Saturday, May 8, 2010

Problematic questions

Should a sex offender's criminal record be open to the public or protected?
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2 comments:

  1. TrenaMay 11, 2010 at 9:19 AM

    This is such a gray area question for me personally. On one level, being a parent and, in particular, a parent of three girls, I think that sex offender's records should be open to the public! At the very least, there should be resources for parents to be able to see that, yes, there is a sex offender in the area.

    However, my brother is considered a 'sex offender' because of an unfortunate event that happened when he was 16. He was at a party and had sex with a 16 year old girl who had been drinking. The girl ended up getting alcohol poisoning, and told her parents that my brother had raped her so she wouldn't get in trouble for drinking. It was a long drawn out court battle where he finally pled down to 'attempted rape' because in those 'he said, she said' situations, it's hard to prove who is telling the truth. Because of this, he is now a registered sex offender, and has to register whenever he moves to a new place. Anyone can look and see that 'oh no! a sex offender lives near me keep the children away from him' because of this.

    So, I suppose that what I would like to see is more clear definitions of 'sex offender', or at least being able to see that 'oh this was statutory rape' or 'child molestation' rather then just 'sex offender. Should we really put a 19 year old boy who had sex with a 17 year old girl whose parents called it statutory rape, who ended up getting married and having children together and staying together to the present day in the same category of 'sex offender' as a pedophile / molester? Because as it stands now, that's how it is. And if that's the case, I would rather not have it be public. I have heard of people who have been "lynched", metaphorically speaking, because of these lists. These People who are, ultimately, good people who happened to make a mistake when they were younger and were going to end up paying for it for the rest of their lives because their name was on a list. Does that really keep our families safe? Or do these lists merely serve to make us more paranoid.

    Like I said, a gray area.

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  2. Sungho ChoiMay 12, 2010 at 11:14 AM

    People discuss the issue of registered sex offenders have to be opened to common people. By posting their information, people feel to be protected to keep good relationship with neighbors. They want to interact safely with normal persons. I absolutely agree to open sex offenders’ information. However if you believe something resulted from misleading, how can you cover your mistake and how misunderstanding sex offenders keep living on in different area.
    Recently, I watched documentary show made in Korea. There were some international students who studied English in Canada. In the show, bad incident described that 5 men opened party with 3 girls. Girls said that men forced girl to be drugged and raped during several days. This incident spread out multiple areas even in Korea. Canada government registered 5 guy’s name in sex offender and made arrest of them in jail. The point is that men insisted that they didn’t do that so they were in court battle. A justice is judging men’s now. They are finding true now. During court time, broadcasts film this fact to NEWS representing as if they were committed. Two of five men recently bond out from jail and go back to Korea and they said they got lost place where they are going to stay. Even if they win battle court, what everybody knows them is going to be hard time to keep living their life.
    I just want to look at more clearly about sex offenders with an equivocal true. I don’t know what true is in TV show but I can talk to be sure that Canada broadcast almost announced men as sex offenders. This not only causes 5 men registered in sex offender in Canada but also people believe that they committed because Canada broadcasts end up coping with these problems. If opening sex offenders protects your neighbor to be safety, who can protect them?

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