<p>Mini, in the Northwest we have had several recent cases of outrageous crimes by convicted sex offenders. Do you read the paper??</p>
<p>Did any of you actually enter your addresses at this website?</p>
<p>“Mini, in the Northwest we have had several recent cases of outrageous crimes by convicted sex offenders. Do you read the paper??”</p>
<p>Of course I do. And as part of my professional work, I read the work of the state Sentencing Guidelines Commission, help plan and guide the work of the Criminal Justice Treatment Account, monitor the work of the county drug and mental health courts, examine the impact of chemical dependency treatment on criminal recidivism, sit on the panel that considers bidders to provide treatment inside the prison system, monitor the placement of former prisoners in community settings, and engage in joint planning exercises with the Special Commitment Center.</p>
<p>What would you like to know?</p>
<p>How can you downplay such incidents?</p>
<p>Who’s downplaying the incidents? On the contrary, I’m saying that for every former sex offender who moves into the neighborhood, there are a hundred already there. And, since the recidivism of released sex offenders is so (relatively) low (and the surveillance so, relatively, high), if you want to predict your children, you’ve got much bigger worries than them.</p>
<p>Finally someone with common sense on this board. high five mini! People tend to over react when they hear a very isolated incident of child molestation or abuse. This causes the public to overly panic and pass draconian laws that give people a scarlet letter. Then the federal government gets involved and threatens to withhold federal highway funds if the state does not change their laws. Politicians being the money grubbing punks that they are, bow down and change the law, without a vote of the people. Laws that come to mind: drinking age to 21, speed limit of 55, lowering BAC limit to .08, and now these crazy offender/predator laws that offer no protection for minor offenses or grandfather clauses for people who have been out of jail for a while. Noone ever says anything about it because it is politically unpopular to say something that makes someone seem as if they are soft on crime.</p>
<p>driver
don’t enter your actual address, just state and zip code will show you sex offenders and elementary schools.</p>
<p>“Laws that come to mind: drinking age to 21, speed limit of 55, lowering BAC limit to .08, and now these crazy offender/predator laws that offer no protection for minor offenses or grandfather clauses for people who have been out of jail for a while.”</p>
<p>I hope you can see the distinctions between general rules of the road that regulate public behavior to protect public health and safety (.08 BAC, speed limits, and drinking ages), whether you agree with them or not, and those that govern the treatment of convicted felons.</p>
<p>well ya know how I just was talking about the neighborhood my daughters school was in?
this afternoon I was away from my car for 5 minutes- I walked in- went up stairs put something under the counselors door and came out.
Someone had apparently been watching the parking lot- ( I have an idea who- but I don’t know them- I just thought they were a dad)
by the time I came back to my car, my drivers window was smashed and my purse that had been in between the seats was taken- with my cell phone, my wallet, my palm pilot and my 4th pair of reading glasses.
One minute after I discovered this- they were filling up their car with gas at three different stations and using the cell for international calls.
I thought it was enough that you couldn’t see anything- but apparently this guy was watching me and saw I didn’t have a purse, saw me get a pen out of it and put it back in the car.
Now I know you don’t leave anything in your car period.</p>
<p>emeraldkity4, I’m so sorry this happened to you! What a horrible way to spend an afternoon.</p>
<p>I feel really dumb
I also didn’t have either my cell phone or my palm pilot locked because I have a hard time remembering all my passwords 
so now today I get to go to one bank- close the account open another- hope my new cards come in a timely fashion and no one is scoping out my mailbox
go to another bank- close the account
decide if I really need a new palm pilot right away- I need a new cell phone though- but for now I am usuing H’s.
Oh and I have to get my window replaced.
One good thing though that happened.( and its college related!)
Right before I went to the school, I shipped my daughters hiking boots to her ( she is writing her thesis and doing field research)- they didn’t give me back my debit card for that account- so even though the thieves have my check book- they don’t have both of my debit cards</p>
<p>* …and because I don’ t have my id- my H has to take off work so he can come with me to the banks---- he will be so jolly 
*</p>
<p>I recommend Speedy Auto Glass. They use real factory quality replacement glass and stand behind their work.
