From the comments section of the Child Molester Mass Hysteria post, a commenter answers my question, "Can you all please explain to me why these new laws are making these worse, and endangering kids even more? That doesn't seem to add up from the data that you have given to me."
Magister:
The experts tell us that offenders need stability, a home, a job, a support system and a feeling of connection to a community. Stress affects offending behavior. If one feels helpless and hopeless it, of course, increases stress levels to an unbelievable amount.I don't really know what to say about all this. This isn't exactly my favorite subject, but the purpose of this blog is to piss people off, and nothing pisses people off more than being soft on pedos. Obviously, it's a position I just have to take. It was just too irresistible.
There have been hundreds, if not thousands of studies looking at offending behavior and the conditions and circumstances predating it. America has a world record amount of people in prison. It is like a revolving door.
It does not take much imagination to realize that if you warehouse people in a prison with people even worse than they are, in an antisocial environment, release them back to a society where they have no home or job, their offending behavior is likely to occur again.
Now, add to that, for sex offenders the fact that they are dehumanized by society, called garbage, monsters, they are being killed, beaten, their families are shunned, their children are picked on mercilessly, they have to pay an exorbitant amount of fines for probation, sex offender treatment, GPS monitoring, all while greatly restricted on what kind of job they have.
Many states are now putting their employers on the Registry which pretty much guarantees that no one will hire them. Residency restrictions make it almost impossible to find a place to live. NIMBY is rampant. When they do find a small area to live in, a great hue and cry goes up about "clustering" and the problem starts all over again.
They are denied many of the social services that our other poor citizens have. They are not even allowed in a hurricane shelter!
I would think being treated like a monster, told over and over again that you are a monster, would make any person likely to commit desperate acts. It amazes me that in the present circumstances, there ares not more re-offenses than there are. I think the fact that re-offense is still low, shows just how repentant the vast majority of these people are.
There is not one study that shows that residency restrictions work, not one. In fact there are multiple studies that show that they do not work. Again it just takes common sense to tell you that if a person is going to re-offend they are going to go away from their home, the area they are most likely to be recognized, to offend.
Studies prove this out. Several states, which bothered to listen to the experts and do comprehensive studies of their own, declined to implement residency restrictions.
Iowa, which has statewide 2000 ft restrictions, is a perfect example. The prosecutors 'association and the sheriffs' association have come out against these restrictions. They see that they do no good, and have caused many offenders to abscond because of the conditions.
The police and parole officers cannot find the homeless men and women. So instead of allowing for increased monitoring of those who are most dangerous, there is less monitoring of everyone.
But the people of Iowa, who have been fed false information like everyone else will not allow these restrictions to be stopped. That just boggles my mind.
Everything that the experts tell us reduces re-offense, we do the opposite. We stubbornly hold on to our misinformation like a life raft in the ocean. It is like we need a group of people to hate and denigrate.
Most states have expanded the definition of crimes to be called a sex offense until almost anyone could fit into the category. The registries are so watered down by no risk, low risk offenders until our law enforcement cannot keep up. The state of California just did a recidivism study that mirrored the one the Department of Justice did. They got the same results. Re-offense rate overall between 3.5 and 5%.
The American people do not know this! Either that or they stubbornly refuse to believe it. Yes, there are groups or types of offenders who have a much higher rate of re-offense. We have experience and tests to know which ones these are.
To me, that means that those who are not in any of those high risk groups have almost no risk of re-offending and even the high risk groups have a lower rate of re-offense than other types of criminals. Treatment does work. Treatment has been refined over the years and there is a success rate of over 40%. Some studies show success in the 90% range.
When all our attention and resources are being focused on once caught offenders we are developing a false sense of security and ignoring the 90% of the population that are the next molesters of our children. Who are they? They are family and friends who are not on the registry. We are not learning how to recognize warning signs and keeping our eyes focused on the Registry.
What a disservice we are doing our children. Victim advocacy groups and child protection groups, are saying the same things, residency restrictions and making monsters of these people do more harm than good.
Victim advocacy groups are getting involved in creating transitional housing and mentoring for the higher risk offenders. This is how we create a lower recidivism rate. It only makes sense. This is such a complicated issue that one could talk for hours and not make a dent in the truth and the harm our society is doing.
All I can say is the Internet is a fount of information. Studies from the professionals and our own government can be found just by Googling. You can find many studies here.
I've noticed that if you know anything about pedophilia and child molesting, as I do, people get really, really worried and think you must be one. It's like if you know anything about homosexuality, you must be a fag. If you know about heroin, you must shoot dope. If not now, you're going to do one of these things in the future.
The only thing you can say about child molesting in polite company is "Kill all the pedos!" I got most of my information from John Douglas' books and writings. I figure if he can get interested in this stuff from a criminological point of view without going out and molesting kids, hey, so can I.
I don't think we are going to get anywhere as a society with this issue as long as all rational conversations about it are shut down with a horrified look of, "You're not a pedo yourself, are you!?"
If it's true that 90% of child molesting is a family member or friend of the family, that 90% of those on the Registries are this type of molester, that's very interesting. The 60 million molested figure and 50% of them (30 million) are going to do it themselves is fascinating. The notion that residency restrictions don't work and may do more harm than good and that only 5% reoffend over 10 years is also fascinating.
It's important to distinguish between pedophiles and non-pedophilic child molesters. Non-pedophilic molesters are probably the vast majority. They have no particular interest in kids; they are just opportunists who do it for various reasons.
Probably 10% of molesters are real pedophiles. These guys either prefer or require kids to get off. Some may never act on it, but I bet most will. These people will be impossible to cure. All you can do is get them to not act on their urges, and that may be quite difficult. The conflation of pedophilic molesters with non-pedophilic molesters is unfortunate and makes no sense scientifically or societally.
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