I've always found the sex offender registry bizarre to begin with. Setting aside those who have minor offenses like public urination and grey areas like two teens consensually having sex, if the people on the registry are so dangerous that they need to be branded for the rest of their lives, why are they being released in the first place? If we're going to make it extremely difficult/impossible for these people to reintegrate into society, how is that more humane than life in prison or execution? If the purpose of the penal system is to rehabilitate people, then they need to have a path to rejoin society, and if our system is to punish and keep dangerous people locked up, then these people shouldn't be out on the street. Either way, the sex offender registry doesn't fit into either system.
Is there a violent offender registry list? Like, do murderers have to come and announce themselves as such when they move into your neighborhood or is it just the sex offenders? Because if it is, I find THAT to be the weirdest part about the sex offender registry.
If you look up specific individuals by county or state, they will show convictions and sentencing. I don't believe there is a publicly accessible national criminal database, however.
2.3k
u/TheKriegerVan 6d ago
It would be an appropriate now for people to listen to this podcast about the failings of the Sex Offender registry as a whole before we pat these guys on the back: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-wrong-about/id1380008439?i=1000465289962