Yes. However, most of the murders (I don’t have a cite for the figures, but it’s ridiculously high) are in the drug sector. If you have nothing to do with drug trade, you’re probably perfectly safe.
I’m in Baltimore County, about a mile outside of city limits. We have 95 RSOs in my zip code, and one on the next block. Nice. Of the first 50, six are within a mile of my house and three are within three blocks of my son’s elementary school.
Jesus. There’s a rapist on my street. Those of you who have been here (mhendo) know what a short, small street this is.
Terrrrriffic.
Yep. The majority of the dead are young, black, male, living in the ghetto, and involved in the drug trade (and likewise, the majority of the killers are young, black, male, living in the ghetto, and involved in the drug trade).
However, more than one young man tells me that they believe that at least some of the murders attributed to drug wars/gang violence are really done in the course of robberies and muggings. One guy told me that he always carries $40 in his pocket, just to keep the stick-up boys happy if they cruise by. If he has any other money on him, he carries it in his shoe.
IANAL, but I think this is incorrect.
Just because you can’t use the Meagan’s Law database to reject someone from renting a place doesn’t mean you can use other methods to aquire the same info (for example, asking the potential tenant) and then reject on that. IIRC, at a federal level at least, the only things that can’t be discriminated against are race, sex, disability, and religion.
26 of them in my zip code…Pennsylvania’s site won’t give you an address, simply the county and the zip code.
You’d better light the torches and grab the pitchforks, or else yer as good as raped.
So exactly what good does this list do? Did parents really just leave their kids out on the streets for any rapist (unlisted before the silly law) to come by and molest their kids?
So now with this list parents are going to be more alert? Shouldn’t parents be alert for those molesters who aren’t on the list because they’re better than the people who got caught?
What are you getting at?
DAMMIT, Jester!! You really want to get banned, don’t you??
Residents do get notified by mail, though I believe it’s the state that handles this.
Megan’s Law would only make sense if it was limited to offenders who exhibit “predatory” behavior – that is, molest someone who is a complete stranger to them. People who molest family members aren’t always pedophiles in the traditional sense, many view their children as property, to do with as they please. Kind of like you have the right to smash up your Mercedes with a sledgehammer, but not your next door neighbor’s. Then there’s statuatory rape – there’s a current GD thread about a 22yo guy who slept with a 16yo girl, got popped, and now he can’t find a job because he’s on the sex offender registry. 
Plus, if they MUST have a public registry of sex offenders, they should do the same for other violent crimes. Hell, my neighbors could be bank robbers, arsonists, and even MURDERERS and there’s no place on the web I could look up and find out!!!
WOW!! Guess what got posted at the mailbox stand today:
Score one for the good guys!!
Moving this from IMHO to Great Debates.
How is a criminal conviction “private information,” though?
It’s public record.
Sounds like the landlord is just breathing a little fire, hoping to scare someone off. shrug
every state has thier own set of SOR laws… so basicly it’s a PA thing. Some states may be similar, but i’ve not seen that on the MI SOR.
I agree w/ you completely… and i DO really need to calm down over this subject… in light of the “Subject we can’t talk about except in acceptable threads”, i’ve gotten overly worked up over it. I thought about pitting myself over it, jest to get it out of my system. I’ll try to behave now. (but i get really annoyed by those who advocate the rescission of civil rights (and/or harrassment, abuse, killing, etc.) of S.O.'s and Felons.)
A few years ago there was a proposal to build a half-way house for ex-prisoners [some of whom could be sex offenders] in the snotty middle class area where I lived then. For a while I was constantly harassed to sign petitions, attend protest meetings etc. - although most of the most vicious campaigners were middle aged busy-bodies without children.
I refused to sign anything or participate - ex-prisoners have to live somewhere! The place was built and there were no problems with the residents - regardless of all the paranoid campaigning and worst-case scenarios that were bandied about when the campaign was going on.
This forum seems to be becoming the “sex offender apologist” forum more and more as of late. Quite distressing that people desire such light treatment for people that violate our social contracts.
Certain types of pedophiles have a 100% recidivism rate. Pedophilia is a complex mental problem that in many people who suffer from it there is no real relief. They will always desire to have sex with children and over a long enough timeline they will always engage in sex with children because they cannot stop themselves.
I don’t feel sorry for them because these people still know right from wrong, so there’s no real excuse for their actions. If I had such horrifying impulses that I felt would eventually be so great I couldn’t restrain myself I’d have myself admitted to a mental institution for the remainder of my natural life.
Which is probably what should happen to most people that are child rapists.
Of course not all of the sex offenders on the registry are of this pedophile type. Though many are. The stakling pedophile tends to be very good at disappearing into society and never being heard or seen again until 20 years later when they find a bunch of little corpses buried in his back yard.
Also from what I’ve read pedophiles that keep it within in the family aren’t likely to be the types that abduct unknown children. But they are still scum nonetheless and probably should never be released from prison just on general principle.
Who apologised for the sex offenders? And who spoke about the treatment that our criminal justice system metes out to such offenders? This forum has dealt exclusively with sex offenders who have been released from prison, and is discussing the problems of allowing them back into society while both respecting their rights and also alleviating the genuine concerns that members of the community might feel at having such offenders in their midst.
You might not agree with the legal system’s treatment of sex offenders, and you might believe that punishments tend to be too light, but the fact is that once a person is determined by the legal system to have paid his or her debt to society, they should not be hounded by self-righteous vigilantes for the rest of their lives. Because when this happens, it’'s the vigilantes who are breaking the social contract.
This is Great Debates, my friend. What “types”? Which studies demonstrate this 100% recidivism?
Again, prove this assertion, particularly the last part, with citations from reputable studies.
So, you concede that pedophilia is “a complex mental problem,” yet you still claim to know exactly what goes on in the minds of these people and provide no evidence to back your self-righteous assertions. Your assertion that you would commit yourself if you had these impulses is just ridiculous, precisely because of the complex nature of the problem, to which you have already alluded. You have no way of knowing what you would do under those circumstances.
More unsubstantiated mumbling.
Really? Wow, that’s a mind-blowing observation. The pedophiles who offend within their family are not the pedophiles who abduct unknown children. No shit? You’re just full of deep, thoughtful observations!
MH: This forum seems to be becoming the “sex offender apologist” forum more and more as of late. Quite distressing that people desire such light treatment for people that violate our social contracts.
Um, AFAICT nobody here has attempted to justify sex crimes in any way or advocated lighter punishments for them. All that some people have said is that when the punishment is over, when the ex-convicts are considered to have paid their debt to society, then they shouldn’t be persecuted by vigilantes.
MH: *Certain types of pedophiles have a 100% recidivism rate. […] If I had such horrifying impulses that I felt would eventually be so great I couldn’t restrain myself I’d have myself admitted to a mental institution for the remainder of my natural life.
Which is probably what should happen to most people that are child rapists. […]
Also from what I’ve read pedophiles that keep it within in the family aren’t likely to be the types that abduct unknown children. But they are still scum nonetheless and probably should never be released from prison just on general principle.
*
Sounds like your real complaint is actually about sentencing for sexual offenses. You may feel that child molesters should be locked up for life, and you’re welcome to start a new debate on that subject. But as the law stands at present, many sex offenders are released after serving their sentences, and it is a crime to mistreat or harass them in illegal ways. Pointing that out doesn’t make one an “apologist” for sex crimes.
[In preview: or in other words, what mhendo said.]
One can only hope that he is caught then,
Sexual predators and their fans on leftwinghootenany.com (aka Straightdope.com) are hardly good guys. More like extremely perverse individuals with little sense of right and wrong.