then ANYONE who commits ANY kind of crime is potentially diagnosable as "mentally incompetent" using this "diagnosis" and subject to govt. supervision/control indefinitely. In fact innumerable things that aren't even crimes are associated with greater likelihood of criminality. For instnace men are more likely to commit crimes. Maybe men should AUTOMATICALLY live under extra govt. supervision. No wait, I'm not seriously proposing this. No really, wait.

That's what Gitmo is for. I am 10,000% behind this. Lifetime incarceration w/ no charges or trial or conviction or anything !!!!

Washington already has civil committment laws, but before a sex offender may be committed to confinement in the sex offender treatment ward, there is a jury trial where the state must show that the sex offender has committed some overt acts that show the propensity towards reoffending. There have been several challenges to the Washington law, but so far it has been upheld.

Incidently, laws requiring offenders to register, or to be identified by a special license plate or other means will likely not prevent a great deal of child sex offenses, those that happen within families and are perpetrated by offenders whose criminal histories are known to the child's parents. (Or, the offender is the child's parent.)

the logical flaw in the underlying cocept is insurmountable. It's true the courts have upheld the WA law, which worries me(not personally) a lot.

These laws are only meant to make neurotic parents feel better and politicians look better to win votes. They do nothing to actually help solve the problem. It's statistically most likely for your kid to be molested by a parent, family member, or trusted friend. But nobody likes to think about that. It's easier to peg worry about the weird looking guy down the street.

Same goes for the Family Watchdog website. If they want that thing to really mean something, limit it to first degree offenders. There is no reason a 3rd or 4th degree offender should be on those sites considering they aren't predatory and usually the charges stemmed from poorly written laws or he said/she said bad sexual experiences where personal responsibility is more at play than anything.

If I were a man, I would be doing some serious organizing with the brothers to make these zoning laws and websites focus on real threats instead of lumping everything and anything onto them. Because, guys, you're the ones most at risk for landing on one of these lists under questionable circumstances where the courts favor the woman's testimony and you're guilty first before having to prove your innocence, which can be pretty hard to do even when DNA is on your side. This could easily be you.

And yes, I'm a hardcore feminist. Why do some murderers or wife/child beaters get off so easily compared to EVERY 4th degree sex offender?

That's what people really want, isn't it? For sex offenders to be packed of "somewhere else", where they can never again threaten decent citizens. The problem is that the world simply isn't that simple. Sex offenders have families, and they have rights. And although recidivism is high among some groups of offenders, it is not 100%, and all offenses are not the same. That means that some of the people we are punishing really are reformed and no threat to society - and some never were.

Many of the people we consider "sex offenders" are guilty of nothing more than getting caught doing something socially unacceptable but not particularly harmful. If somebody masturbates in a movie theater, in the dark, where nobody can see him, and gets caught by an usher, should he be banned from society for life? I'll grant, it's vulgar, but hardly in the same category as forcible rape. What about an 18 year old man who has sex with his nearly 16 year old fiance? Should his life be destroyed in the name of protecting society?

We really need to get a grip when it comes to "sexual offenders". They have to live somewhere. They have to work, and eat, and do all the things that normal people do. I don't particularly care if one lives next door to me, as long a he/she doesn't mess with me or my family. People need to be careful with their kids around strangers, anyway. What's worse, knowing that a child molester lives down the street - or having someone down the street who molests children regularly and has never been caught?

Tracking the movements and presence of sex offenders seems reasonable in many cases to me, but I'm amazed there is so little discussion of extending the practice further. It's nice for suburban parents to know they can check a Website to find out if little Johnny's playground might be near a convicted offender's apartment, but I'm an adult without kids, and I have other concerns that are just as valid. I want to know if the person next door has convictions for assault or larceny. I'd like to be able to judge for myself the likelihood that the person down the street will break into my apartment, pull a knife on me, or steal my car. Where's the Website for that?

W/o trial. Or maybe build relocation camps up in Montana or something. Hey it worked before!

than actually being a full-time parent, taking responsibility for getting to know the other adults in my child's life (coaches, teachers, even neighbors), and teaching my child realistic, practical information about self-respect and self-defense that will last a lifetime.

Yeah, let's let politicians solve our problems. They do so well when handed a challenge.

...is that they force me to defend sex offenders.

Considering a recent study showed that, in general, sex offenders are LESS like to reoffend than any others these types of laws are just insane.

That I don't even know WHERE to begin. Chief among them is the uncritical reporting this is receiving on our local NPR station (I am an Ohio resident). One of the sponsors of the bill keeps saying something along the lines of "this will totally change the way we teach our children about stranger danger!" Please--so check the license plates, and if they're not fluorescent green you can get in the car? Among other objections, what prevents the person's wife/mother/brother/whatever from registering a car in his or her name and allowing the sex offender to use it?

Seems like a total waste of time and resources that does absolutely nothing to protect anyone.