# MD sex offernders will have to post "NO CANDY AT THIS RESIDENCE" signs on Halloween **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 15, 2008, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/md-sex-offernders-will-have-to-post-no-candy-at-this-residence-signs-on-halloween/468086 "2008-10-15T20:24:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/md-sex-offernders-will-have-to-post-no-candy-at-this-residence-signs-on-halloween/468086/41 "2008-10-17T06:52:24Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > Same here! I would think that a pumpkin sign on Halloween would initially attract youngsters. ⭕cool:⭕cool:⭕cool:⭕cool:⭕cool:⭕cool:⭕cool:⭕cool: ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/md-sex-offernders-will-have-to-post-no-candy-at-this-residence-signs-on-halloween/468086/42 "2008-10-17T07:37:34Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > (most of whom are NOT pedophiles) I checked the profiles of all of the offenders on PA’s Megan’s Law website for my zip code, and it turns out that a slight majority of the twenty-three offenders in my small town are, in fact, on there for indecent contact with minors. It was much more common than rape or any other offense. However, one poor bastard is on there for an out-of-state sodomy conviction from 1984 - from a state that struck down its sodomy law not long after his conviction. That’s just fucked up, IMHO. He even looks like a nice guy (I hate to judge people based on appearance, but so many of these child molesters look creepy to the point of comedy!). How can they even _do_ that if what he did isn’t even a crime anymore in **any** state, according to the Supreme Court, and shouldn’t have been a crime even when it was?! :mad: ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/md-sex-offernders-will-have-to-post-no-candy-at-this-residence-signs-on-halloween/468086/43 "2008-10-17T08:34:55Z")
> [@neutron\_star](#): > > I checked the profiles of all of the offenders on PA’s Megan’s Law website for my zip code, and it turns out that a slight majority of the twenty-three offenders in my small town are, in fact, on there for indecent contact with minors. It was much more common than rape or any other offense. Better check your state laws to see if rapists are even required to register. In CA, if the victim is over 18, they’re registered only if their crime involves extenuating circumstances, such as kidnapping. > [@](#): > > However, one poor bastard is on there for an out-of-state sodomy conviction from 1984 - from a state that struck down its sodomy law not long after his conviction. That’s just fucked up, IMHO. That’s the problem – everyone in America assumes that “sex offender” equals “CHILD MOLESTER!!!” Many of them are not. > [@](#): > > (I hate to judge people based on appearance, but so many of these child molesters look creepy to the point of comedy!). Ditto. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/md-sex-offernders-will-have-to-post-no-candy-at-this-residence-signs-on-halloween/468086/44 "2008-10-17T09:03:10Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Better check your state laws to see if rapists are even required to register. In CA, if the victim is over 18, they’re registered only if their crime involves extenuating circumstances, such as kidnapping. One of the 23 offenders had his crime listed as simply “rape,” with no out-of-state code to denote that the crime was committed elsewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/md-sex-offernders-will-have-to-post-no-candy-at-this-residence-signs-on-halloween/468086/45 "2008-10-17T09:15:05Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#): > > (bolding mine.) > Maybe in some states, but in Maryland I don’t think so. Age of consent is 16 here, and if you’re under 19 you can legally sleep with a 15-year-old. See this chart from the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault: > [http://www.mcasa.org/F/2/Chart-Statutory-Rape.htm](http://www.mcasa.org/F/2/Chart-Statutory-Rape.htm) Question: This is a scenerio; it hasn’t happened to me or anyone else I know but is rather something I just thought of reading your post right now. Suppose someone was convicted of being a sex offender in another state (because they slept with someone who was 17 when they were 18) and then moved to Maryland? As far as I know, they’d still have to register as a sex offender and therefore put that sign up,…even in a state where what got them in trouble in the first place is legal. Is this correct? ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Call_Me_Shirley)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/md-sex-offernders-will-have-to-post-no-candy-at-this-residence-signs-on-halloween/468086/46 "2008-10-17T11:48:41Z")
Can anyone point to a single case of a child molester grabbing a kid that came to his door trick-or-treating and molesting him? It seems unlikely, as kids trick-or-treat in groups now, and parents are usually following close behind with mace and a stun gun and a cell phone. It’s a publicity stunt. It looks good in the papers. That’s it. A solution to a non-existant problem. When no kids get abducted and molested on Haloween, the politicians will crow about how they saved all the children. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/md-sex-offernders-will-have-to-post-no-candy-at-this-residence-signs-on-halloween/468086/47 "2008-10-17T15:42:16Z")
> [@Don\_t\_Call\_Me\_Shirley](#): > > Can anyone point to a single case of a child molester grabbing a kid that came to his door trick-or-treating and molesting him? Happens all the time. See, what happens is, the molester hides a needle in an apple. The needle is coated with tranquilizer, or maybe the AIDS virus, if they’re using a needle they found in the coin return slot of a pay phone. The parents are distracted when gang members flash their high beams at them… ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/md-sex-offernders-will-have-to-post-no-candy-at-this-residence-signs-on-halloween/468086/48 "2008-10-17T16:08:41Z")
> [@WF\_Tomba](#): > > I’m kind of surprised that there haven’t been _any_ comments from that side of the issue. > > I, for one, am conflicted on the matter. > > I remember from when I was living in Iowa that they had enacted a rule that convicted sex offenders couldn’t live within something like 2000 feet of a school. Then they had to rework the law because it turned out there was virtually nowhere for them to live under that restriction. It was pushing a lot of them into vagrancy and actually making them harder for the state to keep track of. Happened to a friend of mine, he had been living in the same house for about 12 years, then they decided to build a school at the other end of the block. He was seriously pissed as his sexual offense was against an adult not children. The adults in his neighborhood didnt have anything against him, and had been clean for almost 15 years by this time. He sued and they didnt make him move. [date rape in college … he was drunk and didnt take no for an answer. sheer stupidity on his account and not part of his normal personality.] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/md-sex-offernders-will-have-to-post-no-candy-at-this-residence-signs-on-halloween/468086.md?page=2)