Sex Offender Advocates Object To Local Mapping Of Registered Sex Criminals

The Board of Directors for the National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws objects to local public safety maps which pinpoint the addresses of individuals listed on official state sex-offender registries. NARSOL submitted this letter to Patch explaining why such maps should not be published at Halloween.

To the editors of Patch:

Each year in the month prior to Halloween, articles warning parents about the danger posed at Halloween by persons who are on sex offender registries begin to appear. The Patch has been especially diligent and prolific in this regard, often printing maps with little dots showing where registered persons (aka “monsters,” “bogeymen,” “pedophiles,” “ghouls”) happen to live.

For almost as many years, the scientific and academic communities have scorned and protested this practice.
The reason they do so is simple: There is no heightened danger posed to children by those on registries in regard to Halloween or Halloween activities. This fact has not slowed the warnings of Patch publications.

In spite of overwhelming evidence, they persist with their warnings and maps and dots and pandering headlines. Last year, in a NARSOL Halloween editorial, we made the request for a map to be displayed with dots showing all of the places where a child had been harmed or abducted by someone on the registry going back as far as registries have been prevalent – over 20 years. Such a map would display no dots because exhaustive research has turned up not so much as a single case.

So, this year NARSOL is appealing directly to Patch.

What follows is just a fraction of the evidence against the need for these ridiculous tactics:

"[Halloween] rates [of sexual abuse] did not differ from expectation, no increased rate on or just before Halloween was found, and Halloween incidents did not evidence unusual case characteristics. Findings were invariant across years, both prior to and after these policies became popular. These findings raise questions about the wisdom of diverting law enforcement resources to attend to a problem that does not appear to exist."

"Despite research showing no evidence that children are at greater risk of experiencing sex abuse on Halloween than on any other day, states and localities around the country impose severe restrictions on registered sex offenders during the holiday."

"Contrary to the sex offender hysteria on All Hallows Eve, however, sex offenders are not out snatching and molesting children on Halloween. And they never have been."

"[R]researchers wanted to determine whether or not children are, in fact, at any greater risk for sexual assault around Halloween. The answer was a conclusive no: 'There does not appear to be a need for alarm concerning sexual abuse on these particular days. Halloween appears to be just another autumn day where rates of sex crimes against children are concerned.' "

The most prominent of these is the risk of auto-pedestrian accidents.

"To characterize the occurrence of fatal pedestrian injury among children on Halloween, CDC analyzed mortality data from the Fatal Analysis Reporting System (FARS) of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)...The findings indicate that the number of childhood pedestrian deaths increased fourfold among children on Halloween evenings when compared with all other evenings."

In this volatile era of false facts, bloviating politicians, and divisive rhetoric, the media bears the responsibility of dispensing factual information, information that serves a purpose other than to function as “click-bait” or to boost ratings. NARSOL is an organization that advocates for laws grounded in facts and truth. We respectfully request that Patch adopt this policy as its own.

Sincerely,

Board of Directors

National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws

www.narsol.org

Read: Why Patch Publishes Sex Offender Registry Maps