Never. I would make sure that thr sex offender moves. (Maybe to Chapel Hill)

I suspect if you knew the sordid past of many of your neighbors, you'd probably want to move. Everyone has things in their past that their neighbors, friends, and even family wouldn't approve of. Difference is, for the sex offender, his sordid past gets displayed on the internet, becoming fodder for neighborhood men and women to stand around bus stops to gossip about. Are you really "terrified," or just appalled? Fact is, 85% of sex offenses are committed by someone known to the victim, and 95% are first time offenses. If you want to be afraid, be afraid of your neighbor, or your minister, or your teacher, or your own family members. There is a far greater chance that they are a danger to your child than is this registered sex offender. Or better yet, be a parent and teach your child about safety. Be vigilant, but don't live in fear.

No. I personally know somebody on that list and I know that a large portion of the so-called "offenders" are victims of the system, including my friend. I would talk to him and learn about him and perhaps find out if he is another of those victims. Just because he's on the sex offender registry does not necessarily make him less than human.

I would do my homework first and find out about the particular situation. I know someone personally who is on that list because he had consentual sex with a minor he met in a bar with a fake id claiming to be 21. She admitted the ID wasn't hers, but still claimed to be18, but was really only 15. He was 25. When her parents found out, they called the police. The law is written that it was up to him to find out her real age, and because he didn't, he was at fault. So now he's listed as a registered criminal sexual abuse offender because there was more than 5 years age difference. Which is not fair, since he is clearly not the same as the predatory sex offenders stalking and forcing children/women into having violent sex.
I'm not saying you should disregard this list, but take time to get to know the situation before you condem them.

I also would like to see murders, armed robbers and domestic abusers put on a list too. I find them just as scary to live next to.

Currently, over 49% of registered sex offenders in IL are classified as "Sexual Predators." In IL, the term “sexual predator” is an offense-based classification only; there are no risk assessments or psychological evaluations performed to make this determination. Roughly half of the offenses will label someone a "sexual predator." Someone who has not had any contact with -- never touched, talked to, emailed, chatted with online, or even met -- their victim can be a "sexual predator." When asked, a representative from I-SORT (IL Sex Offender Registration Team) said that the term “sexual predator” is nothing more than how IL classifies those sex offenders who are lifetime registrants. So while the bold red “sexual predator” on the offender's profile and the term itself might connote someone with a propensity to re-offend or someone who has been determined to be of a greater risk to society, that simply is not the case -- at least not here in IL.

In this case the victim was 13 and the offender was 33, clearly he is not a victim of the system. I would be sure to make him aware that myself and all the neighbors know of his crimes and he will live under a microscope for as long as he is in the neighborhood. Protecting our children and others is priority number one.

In New York State (and presumably other states) 95% of those arrested for sex crimes have not previously been convicted of a sex crime and are thus not on any registry. Just because you move to a neighborhood with no registered sex offenders does not mean your children are safe. The vast majority of children who are victims of sexual abuse are victimized by family members and acquaintances.

Stones, you make a hugely important point. Protecting children, and everyone, in society is and should be a priority. Letting an offender know that you are watching him/her is the way the system is SUPPOSED to work. Instead, we don't just watch them-- we hate them, we scorn them, we ostracize them, we make sure they know they are not welcomed (as Ted's comment demonstrates.) The end result is that people go underground, they disappear and stop registering, and then society has no way to monitor them. Integrative shaming is the idea that we welcome an offender (even a sex offender) back into society, help him get reestablished, but make it very clear that he is being watched and monitored. This system has been shown to be much more effective than the "name and shame" policies that we currently use.

According to statistics from the Department of Justice, sex offenders have a re-offending rate of about 5.3%. That means that 94.7% of all future sex crimes are committed by someone not on the registry. We are taking a group of people (some committing terrible crimes and others forced to registry for normal teenage behavior) and we are monitoring them, providing very few places to live, taking away all chances of finding employment, and pushing them away from resources and family that could help them. And for what? So we know where they live? Our current laws have gone too far. We are not protecting children by monitoring "past offenders." If we want to stop future crimes, we need a new way - we need a better way.

