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dancerjodiThere'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?
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Date: 2005-10-30 06:11 pm (UTC)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.