Just yesterday, at my corporate job, one of my fellow employees sent an email to the entire office listing a website whereupon entering an address, a list of registered sex offenders in the area surrounding the address is returned, complete with photos. The email came with the following message:
“[X] and I don't have any kids, but if and when we do, I think this site would be pretty useful and scary.”
The email closed by inviting our office staff to visit the website and check out their local areas. This email was then replied to by numerous other employees thankful for the URL, as well as by one employee who suggested we all enter the addresses of our high schools to check on “that teacher everyone always wondered about.”
I resisted the urge to go to the site out of curiosity because I don’t want to give the organization any site traffic, and I won’t be listing the site here. Setting aside the fact that this is a completely inappropriate use of company resources, I do have to comment on the rampant fear of “sex offenders” that has developed in recent years.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a liberal. That being said, I think the issue of sex offender registration is ridiculous and functions to breed unnecessary fear and unwarranted self-righteousness. The term “sex offense” covers a wide-ranging set of crimes, not all of which are equal. Included in this category are heinous crimes involving sexual abuse of children to be sure, but also included are “crimes” of eighteen year olds having sex with seventeen year olds, and adult men or women participating in sexual activities with willing minor partners who are fully aware of what they’re doing.
What good does it do anyone to know where registered sex offenders live? At what point do we stop the witch hunts and allow people who have paid for their crimes to go on with their lives. (These comments clearly constitute the liberal part of my post. And yes, I’m aware that just because an individual has served time in jail, paid fines, and attended some sort of counseling doesn’t mean the individual is rehabilitated and no longer a threat.)
I firmly believe that the panic I’ve seen about knowing where sex offenders live is more about parent’s willingness and perhaps desire to hand over the rearing and protection of their children to the larger society. It’s the same argument for censoring books, television shows, and many other things. Rather than be an engaged parent who looks after his or her child and monitors what the child is exposed to, many parents seem to want to require that society create a kind of insulating bubble around all children, and then the parent can be relieved of responsibility.
Knowing that a sex offender lives down the street or next door does not protect children from anything nor does it excuse parents from their responsibilities. What about all of the sex offenders who are not registered? What about the sex offenders who have never been caught and therefore don’t have records? If I had children (and I wish I did), I would want my child to know how to handle himself or herself around any kind of threatening person. I would want my child to understand how the world really operates, and I would want to prepare and equip my child to engage that world fully, rather than live in fear.
1 year ago