There's a Rapist in the Mailbox
» Sex Crime
If you live in Lynn, MA you'll be getting a list of local sex criminals in your mail box.
I guess a woman could mark them all on a map and make sure she never goes near those blocks.
Or drunken thugs can go to their homes and throw rocks in the windows.
The advertising buy, which councilors hope to see a twice a year, reflects a desire to continue a public-education effort initiated last year when the city sent flyers to more than 40,000 households in Lynn. The mailings, like the proposed ad, contained address and identities of Lynn's known Level 3 offenders, the class of sexual predators judged most likely to re-offend.
Sex offenders to appear in news ads
Comments
My understanding is that in most jurisdictions, the identity of registered ex offenders is a matter of public record (Illinois, where I live, maintains a computeer data base which is easy to access). I lean toward publication of identities of offenders so that the innocent may protect themselves. After discovering that several child molesters were living in my immediate community, I made sure that every household with young children (or where grandchildren visited regulsrly) had a printout of the convicts around here, with the caveat that “victim under the age of consent” included not only young men having consensual sex with young women slightly younger than themselves and older men stalking children’s playgrounds. I have not heard of any acts of violence towards the registered offenders, but parents and grandparents at least have the option of keeping closer tabs on their charges.
Posted by: urtoy | March 9, 2006 12:29 PM