First of all I want it known that I do NOT watch the news because it makes me mad, consistently. That being said I had a local morning program on this morning before I left for work and they were promoting a talk show type show and the hook they were using to get you to watch was "Should sex offenders who are parents be allowed inside their children's school?"
I just have to clear up this little misconception... Not all sex offenders are child molesters or "child predators." Generally speaking, serial sex offenders have a certain age group or profile that they are (for lack of a better word) attracted to. If their target group is adult women, then they aren't necessarily a threat to children. Along those same lines if they did prey on children then you need to make the distinction between pedophiles (those attracted to children under 12) and ephebophiles (those attracted to children over 12). Generally, they don't switch from one group to an other.
This is, of course, a very sensitive subject and that I completely understand. I have the same visceral reaction when I hear about "sex offenders" or "child molesters" but the news media and the masses need to understand that not all sex offenders are child molesters although all child molesters are sex offenders. And, inside of the category "child molester" there are subcategories that SHOULD NOT BE OVERLOOKED!!!
That is all.
2 comments:
As someone who has a sex offender in my family (he committed an act as a very young man for which he plead guilty), I have to agree with you. Our society lumps them all into this big pot of boiling water together and the ones who are really trying to get their lives back on track and redeem themselves for what they've done, have nearly no chance of doing that. The ones who check in regularly, and go to the police department while looking for a home to make sure they are within a safe zone, they are the ones that are punished while the real dangerous guys/gals, are out still committing crimes under the radar.
Our local paper ran an article describing this, the lady in focus was catogorized as a sex offender (for baring her tatas!) and now she's bound by the same rules as pedophiles. Granted, she shouldn't have did it, but to lump her in with child molesters? They really need to rework the system.
Anne
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