Sex Offender Database
We’re moving to a new house in a couple of weeks and with a move comes many details that need to be taken care of- some that simply can’t be overlooked, others that can be put off until we are a settled in. One of those details that I can’t overlook is checking out the new neighborhood for convicted sex offenders. I decided to do an online search and found one man who was convicted of indecency with a ten year old girl who lives less than a quarter of a mile from my son’s new elementary school-so close, in fact, that his house is directly on the path that brings the kids who walk home from school. It made me wonder if other parents know about him being so easily accessible to the kids.
Unfortunately, the statistics that we, as parents and as a community, face are frightening and all too real.
- 1 of 5 girls and 1 of 6 boys will be molested before their 18th birthday.
- 1 of 5 children has been sexually propositioned on the Internet.
- Up to 70% of sex offenders released from prison will offend again
It got me thinking about what the best way is to go about this. Is it wrong to take my son to the front of his house to point out where this man lives… just to make sure he knows to stay away? What would the implications be to the others who lived either with or around the offender if there was a sign in his yard or on his door stating that a convicted sex offender lives there? Would that be more of a hindrance than a help? It seems like we could do more as a society to combat this growing problem, but what exactly that is, I don’t know. There are resources out there that inform the public of the personal residences of convicted sex offenders. Here are a couple that I use:
Family Watchdog- This is a website that searches for convicted sex offenders throughout all of the United States.
Texas Department of Public Safety- This website is strictly for sex offenders living in Texas.
Any thoughts on how we can start to make those statistics decline instead of rise? What measures does your family take to ensure the safety your kids and the kids in your neighborhood?
The above statistics were taken from FamilyWatchdog.us.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:18 am
Actually, the 70% re-offense rate is wrong. Check out this website, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/soo.pdf , for accurate statistics. It is a government site.
August 28th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
this is a subject that i loathe and hate to face, but it’s reality, so i make myself face it. with my daughter getting older and being in the care of other adults more and more, i’m becoming more and more aware and suspicious of the adults in my daughter’s life (to an extent…i’m not getting paranoid. yet.). i’ve still got 3 years to go before she’s walking to school, but that’s 3 years i can spend researching sex offenders in our area and educating my daughter about protecting herself and staying in communication with us about anything that doesn’t feel right to her. and, all i can do is hope that she doesn’t fall into those extremely frightening and alarming statistics.