Random Topic Rant Uh... uh... topics... Oh, here's one. Sexual offenders databases! No one likes sexual offenders. This makes it easy to stick them in a database, make their information available to the public. After all, if someone raises concerns about how appropriate that is, that person is DEFENDING RAPISTS OMG!!!!eleven How about a murderer's database? A burglar's database? An unlucky person's database? (Because you really don't want to live next to the guy whose last five houses exploded and totally destroyed the entire neighborhoods) My concern is that if a person goes to jail for some crime, and serves his time, that person really should be allowed to live somewhere without protesters coming out and screaming about how "the children" are at risk. The problem, I'm told, is that sex offenders don't get heavy enough sentences. Need I recommend the obvious alternative solution? I suppose this gets down to the question of what exactly a prison is for. If it is for protecting society from dangerous elements, people should be receiving life sentences for all kinds of crimes, not just murder. Keep stealing TV's? Spend the rest of your life in jail, because it's obvious you can't learn to play well with others. If prison is for rehabilitation... uh... Well, let's just say that taking someone and putting him in an environment of criminals does very little to dissuade him that criminality is somehow abornmal or wrong. In either case, a released criminal is one who is no longer a threat to society, so sticking his name on a database seems inappropriate. Alternatively, if prison is for punishment, then it seems reasonable to have databases on every crime (or, perhaps, every crime with victims). Why single out the sexual offenders? It seems like the public would have a right to know about any criminal nearby who may still be a threat. posted by Beetle Aurora Drake 12/10/2004 11:53:00 PM # Comments (0) . . .
