-or-more to 1.
I don't know if this is because there are fewer offenders, or if victims don't report as much, or both.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
You're far more likely to be molested by someone who's never been caught and thus never gotten treatment.
That's not helpful.
Why?
Because by definition you can't tell the difference between the high-risk person who HAS molested a child and who has not been caught, the high-risk person who is actively seeking his first victim, the medium-to-low risk person with these urges who isn't yet actively seeking his first victim, and the person who does not have these urges or any other major risk factor (such as a sadist's willingness to use sex to hurt others even if he doesn't particularly enjoy the sex itself).
I'd guess that 800-999 out of every 1000 men and probably 950-999 out of every 1000 women with no sex crime history are in the "no risk factor" category. Since you can't tell the never-caught offender from the never-will-offend person, you have to treat them the same. Either assume incorrectly that as a group they are more dangerous than the average ex-offender, assume incorrectly as a group they are about equally dangerous, or assume correctly that as a group they are less dangerous that those with prior convictions but acknowledge that this is the group that includes those who are extremely dangerous but who hide in plain sight very well.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
In other words, the Court system will happily allow itself to be used to commit a crime, as long as you pretend the issue is sexual.
If by crime you mean perjury on the part of the innocent defendant admitting guilt and incitement to perjury and blackmail on the part of the police and prosecutors, I have news for you:
This is not restricted to sex crimes.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
In some states 17 year olds who (allegedly) commit crimes CANNOT be charged in state juvenile court - any state charges MUST be in adult court or they must be dismissed.
A 17 year old sending a photo of himself to a same-aged girlfriend would likely face no charges in such a scheme, due to the absurdity issue.
But a 17 year old who sends photos to a preteen would likely face charges of sending pornography to a minor. The cops would wisely treat the porn as if it were adult porn to avoid the absurdity issue.
Many states and I think the feds are considering legislation to either change the offense of possession/creation/distribution of child pornography when the actors and subject of the photo know each other, when they are all close in age, and when the subject consents to the photo being taken and distributed into a "civil" offense or a non-sex-crime misdemeanor, and/or implementing pre-trial diversion education and rehabilitation programs.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
In my state all drivers have to register with the state within 30 days of establishing legal residency. They have to get their picture taken as well. Even if they don't move they have to update their registration at regular intervals. Not only that but they have to pay for the privilege.
If they do not, they forfeit their right to legally operate a motor vehicle on the public roads.
Unlike the sex-offender registration though, the photo and address are not available to the public without good cause or a release from the person. But employers, banks, landlords, schools, and others typically demand such a release or demand to see a state-issued certificate proving that you are registered. Even non-drivers, who are not required by law to register with the state, are required to provide proof of registration or a statement saying they are not registered when dealing with most employers, banks, etc.
One upside to almost everyone having to register: There is not any stigma to being a registered motor vehicle operator.
Oh, my state does the same thing for those who dare to exercise their right to vote, and those records ARE public. There is no photograph, however.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Outside exceptional cases like the military or cases when another enforceable law was broken such as prostitution, all consensual sodomy convictions should've become eligible for immediate over-turning in 2003, when the Supreme Court of the United States issued is ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, which invalidated all of those statutes when it came to consenting adults' private sexual behavior.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Whatever happened to going onto the sheriff's website to get this information?
This represents a 'put everything on Facebook' mentality. What happens when Facebook goes the way of Myspace? It's like a perverse return to the walled garden version of the Internet.
Because children of that age are going to listen to their parents and keep their bright colored clothing, and really be back in an hour or so.
More likely they will head off the then next block, then the next block, and keep going until they get as much candy as possible.
Since being listed on the sex offender registry isn't "punishment"
Protecting the public is the ostensible reason for listing but in fact, the listings amount to additional punishment.
This is much like how most felons have restrictions on getting professional licenses, they can't be a Notary Public in most states, and until the last 30 years they commonly couldn't vote. The ostensible reasons for each was that people "of bad character" shouldn't be in certain professions that require trust and good judgment. The reality is that if you had poor judgment 10 years ago, it doesn't mean you have poor judgment today. Likewise, people who had good judgment 10 years ago don't necessarily have good judgement today.
Personally, I think if you are going to take away someone's civil liberties as punishment (for reasons other than as parole from prison or other reductions in the court-assigned punishment), this additional punishment provision needs to be in the law-books at the time of the crime AND it should be subject to the same judicial review as any other punishment, e.g. is it cruel and unusual, is it ex post facto, etc. As an example, lifetime punishments (loss of right to be on a jury, sex-offender registration, et al) for crimes that typically have prison time of less than 10 years would almost certainly be considered cruel.
On the other hand, some people ARE a danger to themselves and others. Some of these people have committed crimes but their parole or probation has expired. Some some have no criminal record. This is what mental-health courts are for. These courts should largely operate out of the public eye - with only enough oversight to prevent abuse but without naming-and-shaming those who are hauled into these courts unless the person desires publicity.
This would take care of those ex-felons who are still a danger to the public, those who have no criminal records who have made overt, credible threats to hurt others, and those who have a history of lack of self-control that is considered so lacking that it's obvious sooner or later someone will get hurt. The latter two groups are already handled by mental-health courts.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Wouldn't it be fun to move into a house or apartment that is marked as being owned by a sex offender in the database?
What if they get an address wrong and instead of your neighbor being marked as a sex offender, you are marked as a sex offender?