Eric the Red

Are Your Children Safe?

Eric | December 13, 2005

A recent episode of Boston Legal featured a released pedophile kidnapping a young boy. This episode made me wonder: how possible is this really?

The U.S Department of Justice has these figures. In sum:

Approximately 4,300 child molesters were released from prisons in 15 States in 1994. An estimated 3.3% of these 4,300 were rearrested for another sex crime against a child within 3 years of release from prison.

Among child molesters released from prison in 1994, 60% had been in prison for molesting a child 13 years old or younger.

Offenders who had victimized a child were on average 5 years older than the violent offenders who had committed their crimes against adults.

As far as repeating a crime:

Sex offenders were less likely than non-sex offenders to be rearrested for any offense â€“â€“ 43 percent of sex offenders versus 68 percent of non-sex offenders.

Sex offenders were about four times more likely than non-sex offenders to be arrested for another sex crime after their discharge from prison â€“â€“ 5.3 percent of sex offenders versus 1.3 percent of non-sex offenders.

So are you, or your child, most likely to be sexually assaulted twice or mugged twice by the same person?

To help you get an idea, the FBI maintains an electronic database (here) so concerned citizens may see if a sex offender may be present in their neighborhood. Additionally, many states maintain similar databases (here). Here is a useful google map. Oregon refuses to put such a registry online, probably due to some left wing concept that sick criminals deserve to live private lives. If I’m wrong, please send me a link. The one provided by the FBI doesn’t lead to anything informative.

Florida passed legislation requiring sex offenders to wear electronic tracking devices at all times. A list of states that have passed, or are considering such legislation may be found here.

So, does viewing child porn result in the sexual abuse of children? The US Postal Inspector’s service determined that 34% of those arrested for abusing or molesting viewed child pornography. Many authorities believe that viewing such material convinces the perpetrator that their desires for children are normal. In other words, frequent viewing desensitizes. Perhaps this is one reason why Australia is requiring ISPs to block pornographic content, forcing those who wish to view it to apply and be given permission.

Are those who watch and distribute child porn really more likely to attack children in the real world? That debate will last as long as any over video game violence. Then again, the American people were outraged over a few seconds of Janet Jacksons nipple. Politicians breathed fire and brimston over a brief sex scene in Grand Theft Auto. Interestingly, they were in uproar over a cartoon sex scene in a game centered around brutally killing everyone from police officers to children to the elderly. So we rant and rave about video games and how should protect our children, but when it comes to a childs actual physical safety we are silent? Priorities please, idiots!

Oh, it starts early. Since I enrolled at the University of Maryland, at least two students were arrested for distributing kiddy porn using university networks. The most recent is Benjamin Aurich. The earlier is Brent Machado (US v Brent Machado, # 8-03-cr-74), who was fined $3,000 and spent 18 months in federal prison (PACER record here). Now his name is used to spam google with porn sites.

Aurich was turned in by a roomate and mentally evaluated. If you ran across someone like him, would you have the courage to do that?

For more information about sex offenders, start here [sex criminals.com].