Sorry to hear of your loss. In my 14 years in Seattle I have had at least 4 broken glass breakins to my cars. I pretty much stopped locking the car and just make sure to leave nothing in it. Since then I have noted at least a couple of entries where they went through the glovebox but they took nothing and broke nothing.</p>
<p>Mini–your statement on the recidivism rates are flat wrong. Numerous studies find far higher rates and also state that underreporting of sex crimes and using only arrest and convictions to document the crimes probably understate the recidivism rates significantly. Furthermore rates for certain crime like child molestation may be high than the average.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.csom.org/pubs/recidsexof.html[/url]”>http://www.csom.org/pubs/recidsexof.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks, barrons. I was thinking the same thing.</p>
<p>emeraldkity: So sorry that you’ve been victimized. I’ve been there, and I sympathize</p>
<p>I invite you to read the Washington State report yourself:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.sgc.wa.gov/[/url]”>Sentencing Guidelines Commission and Sex Offenders Policy Board |; Click on the link on Sex Offenders.</p>
<p>There is a HUGE underreporting of sex crimes - that was exactly my point. But the largest part of that underreporting is not among those already convicted (who have, relatively speaking, heavy monitoring, and who were imprisoned on average three times as long as other offenders and may have “aged out”), but those never charged living in your neighborhood. It is likely that, in most cases, your children are a greater risk from your unconvicted relatives than they are from the released child molester living in the neighborhood.</p>
<p>You’ll also notice that, even in the meta-studies, treatment works, with reductions in reoffense from 51-77% reported. And at a time when public interest is at its height, and there is less stigma attached to reporting, the number of substantiated cases of sexual abuse of children nationally declined 40% between 1992-2000.</p>
<p>
This may or may not be the case. The definition of rape is a very gray area. Before you jump down my throat, look at the Kobe Bryant and Mike Tyson cases, and many cases of 19 year olds having sex with their 17 year old girlfriends being called rape. If a woman is naked up in someone’s hotel room voluntarily, there is a reasonable expectation of sex. The statute that a person’s sexual history cannot be brought up in court in a rape trial (rape shield law?) is complete BS.</p>
<p>Futhermore, many of these young women think its funny to accuse someone of rape as if its a joke. If someone falsely accuses someone of rape, they should be subjected to the same penalties as the person would have who committed the rape.(ie 30 years in jail) This would prevent the widespread cases of loose woman claiming rape to cover up their promiscuity, as to appearing to be not so promiscuous.</p>
<p>217 offenders in my zip code. And we’re worried about terrorists? This is TERRORible!!!</p>
<p>I’ll take the results of the national studies thank you. Washington has way too many political activists with agendas.
Obviously the recid. rate depends as much on definitions as any other stat–arrested/convicted/felony/misdemeanor etc. Reconvicted of a felony is a very conservative approach. I think your claim that chances are greater that a relative would be a greater threat than a convicted molester is BS. What percent of the total population are molesters?? A very small one I believe. Given the fairly high recid rates (20-40% or so) of child molesters I’d take my chances with the relatives.</p>
<p>It does appear that treatment after conviction has value for many convicts and should be encouraged/required.</p>
<p>I will point out that children under 18 who commit sexual offenses–such as the 12 year old who assaulted a 7 year old girl he was babysitting in our neighborhood–are not listed in these registries.</p>
<p>We lived next door to a “violent sex offender” (he’d beaten his girlfriend into a coma when drunk at age 16 and was tried as an adult) for seven years. He wasn’t a particularly nice person, but I didn’t worry about much happening, since we kept a VERY close eye on him–but the label had completely ruined his life, even after he recovered from his teenage alcoholism. At what point should the record be cleaned? Is it fair for such offenders to serve their full sentence, finish their probation, and continue to have such labels for the rest of their lives?</p>