

iPhone’s Latest Hit App: A Sex Offender Locator   - JournalistHack
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/25/the-iphones-latest-hit-app-a-sex-offender-locator/

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jadence
IMO the sex offenders list is crap as it lumps a large range of offenses
together.

Caught urinating in public? Had consensual sex at age 17 with your high school
sweetheart^? If you got caught doing either one you end up on the same list as
the child molesters and rapists. Lucky you.

And the sad thing is I don't see this changing anytime soon as any politician
who tries to tackle this will be clobbered by his opponents for being lenient
on those evil sex offenders.

^Given sexual trends among teens I'm guessing a ridiculous portion (I'd
venture over 80%) of the people in America should be on the sex offenders
list.

~~~
gaius
It's why this isn't a story he can laugh about later:

[http://www.recordcourier.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907029986...](http://www.recordcourier.com/article/20090703/NEWS/907029986/1049)

Dude's life is _ruined_ because there happened to be kids there.

~~~
jacquesm
Yes, those poor children, scarred for life because they saw some genitals.

Americans at the dutch beaches invariably are absolutely shocked when I take
them there on a visit. There is more casual nudity there (and these are the
'regular' beaches) than on the average porn site.

Being a 'sex offender' for something like this completely degrades the term,
it is supposed to be reserved for sexual predators that make a career out of
stalking the defenseless, not for an act of stupidity or sillyness.

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crcoffey
We all understand that a sex offender is low on our list of people we care
most about, But taking such a medieval, and profiteering approach like this
app, Doesn't make us much better than the offenders.

The authorities are already aware of where these people are, The target
audience here being only those who feel threatened, or scared, to know these
people might live nearby, But that chance has always been there.

I feel this app can only serve to boost paranoia within the public mind.

~~~
axod
I think the target audience is people who read the daily mail / watch fox news
etc.

The same people who are staying inside, petrified of catching swine flu and
dying from it.

~~~
trapper
Are you saying that if you had a young son/daughter, and their walk-to-school
route when straight past a sex offenders house you wouldn't consider taking
another route? Theres something like an 8% rearrest rate for treated and ~15%
rearrest rate for untreated offenders. That's a risk I wouldn't knowingly
take.

~~~
die_sekte
The biggest threat for your children is their family and their friends. Only
in about 10% of cases sexual abuse is commited by strangers. Instead of having
them walk another route, why not forbid your relatives from seeing them?

~~~
trapper
That's like saying you shouldn't buy a lottery ticket because its unlikely you
are going to win. Littlewood's law says we are likely to experience events
that are one in a million relatively frequently.

So are you really saying that you wouldn't change their route to school, given
that there is somewhere at least 0.8-1.5% chance of this sex offender
reoffending with a non-family member? (Assuming a reoffence rate of 8-15%,
with 10% of those people offending with non-family members)

~~~
axod
>> "That's like saying you shouldn't buy a lottery ticket because its unlikely
you are going to win."

Yes, which is why lottery tickets are largely just an unfair tax on the poor
and uneducated.

I don't play the lottery for similar reasons I don't bother finding out the
personal criminal history of everyone living in my town - waste of time. YMMV

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nixy
This kind of thing is just horrible in my opinion. If you are a known sex
offender, you've been convicted and also served your time. You've payed your
debt. How the heck does it help you to get back to a normal life if people in
your neighborhood are able to alienate you for something that you've already
served your sentence for?

~~~
axod
I think the publics opinion is that sex offenders can never change/be cured,
whereas say a murderer can.

It'd be interesting to see repeat offense rates for sex offenders compared
with other crimes.

Isn't trying to 'cure' say a pedophile, a similar task to trying to turn a
homosexual straight? (Serious question, I don't know the answer).

It's not a good idea for anyone to witch hunt and obsess about such a small
threat.

~~~
decode
The US Department of Justice has puts out reports on recidivism rates. Some
information from the last report:

<http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/rpr94.htm>

Those most likely to be rearrested within 3 years of release from prison
committed these crimes: robbers (70.2%), burglars (74.0%), larcenists (74.6%),
and motor vehicle thieves (78.8%).

Those least likely to be rearrested within 3 years committed these crimes:
homicide (40.7%), rapists (46.0%), other sexual assaulters (41.4%), other
violent offenders (51.7%).

If you look at the sex offender recidivism report, you find that 5.3% of sex
offenders are rearrested for another sex crime:

<http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/rsorp94.htm>

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mynameishere
It's useless information. What are you going to do? Upgrade from a .38 special
to a .45 ACP?

