Halloween

[dancerjodi]

There's been a lot of attention recently to this site http://www.mapsexoffenders.com/ . I've heard about it on the radio, had it e-mailed to me from friends at the dance studio, and found my sister talking about it on Friday night (she mapped her address and found that there are 2 sex offenders living in the same colony of complex buildings that she's in).

I think there is something to be said for information. Parents should be aware of the things that their kids are up against. Having taken a good deal of criminal justice related courses in my stint as a Sociology student, I've got to wonder what impact these kinds of things have on rehabilitation of criminals. I mean, they are sex offenders, they've done horrible things and (imo) don't deserve the same kinds of rights that other upstanding citizens should. At the same time, what's to be done about people like this? How hard is it to try and be productive in society when everywhere you go you're labeled? I'm really torn on this issue. Even though some may want to lock all criminals up and throw away the key forever, we just don't have the resources to do that kind of thing. So what do we do? This issue is one I'm particularly interested in, given that someone very close to me was a victim of scum such as these guys on mapsexoffenders.com .

There has been great attention to this site lately because of Halloween. There are a few issues that this brings to mind. First, remember when you went trick or treating as a kid WITH your parents? When we were really young Mom would take us to the few homes of relatives and neighbors nearby that we were friendly with. When we got a bit older she'd take us to a few more, though she'd always come along. As teens we started trick or treating alone, but Mom and Dad always made sure there was a large group of us. Are parents just too busy nowadays (I don't mean any of you all that are parents, I just mean in general) to do things WITH their kids? Or are there more perps? Or is it we just didn't know about all of the perps before?

I feel sad for the kids today that can't have as such a carefree halloween experience. I remember bundling up in coats, hats, gloves and scarfs, putting one of those old plastic costumes with the plastic mask over all of said warm things and walking with Mom around the neighborhood. We learned not to eat any candy until we got home so that Mom could inspect it all (don't want razorblades in apples or anything like this). Parents were cautious back then as they are now - have the evils just gotten more real, or more apparent?

Comments

[nepenthedreams]

you know what really surprised me? There are no sex offenders living around me as far as I can see on that map.

As long as it is only child sex offenders. Back in the day, gay men used to be convicted of being sex offenders for having consensual adult sex. I'd hate for them to be on this map.

Sex offender site

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"you know what really surprised me? There are no sex offenders living around me as far as I can see on that map."

It only reports Level 3 offenders (there were only 3 near me - in a 10 mile radius). I'm sure there are lots of level 1s and 2s that aren't listed in this particular site.

[nepenthedreams]

There was only one case of a razor blade being found in an apple, and I believe it was the kid's mom who did it.

[developer.livejournal.com]

A few thoughts:

- I think it depends on what the defination of sex offender is. A 21 year old guy who has consensual sex with a 17 year old girl is considered a sex offender just as someone who kidnaps 8 year olds, yet I think there is a difference.

- If someone went to jail for thier crime, haven't they paid thier debt to society? We don't publish maps of every person convicted of theft, yet in day to day life you are probably more likely to run into a thief.

- A bigger question for me, which I understand to not be answered yet, is whether a sex offender can either be rehabilitated or be at least taught to control themselves. I feel like our current justice system assume that they can be rehabbed, but does little to make it possible. If one can be cured, should they have to live with the stigma of thier past? And if they can't, should they ever be released?

----

As far as parents taking care of thier kids, this is where I tend to get pissed. Just becuase someone else decided to have kids doesn't obligate me to take care of them. If YOU choose to have kids, you are responsible to take care of them -- be that taking them trick or treating, checking what they are watching on tv or what video games they buy. That is a parent's job. I don't understand people who have kids them expect either the state or soceity to raise them.

Sure, it is reasonable for me to not hand out poisoned candy, run the kids over, and not seel them porn and drugs, but it ticks me off that because someone decided to have kids every show on TV has to be sanitized or else critisized.

[halo.livejournal.com]

I just looked, and in terms of the definition of sex offender, at least for Illinois, they tell you exactly what the conviction was for, and the age of the victim. So it's pretty highly specific.

Civil rights qualms aside (which I definitely have about this), it's a fascinating map. lines are drawn so sharply along the race and class lines in my neighborhood. Is it because poorer people are more likely to lash out at others because of economic stress? Or is it because there's a much higher conviction rate among black men in general in this country? I couldn't find a single white guy on my map, which seems like a statistical impossibility, doesn't it?

