I think the folks at Horowitz Law have got this right: “Most sex offenders, therefore, don’t fall into some easily-identifiable, logical category. They can be young or old, shy or outgoing, tall or short, and of course rich or poor. We wish this weren’t the case, of course. Because this reality leads to a disturbing…
The whole idea of a registry was to ease the minds of panicked parents so they would check the public registry, know that their lovely, upper-class neighborhood didn’t have any offenders in it, and go back to ignoring any talk of their kids being at risk for sexual abuse.
None of that has ever been true. As you read the story below, you’ll see that there are 25,000 offenders that law enforcement has completely lost track of, many of whom now live among poor communities where parents do not have the same resources that others do to keep their kids safe and have continued to offend.
What you also won’t see is that registries do nothing, absolutely nothing, to protect against offenders who haven’t been caught and convicted. That would be the vast majority of cases, by the way.
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I also want to point out that this sense of being enough, having an internal sense of self and worth, is an important part of keeping children safe. Kids constantly on the lookout for external validation, are easier targets for grooming and abuse.
How would you develop this sense of self in yourself? I have some ideas, but I want to hear from all of you too.
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You should read the whole article, Dr. Jeglic does a good job describing the issue, what we do know about female perpetrators and what we don’t know. Mostly we don’t know because of this: “When most people envision a sex offender, they do not picture a woman. While the majority of sex offenders are indeed…
