Author Topic: How many sex offenders live near you?  (Read 25134 times)

Offline serious crayons

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Re: How many sex offenders live near you?
« Reply #20 on: June 21, 2010, 08:10:41 pm »

I think it is a slippery slope because if we are gonna start registering and mapping sex offenders, why wouldn´t some people want to register and map other groups? You might not think that Arabs and gays are dangerous, but there are people that do think that.

Well, there are people who think just about anything. IMO, there are some perfectly valid arguments both for and against registering sex offenders, but the slippery slope argument doesn't apply here any more than slippery slope arguments apply in same-sex marriage debates. Not everything is a slippery slope.

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And besides, ísn´t the point of a prison sentence, that once you get out, you have paid for your crime?

Yes and this is a strong argument against the registries. The reasoning on the other side is that sex offenses are one crime for which the recidivism rate is extremely high. A high-profile rape and murder of a young woman in my state a few years ago was committed by a man who'd recently been released after 23 years of incarceration for abduction.


Offline delalluvia

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Re: How many sex offenders live near you?
« Reply #21 on: June 22, 2010, 06:52:19 pm »
What crayons said.  Rape and child molestation are crimes that are usually repeated which is why I think such registries are important.

As for a slippery slope, it's not quite the same thing.  These people have committed a crime, been found guilty and have served or are still serving their time (parole).  This is all public information.

You'd be hard-pressed to find the justification for a registry on innocent Arabs or Jews or whatever.  These kinds of things are brought up from time to time, but are usually challenged quite successfully in court - see the Oklahoma attempt to make women who have abortions give out personal information.