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Originally Posted by shakran
actually, no you can't. You don't know what the situation was, you don't know what the plea bargain involved. You can probably find out, because it's public record, but until you do, you really don't know if the guy's a danger or not.
Let's not forget that if a guy has sex with a 17 year old who claims she's 18, he's legally raped her, and if convicted, has to register as a child molesting sex offender. Even though there was no intent to commit the crime, he still has to have the sex offender stigma attached for the rest of his life.
Those charges could easily come from such a situation. Am I defending sex offenders? No, but I'm saying we shouldn't judge someone simply because they're registered as one. All that means is that they were CONVICTED of a sex offense. We don't know what that offense is. And it's possible they didn't do it at all - people get wrongfully convicted all the time.
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There's "Endangerment of a child" and then there's "Wreckless endangerment of a Child" coupled with "Aggravated Sexual Assault"...I understand what you're saying, but when you check the backgrounds of felons, there's degrees of severity-I truly doubt anyone would plea bargain to those and if so, then I really would assume the very worst since plea bargaining usually involves the lessening of charges. Registering as an offender is one thing-some 19 year olds have made news because they were charged with a sexual offense for having underage girlfriends.
Under Megan's Law, the immediate neighbors and police department are supposed to be made aware, as are any schools, although paroled felons are not supposed to live close to schools. Our police had no knowledge at all...someone dropped the ball on this and it was up to us to make the notifications.
I'm always told by friends that I'm too trusting...in this case I prefer to not trust at all.