I don't think it would force me to move, especially in this housing market where many people cannot. I would do as much research as I can, for sure. And like any good parent, keep an eye on my children and talk to them about the general good and bad in people and to assure them that no one should make them do something uncomfortable and to tell me, so forth and so forth. Unfortunately, no matter where you move to, the liklihood of a registered offender being with in X miles from your home is probably very likely and whose to say once you move, a registered offender doesn't move in shortly after.

If they commit a crime, then they should pay their debt to society. If as a society, we still feel they will offend again and this is what the statistics prove, then why are we letting them out of jail?
We cannot let them out of jail then treat them like second class citizens. That's not how it works in this country. We allow this to happen because the crime usually involves kids. So what! Gangbangers are killing our kids everyday. Drug dealers are selling drugs to our kids everyday. Drunk drivers are killing ours kids everyday. Why don't people care if these people are living next to them?
Change the laws or let these people be. It's your job to protect your own kids.

I'd do my homework. If the offense was between two consenting minors or the offender thought the minor was an adult, I'd have sympathy. But if it was oh, say, Steve Dutton, the "porn truck" Homewood resident, I'd not move but I would make it a mission to inform all of my neighbors with children that this man is living near us... eventually, Steve Dutton will move because how on earth can a person live next door to people who know what he did?

The fact that the person even thought about doing it is enough for me and enough for anyone. Those people should not have rights. They should not be able to buy houses and live in nice neighborhoods. Put them in jail and leave them there to rot alongside the robbers, murders, etc. They are all the same. If you think about the crime and you actually attempted to do it and got caught, then you need to be put away forever and get out of society and leave the good people alone so they don't have to worry.

I was so impressed with the common sense and the accurate statistics used in these comments--until I read the one from ME, and I realized what separates the rational responses from the irrational. The irrational have somehow managed to see anyone required to register as a "them," separate from a "me." The irony is unavoidable; well over 90% of child sexual abuse victims are molested by family members and other people in their circle of close family acquaintances. They aren't registered offenders. They are parents and grandparents and uncles and siblings and babysitters and coaches and neighbors of their victims. They aren't part of "them." They are part of "me."

Guy takes a leak in an alley and gets "seen" by a 13 year old. Guy accidently walks into a changing room where a girl is already occupying the stall. He is now a sexual predator. There is a large amount of really stupid things that can get you on that list, and you can "accidently" end up on there for so many reasons.

If a sex offender moved to my block, I'd check out the internet to see what I could find. I'd probably even pay for one of those "background check" services. Depending on what I found would dictate my actions, but just because a sex offender moved to my block would not be enough for me to move. That's not to say it wouldn't get added to an already existing pile of reasons to move, but it wouldn't be "the reason."

To be perfectly honost though, I'd probably have to decide whether I wanted to stay married or move, as my wife probably wouldn't have any part of it.

We can all acknowledge that some of the people put on the list are not of the dangerous kind. Putting that aside, let's think about the ones that are.

This link briefly discusses a child molester's recidivism rate.

http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/res/rcd.html

Honestly, I am shocked and fearful for the children of the people who sympathize with the offenders. I do not apologize for wanting to keep my children away from them, even to the point of keeping these people completely isolated from so-called normal interaction. My kids rely on only me and my husband to keep them safe and that is what I will do to the best of my ability. Something is wrong with these individuals and they cannot be trusted.

The molesters may have paid for their crime in a legal sense, but that doesn't mean we have to give up common sense.

My youngest son, when he was in grade school, took karate classes. The best thing he was taught was that if he was ever grabbed by someone larger, to grab for either the inner upper thigh or upper arm near the armpit and pinch a chunk of skin then twist. This will hopefully cause the attacker to let go. Then pray the child can run fast enough to not be caught again.

