[US] Post the Sex Criminal nearest YOU!

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Winston
Now that it's been put forward several times on this thread, I feel it needs to be said that having children of one's own is not a prerequisite to forming a valid opinion on the publicizing of so-called sex offender information. Or, for that matter, on the general hysteria surrounding allegations of sexual offenses that we're witnessing today.

What a ridiculous position. It's like saying only women can have an informed opinion on abortion, or that only dog owners should let themselves be heard on the subject of dog fleas. Baloney!

Having children is not a prerequisite to having a valid opinion on publicizing sex offender info, but it provides a perspective that only a parent can have.

Besides, sexual offenses have been known, on occasion, to involve victims who have made the transformation from childhood to adulthood..

Are these crimes any less heinous?

[Winston]

Likewise, not having any children provides a perspective that only a non-parent can have.

What is it you're trying to say? That parents' opinion on this subject should count for more, less, or the same as non-parents'?

Originally posted by Caligastia
Are these crimes any less heinous?

No. But they exist, which seemed to have been ignored in this debate until I mentioned it. In fact, I heard they're much more prevalent, but apparently they don't carry quite the same OMG-factor as the ones driving people to kill a dude for scratching himself on his balcony.

[Caligastia]

I'm saying that the desire of parents to know the proximity of potentially harmful criminals to their children should be respected.

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Winston
Likewise, not having any children provides a perspective that only a non-parent can have.

We have all been non-parents, so those of us who are parents have seen it from both perspectives.

[Winston]

You didn't answer my question. Should non-parents' opinion count for as much as that of parents?

If it shouldn't, I'd very much like to know why.

If it should, why post statements like "If you had kids, you'd understand"?

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Re: [US] Post the Sex Criminal nearest YOU!

Originally posted by klesh

Wait a minute...is that Wolfgang Peterson, director of Troy and The Neverending Story?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000583/

NO! ATREYU!

[Kataphraktoi]

Having children is not a prerequisite to having a valid opinion on publicizing sex offender info, but it provides a perspective that only a parent can have.

I see that ''only a parent can have'' line used with alot of stuff, normally because the person know they cant win the argument logically and instead try to remove or damage the source of the oposing argument.

[Winston]

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Wait a minute...is that Wolfgang Peterson, director of Troy and The Neverending Story?

Petersen.

I think you left out a little something called Das Boot.

[Kataphraktoi]

Originally posted by Caligastia


If you looked at any of these sites you'd see that this information is all easily available.

What do you base this opinion on?

Many sexual offences are over-rated in general-per all the convictions\convictees i have ever been witness to. Many of them were bad, but some were plain frivolous. I also have little faith in the justice system and would need more than a judge's statement about somebody to make my mind up about him. These charges also stay on a persons record for life even after paying time in jail\service or what have you, and continue to penalize a person after the fact.

Just because the information was there prevoiusly does not mean you need to unite it all in one big witch hunt list for people to misuse.

[Last Conformist]

Originally posted by mactbone
Aren't most child molestations done by relatives or figures of authority?

Judging from media reporting, yes. Too lazy to dig out any real data.

[Arrian]

Are people misusing this data? I mean, are there bands of vigilantes hunting these people down and running them out of town? If so, where are the news reports about it?

-Arrian

[Winston]

I think the more relevant question is, how large a percentage of sexual assaults are prevented by this practice. And does this percentage in any way match the negative impact it has on people's lives from a right of privacy point of view.

[Arrian]

how large a percentage of sexual assaults are prevented by this practice.

Impossible to ever determine. You can't really track a stat of something that does not occur. If you track the overall rate, there are so many other possible reasons that the rate can fluctuate...

-Arrian

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Wezil
If someone needs a site like this to feel their children are safer I would say they have done a poor job of teaching their children in the first place.

As has been pointed out, sex offenders are virtually everywhere. Are you going to study this site for hours a day and test your kids on facial recognition of all pervs within driving distance? If there are no listings for local pervs (unlikely) are your children now safe?

Seems to me a parenting strategy should be aimed at protecting your children from all potential threats, not just those listed on some website.

One has to do both, teach about general threats, but also actively defend against more specific threats. I would suggest that having a pedophile living next door to your children is a specific threat warranting different behaviour than simply knowing that such scum exist 'out there'.

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Winston
You didn't answer my question. Should non-parents' opinion count for as much as that of parents?

If it shouldn't, I'd very much like to know why.

If it should, why post statements like "If you had kids, you'd understand"?

Yes. When it comes to protecting children I think the opinions of parents count more than those of non-parents. Parents are rightly more concerned with the welfare of children than hand-wringing over "moralism".