This is my first blog so bear with me.
Yesterday, I found out that my family got another notification in the mail about a sex offender in our neighborhood. This is the one of many that we've gotten over the last few years. This brought up an issue that I've been passionate about for a little while. While talking about it with a friend and my mother, I brought up rehabilitation for sex offenders as opposed to just putting them in jail for a short period of time. I feel like many times it's a psychological problem, so just punishing them isn't going to help because he or she might not comprehend it was wrong, if that makes sense.
This also reminded me of one of my favorite movies, The Woodsman, and how the main character had such a hard time integrating into society after prison, especially after his co-workers found out that he was a sex offender, which brings up another issue. Should people be notified about sex offenders being released from prision or is that a violation of the offender's rights? I kind of see both sides of it. People have a right know, especially if it was a child-related crime, if someone is an offender in their neighborhood, but if the offender knew about this policy (which they do), would it matter? You can't notify the whole city/state/country of the release of a rapist, can you? No one can possibly keep up with that on the websites the government provides and what's stopping the sex offender from going outside of their neighborhood to strike again?
But on the flip side, is it fair for the sex offender to be shunned by his or her neighbors for the rest of his or her life? They did serve their time and, to my knowledge, there isn't a law about this for any other type of criminal.
Any comments are appreciated!
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