Where there's a Will, there's a way

I think that my concern with how this law came up is that I don't get the sense that there was a huge amount of thought into whether this was the best way to handle sex offenders. I think that you have to balance that chance of recidivism against the possibility that someone will honestly be rehabilitated. I think that people (as a general category, nothing unique to Springfield here) also have a well-established tendency toward moral panics, where a real problem gets blown out of proportion. Sex offenders have huge potential for such panic, so I think that it behooves us to tread carefully. Moral panics aren't just bad for people targeted as sexual predators--they cultivate and enhance a culture of fear that degrades daily life for everybody.

Am I saying that, therefore, we should just not worry about sexual predators? I am not. I think sexual predation is definitely real, and I agree with you that recidivism is likely. But I think we owe it to ourselves (and as a society it's in our interest that people not be broken in this way) to not block rehabilitation in our efforts to wall sexual predators off from the rest of society. And it's sad that one of the major drivers of this is our fractured local-state jurisdictions--that's probably an unexamined but important and stupid reason for the way that this has been playing out.

Greg, I see the potential for sexual predators being turned into a boogie man that frightens a community even more than it should. That's one reason I avoid the "let's just kill them all" language I see, even if some of them deserve it.

That being said, I'm not willing to back off this issue. Because this is largely a mental health problem, there's really no way of knowing when or if someone is rehabilitated, even if the person sincerely believes they won't do it again.

But perhaps more importantly, I'm amazed at how many people don't recognize how serious and widespread this problem is. There are still too many people who think this is about nothing but a 19 year old having sex with a 16 year old.
Maybe the way to balance that is to have a public education campaign that discusses the full seriousness of the problem, but without the alarmist rhetoric you might hear in a political campaign, for example. That's why I think its important for law enforcement agencies and schools to have programs that focus on this issue.

In case anyone is reading this, a very interesting movie on the topic filmed in Southern Illinois is Stevie. Its interesting in that it shows the perspectives of everyone involved, including the victimized.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0334416/

That being said, I'm not willing to back off this issue. Because this is largely a mental health problem, there's really no way of knowing when or if someone is rehabilitated, even if the person sincerely believes they won't do it again.

If I gave the impression I thought you should back off, I apologize. That wasn't my intention. I think it's a serious problem that needs serious attention. I think we share a common goal of prevention of sexual abuse and justice.

I guess I'm partly motivated to post out of confusion. In one of the SJR comment threads, someone posted a link to a site to look up where sex offenders are registered in your area. At that link, it had a sort of scroll bar of sex offender statistics, which started off with a number of statistics about the prevalence of sex offenses. However, it followed that with a stat about how most sexual offenses come from someone you know.

Both sets of statistics are commonplace, but I think the second one undercuts the way the first one gets used. If the primary concern are people you already know, then are the sex offender lists going to help you? I mean, I guess it's a matter of different types of predators--one of sort of convenience and one that seeks out children, and maybe at some point most in the first group move to the second group?

And then add that in with the zoning thing--that seems like a sound strategy if sexual predators come together and feeding off of one another--internet communities made real. But if it's breaking up halfway houses that serve a rehabilitation function, then it seems like a foolish action. Unfortunately, the SJR articles make it sound somewhere in between--the houses are supposed to serve some rehabilitative/monitoring function, but some of them are just in it for the rent subsidy?

I don't know. All I have is worry, I guess.

I also read some of the SJ-R comment board questions before I replied to you, so my comment about not backing off was written with that in mind more than what you wrote.
Its true that a lot of this abuse happens within families, sometimes passed down for generations. That's one reason I keep mentioning education programs, which could teach kids about what to do if it happens to them.

i think registration of sexual offenders is great if not they would be abusing our children.