dancerjodi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dancerjodi) wrote2005-10-30 09:08 am
dancerjodi) wrote2005-10-30 09:08 am
Halloween
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?
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?
no subject
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)...