Sex Offenders
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The problem of what to do with the habitual sex offender has become a major issue in American society today and of vital interest in a society where the pictures of missing children adorn milk cartons, where more and more offenses against children are being reported in the media, and where the issue of repeat offenders has become a scandal. A number of children have been killed in recent years in media-featured cases where a sex offender who has been released from prison at the end of his sentence takes and kills another victim. Different states have imposed new laws and restrictions on sex offenders as a result, and one of the issues that has developed is the question of notification, whether the neighbors of a released sex offender should be told that the offender is in their midst. Traditionally, parole or release from prison has been a matter kept between the offender and his or her parole officer and the state, and the people in the community are not told where released sex offenders are living. The notoriety of some recent cases has produced a change in the climate, with the public now demanding to be told when a sex offender is living in the community. Arguments have been offered on both sides, and the issue has to be seen finally as one of balance. No one can know that a sex offender will or will not commit another offense, but members of the community want to take extra precautions to protect their children when they know an offender is nearby. The issue is a
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out 20 percent of the cases, and only the police are notified in the remaining cases (Smolowe 59).
Another provision in the federal crime bill was a national registration network to track convicted pedophiles. Only 24 states already had such registration programs, and offenders could thus slink easily from one state to another (Hanson and Seigle 9).
Even those who support notification laws may admit that the act of notification in itself leads to another problem--what is the community to do with this knowledge? Notification may seem to have no practical value:
After all, when it comes down to it, what are the now informed neighbors of a recently released rapist and/or child molester to do? Keep their children permanently indoors? Move away? The only really practical step would be to impress upon their new neighbor the advisability of his moving on, i.e., "vigilantism" something most decent people would, if they were capable of it at all, find most repellent (Decter 61-62).
This leads to one of the primary arguments against notification--it would only incite the community to take vigilante action and thus would produce crime rather than reduce it. Midge Decter opposes vigilantism but would blame it not on the community it
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Approximate Word count = 1631
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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