Dandy Looney

Shun the Sex Offender!

Victims of sex crimes often suffer for the rest of their lives

When Cape Cod Today published a story about the Cape’s population of registered sex offenders last week, I read the article and was sad to think of the Cape as a haven for these individuals.  I thought about it and then I moved on.

I don’t want them near my family or yours.After years of seeing notices of newly-arrived sex offenders I guess I’m desensitized to the concept.

Then I read Sunday’s letter from a writer who boasts of the low recidivism rate among sex offenders.  The writer, by the way, says that she shares her home and life with a registered sex offender who committed a sex crime as a child after suffering abuse himself.

Oh yes, that got my attention!

First of all, we require sex offenders to be registered.  We publish their pictures and name the crimes of which they were convicted.  Society limits where registered sex offenders can live and tracks where they are employed.  These measures are designed to keep the public vigilant and to push the sex offender to the very margins of society.

If our society's prevention the pound of cure required?

Maybe that’s why the recidivism statistics are so low for sex offenders these days, although apparently the readers don't agree as witnessed by this week's poll.

If you shove an offender to the edges of society, publicize where he lives, plaster his picture all over the place and tell the public where he works – isn’t it doubtful he’ll have much opportunity to re-offend?

Victims of sex crimes often suffer for the rest of their lives.  It’s only right that their assailant suffer in equal proportion, if ever such a thing was possible.

The letter writer stated that her offender-housemate had committed his crime after having been a victim himself.  That is very sad.  It does not, however, begin to  justify the horror of his victim. 

When I was growing up we had a “funny priest” in our town.  Everyone whispered about him but this was the heyday of child molestation by priests – nothing was done.  When I was growing up we had a “funny priest” in our town.  Everyone whispered about him but this was the heyday of child molestation by priests – nothing was done. 

There was one boy who we all understood was the Father’s “special boy”, and the conjugation apparently continued from his early teens until he went off to college. 

Fast forward 20 years – the “special boy”, by then a well-regarded figure in youth athletics, was arrested for raping over a dozen boys.

So, no, I don’t pity the offender who was once a victim.  That victim/offender’s ordeal doesn’t give him the right to inflict it on another victim.

Let’s keep the sex offender at the far edge of society.  Let’s keep the public aware of their whereabouts and movements.  I don’t want them near my family or yours.

Maybe repeat drunk drivers and addicts should register the way sex offenders do.  Perhaps we’d see a reduced recidivism rate among those groups, as well.