CatNamedRudy wrote:The difference is that sex offenders (especially those that target children) are predatory in nature. And, they are more likely to re-offend than your average burglar. Too, as I said earlier, a child sex predator will almost always have countless victims before they ever get caught.
You work in your own system, so get to see things at first hand, but your country must be completely different to ours if burglars are less likely to re-offend
The figures for how many times the same people are arrested before even being charged, then how many offences they are convicted for before receiving a custodial sentence, then recalled for breaching the terms of their release - all for the same group of offences relating to burglary, theft, car crime, etc, are quite high over here, and probably make up a good bulk of the crime rate.
How much would it prey on the mind to know a person convicted of firearms offences, drugs offences, or of GBH/ABH living next door to you? It's the perception of fear that makes people do irrational things. Would parents not be as much scared to know a convicted drug dealer lived next door to themselves or a school?
I'm not trying to relate offences against a person to offences against property, although how many times do you hear about people being mentally destroyed by their home being broken into,. to the point they no longer feel safe in that home and have to move somewhere else? People talk of feeling violated or raped - i can't comment on that as i didn't feel that way when our house was done over many years ago, but if a few people feel that way it's enough not to dismiss the severity, i suppose. I was a bit more peeved when the cops knew who it was, caught him doing another place several nights later, only for him to be bailed before his magistrates appearance - to, guess what, not turn up for his sentencing. He had more than 100 convictions for similar offences and the police had arrested him so many times, and seen him released and re-offend it was unreal. Not seen to be as serious as the likes of Chris Langham, though
CatNamedRudy wrote:Also, when a burglar is living next door to you, it's unlikely that the burglar is going to kidnap or perp your kid. The chances of that with a sex offender are a bit more likely!
No, but as i mentioned above, the chances of having your child offered drugs by the convicted dealer must be much higher, or maybe having them offered cheap fenced goods by the convicted burglar? (nobody minds that when they're getting a good deal though - (just lightening a heavy topic
)).
Again, i've got to take address with the notion that sex offender automatically equals child molester. My mate, who has an offence to register him, which is nothing to do with a minor or any physical assualt, etc, would be automatically seen in that light by people who found out he was on the register, i imagine? There are, by definition of some offences, some terrible people on the register, but you have served your sentence so you're being punished twice, in a way. If you're considered so bad, and yet out free, then maybe that is the bit that needs to be looked at - not the need for a register. To have a wide scope of offences be tarred under one brush in the eyes of the hoi poloi, rather than monitored in the hands of accountable professionals, seems troublesome to me.
CatNamedRudy wrote:I don't agree with the radical behavior that people exhibit when they discover that a sex offender is living amongst them. I have a difficult time with Vigilante Justice and torching someone's house certainly isn't the way to go about voicing your concerns!
I'm curious as to how it works in your first-hand experience. Do you deal much with chasing people who simply don't bother to register, and do you have to deal with many problems related to a person being either targeted, or causing problems themselves, within an area they reside. I can't see what problem it causes if the local authorities are aware rather than all and sundry?
Talk about irony.
