The New York Times has a story about the Texas judge who recently ordered 21 sex offenders to display signs on their homes and automobiles saying, “DANGER: Registered Sex Offender Lives Here.” This sort of requirement is irresponsible and goes well beyond reasonable bounds of community notification.
In Michigan, where I live, there is a law that requires the local police to make available the names and addresses of sex offenders. The state also maintains an online database where this information is available, and for the most part I think this is a good idea. We were able to look at our neighborhood, for example, and learn that the nice elderly man down the street has several sex offenses.
The real concern with such registries are a) concern about inaccuracies, especially in an area like the one I live which is close to 80 percent rental properties and b) worries about vigilantism. Most of my neighbors know that this man is on the sex offender list, but several years have gone by and nobody’s attempted any violence or even confronted the man about it. They’re just a little bit more aware of where their kids are and what they’re doing.
Posting a “Danger: Registered Sex Offender Lives Here” sign, however, seems to me to be an open invitation for random vigilantism. The elderly man in my neighborhood’s never attempted to harm or molest any of our children, and he wouldn’t likely get the chance now that we know his past. There’s cause for parents to be a bit more concerned than normal, but no cause for him to be subjected to the sort of things that would happen if he had a big sign in his yard.
In fact, I’d think such an action would make it much harder for a sex offender to ever become part of the community again and thus increase the risk of recidivism. Now, some sex offenders shouldn’t become part of the community again, but as the New York Times story notes, there is an enormous difference between say a person who molests and physically abuses a young child as opposed to someone convicted of statutory rape with a 15-year-old after a night of heavy drinking.