Any child up against an adult has almost no chance. To heck with being politically correct. Your good intentions will not work in favor of your kids.

Jenny, you have all of the earmarks of a good mom, and I assume--always a mistake, I know, but nevertheless--that in addition to providing your son with self defense classes and behavior designed to escape an attempted kidnapping by a stranger, something that is extremely rare, you have also provided your children with lessons of what to do when made uncomfortable by someone they know and quite possibly love.

For every child, there is a risk of sexual molestation. According to the DOJ Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, if the child is six or under, 58.7% of that risk comes from family members. 39.7% of that risk comes from family acquaintances. 1.8% of that risk comes from strangers, and the registered sex offenders who are in that stranger pool is so low that it is incalculable. As the age of the child increases, the figures alter, but only a little. The risk to children ages 12-17 is 94.3% from family and acquaintances, 5.7% from strangers, and, again, the percentage of registered offenders in the stranger pool is minuscule.

The media and politicians have done an excellent job of playing up that minuscule percentage--Gardner, Girrardo, Couey,--to the point that whenever the words "sex offender" are uttered, that is who the public sees and panics over.

What to you is concern over "sex offenders" is actually concern over children who continue to be molested by people who aren't registered offenders but are overshadowed by sex offender hysteria.

Shelomith Stow -
Well in this case, you have assumed correctly. My husband, myself and even my mother-in-law have always talked very openly to the kids about what to do in these types of situations; that it could be an uncle or neighbor or someone from school. They were told to scream and to never keep secrets no matter what threats were made against us.

Now I will make an assumption... I'll guess that you are a man.

As a woman, I can tell you from personal experience that I had been touched by an older cousin when I was young. But for that one experience, I had two others - one by a complete stranger and another by someone I had just been introduced to that day.

When my sister was five or six, there was a man in Goldblatt's (if you remember the store on 79th and Cicero) that had come from around a rack of clothes and tried to pull her out the doors. Now, what his intentions were can be debated, but you know they were not good.

I know that the findings on the article that I had linked to to be very accurate. Most girls do not report these instances. The sooner they put it behind them, the faster they hope to forget.

And as long as I know this goes on and there are people who pooh-pooh it by calling it 'sex offender hysteria', I must remain all the more vigilant.

Just because he was 33 and the child was 13 does not mean he will reoffend. Did any of you speak with him to find out his side. I have seen ex wives wanting to get back at their ex and make the chikd tell lies. There are many young men on the list who have had sex with their girlfriend example 18 or 19 having sex with a 16 or 17. Will you move because this man is now 30 and has moved into your neighborhood. Think about the man's child how do you think they feel you talking bad about thier daddy. They do not get to have friend like your child because people like you will not let your child be friend with them. They will not be invited to your home will they? how old were you when you first had sex? and how was your partner. It could be consexual today but then you break up and now it is RAPE.

Good for you, Jenny; you are doing all the right things, it sounds like, except for guessing; I am a woman, and I am thankful that none of the potentially dangerous encounters for you or your sister were any worse than they were.
Genevive, thank you for your prayers. However, my family has had its share of sex abuse issues; I think, if truth were told, that almost every family has. My mother was abused by her father for years when she was young; my sister was abused by our uncle, our mother's brother, so the cycle is clear there. Then my daughter was abused as a very young child by her father's brother. There are programs that could help break the cycle of sexual abuse of children, which is almost exclusively in the circle of families and close friends, if they were initiated in the schools and communities, but they aren't, and this is where the hysteria comes in. Based on a handful of horrific and unspeakable crimes against children, we now have close to 800,000 individuals from children as young as 9 to very old men on our nation's registries. That is due to the hysteria created by the media and by politicians in the wake of those horrible few cases. What but hysteria could make a nation demand that everyone from 9 to 90 who does anything even remotely sexually suspect be put on a registry and tracked their entire lives while at the same time ignoring the hundreds of thousands of children abused in their homes on a daily basis?