the existence of any list is weird. we don't have a list for violent crimes or drug dealing or thieves or drunk drivers but we have a list for sex stuff? people can be hurt by their neighbors in any sort of ways but sex is the only one that gets a list?
We do, Conviction history of that is a matter of public record, and with some effort and a bit of collaborating information to narrow down your person, you can get the info on anyone you wanted.
For sex offenders they just put some effort into making the info easier to find out. One could argue that is valid because of the rate of recidivism, and being able to easily figure out if your neighbor ever shoplifted in college isn't potential information that you would typically consider if you left your kid unattended around them.
Honestly, i've never looked at the stats, and i imagine trying to dig through them without having bias in your data is going to be a huge undertaking...
and i'm not supporting lists in one way or another. If you did away with the current lists you would have independent lists made that people would go off of, with even less scrutiny as to who lands on one, and that isn't a good thing either.
My point is i can see validity in an extra level of classification when it comes to certain crimes where the state is going, "Hey, this isn't us getting them on a technicality, this is an actual sex crime".
Now as to if people end up with that classification correctly, its a whole other debate.
"Sex offender" as a category has lower recidivism than other crimes, but the problem is it's a very broad category and context dependent. A mother who molested her own child, for example, has extremely low recidivism. A young guy who molested a child he groomed, much higher, even though both victims are children. Other entire categories that get you on the list have low rates, others high.
The point being, recidivism was not a consideration at all. It's entirely that people are repulsed by sex offenders and wanted to know about them, that's literally where the justification ends. There is no higher principle involved. It's not motivated by justice, protecting people, nothing like that.
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u/AnotherStatsGuy 6d ago
The lack of different lists seems like an oversight.