They are afraid that the bogeyman will jump out of the bushes, so they want to know ahead of time.

Honestly, I checked the registry when hubby and I were purchasing our first home. I wanted to know if there were any sex offenders living near there, before we purchased. i was afraid that a sex offender would abduct and hurt my children. BOY! My eyes were opened when I found out that the registry and residency restrictions didn't do squat to protect my family.

Yes - I will admit that although I never thought the registry was a good thing (I was always horrified that the folks had all their info posted on the internet like that) It was a big eye opener for me to learn the truth that the vast majority of the folks on the registry are not a danger to society or the neighborhood children at all. I was also one of those people that thought (stupidly) that if someone was on the registry they must have molested a child - I was so wrong - I also had no idea that most molestation is in the family circle and stranger danger is a total myth.

In a way this teaches us several things - one the media and the politicians have done a great job of painting the picture of sex offenders as the boogy man - they have created exactly what they wanted to create. It also teaches us that the majority of people are not going to learn the truth until one of 2 things happen - either they are touched by this mess as we have been or we focus on educating those that believe the hype and somehow make them care (this is a tough job) - it is the ole walk in my shoes thing. For instance - since this happened to my son I have talked for hours to friends and family - I have sent them articles etc. (not sure if the read them) and although they love my son and believe him to be abused by a system that makes no sense they still do not really "get it" - they still think of it as my son is a good one being mistreated but the rest of RSOs are the boogy man. I will hear them say things like "you know they cannot be cured" or call them all pedophiles - even though I have told them over and over the truth. It is not that they are stupid or that they do not listen to me - it just had not affected them enough to incorporate it into their every thought the ay we do ...does that make sense?

I mean think of this - I lived in Florida when the Adam Walsh murder took place in 1981 - at that time of course people were horrified - thinking was different then - people were more inclined to vilify his parents for not supervising him properly - not once did I hear anyone talk about a sex offender etc. The person that took Adam and murdered him (I am still not convinced that they have attributed the murder to the correct person - seems too convenient to me that the guy was already dead before that tagged him for the murder) - it was not until 25 years later - 25 years! that the AWA act was enacted - why then and why Adams case? 25 years and there was no proof that the kidnapping was anything but that - a kidnapping and a murder. Adam Walshs case does not even really fit the profile of most of the crimes on the registry but there his name is becasue people are horrified by it - it was a brilliant step in the right direction to start indoctrinating the people about sex offenders.

I come from a small town where everyone pretty much knows everyone. The one time I checked it (before this happened to my son) it was in the paper that the son of a prominent family was caught in a sting when he met what he thought was a father and son for a 3some....of course it was cops. I did go on there to see what happened to him.

Times really havent changed much. People are still the same but technology has what people do with their time. Ok so i am bored. Lets look up stuff on the internet. I admit i too looked up the registry and told my kids who lived in the neighborhood. So where is this going? Lets stop supervising our kids and just warn them of the boogeyman!

How about the national murder registry? I would rather know about someone who is a serial killer vs a sex offender.

Public perception and boredom. Lets make stuff up and involve ourselves into stereo types. The sex offender is ohhhh so bad. Lets keep our kids under our clutches. Stupidity and ignorance comes to mind.

On a side note. Several years ago my husband, brother and his wife, and myself were on vacation in the south. We were all riding out motorcycles and had the usual biker garb on. Of course we all sport tatoos. So we walk into a sit down restaurant for lunch. The little ole ladies were clutching their purses like we were going to rob them! We giggled about it. But in reality its a shame people do judge by the cover and not the content.

Sex offenders are our sons, husbands, fathers etc.... They are loved.

yes and it is all based on fallacies and misinformation

If you don't have kids, maybe it's not for safety but that it gives you someone to look down on. I'm an okay person because I'm not that guy?

yep, judging a book by it's cover or by it's title (label).

tho sometimes we are all guilty of it, in one way or another. some people more than others and sometimes to the extreme. for most it's perception and prejudices. clothes, hairstyle, hangouts, habits, music and even reading material.

i just don't understand being obsessed or getting so in to the registry. and like i said, especially when the person doesn't have kids.

I agree with Westenall I would rather see a registry that shows murderers, robbers.

I don't want ANY registry for ANY person for ANY reason. Lists will be misused. More families will be torn apart. More misunderstandings will be fomented. My God, there are people who get locked up for crime by association! Murder by association, robbery by association . . . this used to scare the hell out of me when my sons were teenagers. The Innocence Project continues to get folks released from unjust imprisonment, and as long as there continue to be people sent away for crimes they didn't do, no one is safe in a world of lists.

Please do not advocate for more lists.

One thing I think is that at least some folks that have registration obsession it is becasue they actually have something of their own to hide

but think about this a murderer registry would be just as unfair as a RSO registry - murder has the least re-offense rate of any crime - sex offense is the second least. Now robbery I believe is another story ...

People that murder though are almost never getting out of prison. Unless you consider negligent homicide or DUI deaths. But that gets messy real fast.

Well Independent we have had this conversation before - in actuality most people that murder someone get out of prison - and many time their sentences are shorter that a SO - remember you may hear about the worst ones like in sex offenses - there are many more that you do not hear about

I know Wiki is not always a credible source but here are some state wide statistics about murder sentencing - notice that very few say life without parole - if it just says life it does not really mean life - they can be paroled in a certain amount of time - very few murder sentences are actually for life and as you can see many of them are 3o years or less - many sex offenders get more than that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_punishments_for_murder_in_the_United_States

Yeah I'm talking first degree murder, you are talking 2nd degree or usually heat of passion murders. I agree with your statement if you are talking 2nd degree.