[kahoki.livejournal.com]

I saw the site on another LJ this weekend and checked it out - all of my previous Boston addresses had only a couple of offenders, with a high middle age demographic that seemed to lean on Level 3 sex offenders, the ones that molest children or use violence as a means of achieving their ends with a presumed inclination to be a repeat offender.

I think it is a good map as far as people with young children to be aware of there being wolves in the woods, as it seems that many of the more significant cases were of unsupervised children who were snatched up by predators in their apartment complexes or neighbor hoods.

On the other hand, I had an acquaintance in New Orleans who used to be into sex work, and *crimes against nature* arrests in her past came back to haunt her when she had to register as a sex offender and mail post cards at her own expense to neighbors in a two block radius to notify them. In her case, this could have led to undue male attention when she was looking to put that chapter of her life behind her, although it did lead to embarrassment from the stares of her neighbors who hadn't gotten to know her before the cards went out.

Unfortunately, predators have always been there, though no more active on Halloween night than any other. It does bother me that yet again someone has intellectualized a societal problem and come up with a whiz-bang solution rather than address the year round problem of what makes people behave in this way and addressing that problem accordingly.

[firewolfalpha.livejournal.com]

you know, I'm the single parent father ofa 3 year old little gir lwho has no fear of anyone whatsoever, DSS when they were part of my life questioned this as a bad thing, at first i rreally thought they might be right i mean if Amber is not terrified of other people, she is likely to be hurt or taken or whatever godforsaken nightmarish scenario our cynical adult minds can concieve of. The world we live in is no more or less dangerous than the one our parents lived in, only difference really is that we know more abotu what happens in say california or england or paris i nthe here and nowm, if someone is shot in los angeles i can know about in 15 minutes.
This media intense society has allowed us to begin to consider the world's problems and the enormity of it all as a whole. now I'm taking my little gir lout tommorrow night, i'l lbe visititng the neighbors who are up for the trick or treating thing. the old standbye is that you keep a light on your porch. My little girl is my responsibility but i do appreciate that everyone does not try to poison her. I appreciate that my tax money goes ot pay for and train and equip men and women doing a dangerous hard thankless job IE the Police.
I will let my child go and enjoy her childhood becuase honestly we get one shot. We should not cripple our children in fear before they actually have a chance to enjoy that wich wil lbe all too fleeting in any case.
I've just got to be the overprotective father everyone accuses me of being anyhow, oh well. :)
also o nthe whole note about Halloween, did anyone else think that the city of newton are idiots for canceling the thing in the schools? Apparently it's a bad thign to be nice to your neighbors kids and give them candy, and to enjoy dressign up in costumes. Gee i wonder how they'd feel about the Legion nd fandom in general huh Jodi? *chuckles* We live ina strange world. Halloween is bad. Political Correctness is good.....NOT.

[emzebel.livejournal.com]

I hate that commercial. "Now you don't have to choose between the things that are important to you."

Because there should have been any doubt that reading to your kid is more important than a football game?

On the Halloween subject, the past couple of years we have taken R around just to the houses of people that we know in the neighborhood who he knows and who know him enough to ooh and ah appropriately over his costume. This year we went to an event sponsored by the National Zoo which netted quite a haul in mostly healthy snacks (Whole Foods was a sponsor) and will probably do the same targeted neighborhood thing.

One thing that is really different now, that we never had when I was young enough to be doing heavy duty trick or treating, is the sponsored stuff - the Zoo/Mall/Downtown business things or even our neighborhood association has a sponsored "party house" every year with a costume contest and "official" treats that in theory are supposet to supplant going door to door to total strangers.

Of course, fewer of the houses were total strangers when I was little, but I don't see all of the other stuff supplanting trick or treating so much as augmenting it and maybe helping parents target things a little more.

I will say that most of the kids in our neighborhood do have a parent somewhere close by (which is good, because we do have someone on that map in our neighborhood, which is whole 'nother issue which I just cannot even start on right now)...

[christianb.livejournal.com]

I remember bundling up in coats, hats, gloves and scarfs, putting one of those old plastic costumes with the plastic mask over all of said warm things

I remember sweating a lot...Florida is weird.