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Originally Posted by StanT
I think that restrictions and monitoring of sex offenders is something that should be settled at sentencing. Let a judge & jury decide that you've earned a sentence that includes lifetime monitoring & registration.
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Indeed. It is at
that time that the "wheat" can more easily be seperated from the "Chaff" (ie, child molestors and rapists VS public urinators and streakers) At present, it is clear, that too broad a defenition of "sex offendor" is being employed. Frankly, I could not care less, if my neighbor, two doors down, was involved in a nude protest, four years ago. I most certainly care if that same neighbor is a convicted molestor, or rapist. I feel that I have a right to know that. So, in that respect, Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter lives. So be it.
Then, it's what we do with that information, when we have it, that becomes issue. I have no desire to live in a society of vigilantes. The State of Iowa has recently begun enforcing law that prohibits any convicted sex offendor from living within 2000 feet of any school, or day care facility. Sounds pretty good, on the surface, doesn't it? The problem is, when you start drawing up the boundaries, and the radius' start to intersect, and overlap, you're left with very small pockets, or ghettos, in which these people can live. To me, this creates numerous problems. Suppose, you happen to live within the boundaries of a sex offendor "safe" area. What does that do to your property values? One "offendor" was recently arrested because there simply was no housing available anymore, within a "safe" zone. He couldn't move, and was, by default, in violation of Iowa state law. Some smaller communities are completely off limits, sometimes by strategic placement of child care facilities. Several communities along the eastern edge of Nebraska are scrambling to enact laws similar to, and in many cases, more draconian than, those in Iowa, The reasoning is because these communities fear a mass exodus of Iowan sex offendor "refugees" into Nebraska. And, it appears, their fears were not unfounded. Sex offendors
are crossing the river, for friendlier areas.