[*Holly*]

As far as searching your local area for "sex offenders"... it's a useful tool to have - especially if you have young children. Some of the sites that I have visited do include the crime....a picture of the person, where they live (actual house address) and where they work. I will admit that I did not check on this information before moving into the house that I bought about 5 years ago.... I got lucky and there are very few in my area. Would it have made a difference? If the number was larger, yes it could have. Why not use the technology we have to try to better ourselves?

[macguy]

Originally Posted by INeedAChange

I've seen that a lot of people are doing computer searches on sex offenders to help decide where to live? I find this a bit odd since I assume 10 or 20 years ago you couldn't do these searches at all and people seemed to survive. Also, does it tell what exactly their offense was? And how do these searches protect you from the offenders who've never been arrested??

It can certainly be enlightening. I just did a search and used a 2 mile radius for the search. There were 160 and one lives directly behind me one street over. I could hit his house with a rock. He was convicted twice, once in another state, of for stuff with a child under 12.

This is really weird, 12 of them live in the same building at the same address just two blocks from me. This is in a residential area. I don't know what the deal is maybe it is a half way house for offenders or something. I am going to take a ride by and see what the place looks like.


I just found another with three living in the same place just a couple of blocks from me. They must be setting them up in some kind of group deal, again this is a regular family neighborhood. I know they have group homes for some handicapped people I guess the city is using the same allowance to house these people. This is a little disturbing. Fort Lauderdale has a way of doing dumb things or maybe this is common everywhere. I can't see what could be good about housing these people together.

I have to make one correction. I found about 40 of the 160 are in the county jail that fell within my search area.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by macguy

It can certainly be enlightening. I just did a search and used a 2 mile radius for the search. There were 160 and one lives directly behind me one street over. I could hit his house with a rock. He was convicted twice, once in another state, of for stuff with a child under 12.

This is really weird, 12 of them live in the same building at the same address just two blocks from me. This is in a residential area. I don't know what the deal is maybe it is a half way house for offenders or something. I am going to take a ride by and see what the place looks like.


I just found another with three living in the same place just a couple of blocks from me. They must be setting them up in some kind of group deal, again this is a regular family neighborhood. I know they have group homes for some handicapped people I guess the city is using the same allowance to house these people. This is a little disturbing. Fort Lauderdale has a way of doing dumb things or maybe this is common everywhere. I can't see what could be good about housing these people together.

I have to make one correction. I found about 40 of the 160 are in the county jail that fell within my search area.

Parts of Fort Lauderdale are full of creeps. They like to try and sell me crack in Victoria Park at 12 in the morning. I had 1 within 2 miles, I guess I'm lucky...

[macguy]

Originally Posted by fort lauderdale

Parts of Fort Lauderdale are full of creeps. They like to try and sell me crack in Victoria Park at 12 in the morning. I had 1 within 2 miles, I guess I'm lucky...

I am assuming you are in Fort Lauderdale. I find it hard to believe, what is your zip?

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by macguy

I am assuming you are in Fort Lauderdale. I find it hard to believe, what is your zip?

Oh crap, I put 1 mile...

I have 4 within 2 miles

FDLE Florida Sexual Offenders and Predators (http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/pages/neighborhoodSearch/Search_Neighborhood_Results.jsp - broken link)


Bad link, I cant get a link, but I have 4.

[debntx]

Originally Posted by riveree

That does happen, but it's the exception, not the rule. Most of the people who are registered sex offenders DID the crime (and likely many more crimes !).

The statistics are that 1% of our nation's prision population is actually innocent, I imagine it would be roughly similar for the population of registered sex offenders.

It's important to know that most of these people you see as registered sex offenders NEVER DO TIME IN JAIL - or do a laughable few months - even the repeat offenders . They are NOT getting the help they need (most are incurable anyway) and really, no one can keep track of them 24/7, so they are a continual risk to our society.

I know an idiot who in her own desperation for wanting a roof over her head moved herself and her young toddlers into the home of a registered sex offender. This was a distant relation of hers and all of the family told her "it was all a misunderstanding....he's innocent". Well, that was good enough for her! The fact that the state had him under house arrest and no children of any age were to be in the house meant nothing to her. Needless to say, her little boy was continually molested. That little boy is now an adult who has been plagued with behavioral and emotional problems all of his young life. Every time I see his mother I want to choke her.

These sex offenders are bad, bad people and they don't get better. Know where they are in your neighborhood.

Just to be clear....you stated that "Most of the people who are registered sex offenders DID the crime ". I think we all assume that. But, I'd like to point out that the teenager in my previous post "DID the crime". That's exactly why he served time in jail for it. He broke the law. However, I think most would agree that it isn't the same kind of sexual offense as the one you mentioned in your post by a long shot. I do agree those who sexually abuse others are bad people, indeed. However, like the teenager I posted about who had never broken a law in his life until this, gets lumped into the same group as "bad people".

[macguy]

Originally Posted by fort lauderdale

Oh crap, I put 1 mile...

I have 4 within 2 miles

FDLE Florida Sexual Offenders and Predators (http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/pages/neighborhoodSearch/Search_Neighborhood_Results.jsp - broken link)

Sunrise 33326

Bad link, I cant get a link, but I have 4. I accidently put 1 mile.

You are lucky. I think one of the differences is where you live is mostly residential and not a bunch of rentals with fly by nighters. That has always been the case. Once an area becomes full of renters it goes down hill. I live near the downtown now and although considered nice, is on the fringe of some of the worst areas in the city. The easy access is nice but it is better to have a safe place to live and travel a little for things like the entertainment centers.

[macguy]

Originally Posted by debntx

Just to be clear....you stated that "Most of the people who are registered sex offenders DID the crime ". I think we all assume that. But, I'd like to point out that the teenager in my previous post "DID the crime". That's exactly why he served time in jail for it. He broke the law. However, I think most would agree that it isn't the same kind of sexual offense as the one you mentioned in your post by a long shot. I do agree those who sexually abuse others are bad people, indeed. However, like the teenager I posted about who had never broken a law in his life until this, gets lumped into the same group as "bad people".

He is still in jail they are trying to get him out now. He got 10 years.

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by macguy

You are lucky. I think one of the differences is where you live is mostly residential and not a bunch of rentals with fly by nighters. That has always been the case. Once an area becomes full of renters it goes down hill. I live near the downtown now and although considered nice, is on the fringe of some of the worst areas in the city. The easy access is nice but it is better to have a safe place to live and travel a little for things like the entertainment centers.

Which is why cities like Weston evolved, isint it ? Honestly, if they aren't on your block, its probably not much of a threat to you. We had a couple of speculators buy out our places and start renting. The HOA wont let offenders/felons in our complex, but we did get those people who crammed 12 people into a 2 bedroom townhome. Needless to say they don't stick around very long, but you are definitely right about the downfall associated with renters. Sex offenders love transient areas, which is why there are so many in Florida. MY area is not very transient, like you said, so we don't really have more than average. Broward in general actually is not too transient; you'd be surprised at how low our sex offender ratio is compared to most of the state, and most of the offenders are in Lauderdale/Hollywood, etc.

[Floridabound09]

We all need to use information that is available to us for anything we do.

As far as sex offenders, we need a big room full of lethal gas to rid our society of these people then we wont have to deal with them anymore.