iPhone App Tracks Sex Offenders 358
The Narrative Fallacy writes "All 50 states in the US require the 50,000 people convicted of sexual offenses to sign a register so that their whereabouts can be tracked and monitored. The Telegraph reports that now users of the iPhone Offender Locator application can search for sex offenders living nearby a friend or colleague whose address is stored in their Apple iPhone address book, or they can type in a street address to generate a list of convicted sex offenders in the local area. 'Offender Locator gives everyone the ability to find out if registered sex offenders live in their area,' says the application developer, ThinAir Wireless, on its iTunes page. 'Knowledge equals safety. They know where you and your family are...now it's time to turn the tables so that you know where they live and can make better decisions about where to allow your kids to play.' Offender Locator uses the iPhone's built-in GPS to pinpoint the user's location, and then provide a map listing sex offenders in the local area. Tapping on one of the 'pins' dropped on to the map brings up a photograph of the offender, as well as their address, date of birth and list of convictions."
Re:Awesome (Score:3, Informative)
The fact is many of them have done their time. If they were truely considered not to have reformed they'd still be in prison.
In the UK Those that have been released and are deemed 'high risk' are monitored regularly, and the local neighbours are informed. Those who are deemed 'low risk' are generally free to do what they please, and the authorities are not required to divulge the information to the public. They have served their time and are likely remorseful. If you have no faith that someone can change, or that the law may have got something WRONG (an innocent person who's served their time shouldn't then have the rest of their lives ruined by an accusation)
Why Sex Offenders? (Score:5, Informative)
Furthermore, if the government can ascertain fully enough that these people are very dangerous and likely to commit their same crimes again, WTF are they doing free? Shouldn't they be in prison or a mental hospital if that is the case?
BTW to the other posters -- only Class 2 and 3 sex offenders show up on the registry -- these are usually the nasty, malicious ones. The bush-pissers and streakers end up as Class 1. Still extremely odious, but not quite as bad, and their names are not made pubic, errr... public.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Tired of scare tactics. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Tired of scare tactics. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Debt to society? (Score:5, Informative)
How many more years until realtors no longer sell houses in certain areas to sex offenders? Or even more scary, how long until we only let them live in certain areas?
Already happened. Check out this story [jaunted.com]. Turns out Miami passed restrictions on where offenders can live that are so restrictive that the only place available to them is under a bridge. Seriously.
Re:Most child molesters are family (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah , or heres a radical idea - you could have friggin told her.
Ah, the typical response by someone who's never had this happen to them. You do know that you're basically telling this person they "didn't scream loud enough [biblegateway.com]" during the rape, don't you?
Family perpetrators (Score:2, Informative)
For physical abuse, the in-home family rate is very high, I've heard 90%.
For sexual abuse it's way lower, in the 40-50% range. Another 40-50% is from family members not living at home and others familiar to the child, such as neighbors and the like.
The bulk of the remaining 5-10% are from people who have a more distant connection with the victim. The number of "stranger kidnappings" of children in America is about 500 a year, less than 2 a day in a country with 300M people.
Romeo and Juliet laws (Score:2, Informative)
In most areas Romeo and Juliet laws protect people close in age.
Re:Romeo and Juliet laws (Score:4, Informative)
In most areas Romeo and Juliet laws protect people close in age.
I know someone who spent years in jail because those Romeo18 and Juliet17 laws were determined to be inapplicable to Romeo18 and Romeo17.
Re:Most child molesters are family (Score:5, Informative)
Right... when he's got his hands around my neck telling me how easy it would be to break my neck, and how he'd have to kill me and my mother to "protect himself" if I ever told her or anyone else. Obviously you don't know how this works, so at least I am fairly sure you're not a child molester yourself. But you cannot imagine how sick and tired I am of this "blame the victim" of whatever crime. I was molested because my father is a sick slimeball, not because somehow I "allowed it" or "asked for it"; I have no problems with my own involvement or lack thereof in the matter.
Re:Tired of scare tactics. (Score:3, Informative)
Idaho prosecutes kissing in public between an 18 year old and a 17 year old as "Lewd conduct with a minor" - sounds terrible doesn't it?
Re:What a registry really looks like (Score:3, Informative)
State laws vary wildly on how classifications are made - here (washington state) there was a report on the TV about a level 3 in the area. Police openly he was classified level 3 because he was currently living in a motel and it would be lowered if he moved to more permanent housing.
Re:Safer with a list? Hardly. (Score:3, Informative)
I once got a notice on the door that some helpful neighbor distributed, which said a sex offender had moved into the neighborhood. Into the trash it went. That info was useless, because there was no need to alter my or my children's behavior one bit. Such a reaction would probably cause more harm than good.
Re:Debt to society? (Score:2, Informative)
But for sure, public exposing their whereabouts should be for the real dangerous cases only.