There is of course much debate over such registries and their effectiveness, and sometimes relevance. Much of this is drawn from the fact that it can often seem chaotic, as individual police forces input the data into and maintain the main sex offenders’ registry. In the US public sex offender registers have been in place for about a decade, and their transparent nature has thus led to large, but informed debate on both the dangers poised by sex offenders to society, pros and cons of publishing their details in a national public registry. In most states, inclusion on the registry is only following a criminal conviction, thus not all sexual predators and violators are therefore on the list. States place offenders into rankings, such as; 1 (those posing the least threat) to 3 (high risk), while some of those posing the lowest deemed may not actually be published on the internet, while files on category 2 and 3 offenders are published complete with photograph, name, list of offenses, address and maps showing proximity to schools. You can links to individual state registries on the Parents For Megan’s Law website.
Nonetheless you will still be sickened as you troll through the pages, and let me tell you while your neighborhood may leave you in a state of shock and dismay, the real shocker is yours looks just like everyone else. So the reality of it all is that you cannot run and hide, we can no just ship every sex offender off to an island, some on the registry are in fact harmless and are others are not. That leads me into how do you tell? There is no physical profile of a sex offender, some look like Mr. Nice Guy, your dad, grandpa, and others like the creepy guy down the road. I remember often hearing someone say, “he looks like a kiddie fiddler”, well that infamous “kiddie fiddler” look doesn’t exist and knowing who is a perpetrator or proprietor of child porn is far from simple. And the reality of this registry is it only shows those who have been caught, and caught in the United States, nor does it show anyone using virtual child porn.
The face of predator, human trafficker, or modern slave holder, can look like anyone as well can that of a victim of human trafficking. The exploitation of children, and adults, is not an issue facing one culture, one society or one faith based community, it isn’t per say a cultural issue, it’s a human issue. And while we are working to combat modern slavery in all forms on a global scale, we must not forget about what is happening in our own backyards. Thus we must ensure that within our own country that we form a united front and unite forces from all cultures and faiths to see that we bring awareness and support to the issues of sexual exploitation and human trafficking. By uniting as a community we will be more effective in bringing awareness to the issues, teaching children and adults the warning and signs of abuse.
According to the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS);
- Sixty-seven percent of all victims of sexual assault reported to the participating law enforcement agencies were juveniles (under the age of 18); 34% of all victims were under age 12.
- One of every seven victims of sexual assault reported to the participating law enforcement agencies were under age 6.
- Forty percent of the offenders in the incidents reported who victimized children under age 6 were juveniles (under the age of 18).
Resources:
Links for Abused Children and Parents
Books for Children and Parents of Victims of Abuse
Registering Harm: How Sex Offense Registries Fail Youth Communities
Engaging Bystanders in Sexual Violence Prevention
Rape Prevention and Risk Reduction: Review of the Research Literature for Practitioners