How would you react?

Keep in mind, you don't know what he did. He could have gotten busted for something as petty as fooling around in his car with his wife, or as serious as molesting a child. Anyway, if you saw their name on the sex offender registry, how would you react from that point on? Would you....

Be friendly/neighborly?
Keep your distance?
Move?

Would be weird to know but I don't really talk to my neighbors anyway, so if I knew that then I wouldn't flip out or anything. Maybe it would be different if I had kids.

I'm not gonna move just cause they fucked up and got put on a offender list but if I don't know what they did, then I'm gonna assume the worse and keep my distance.

There is actually a registered sex offender living across the street from me. I have no idea what this guy did, but he's on the list and his address was on my street, two doors down from the house directly across the street from me.

I found him here
http://www.homefacts.com/offenders.html

That being said, I have never talked to him and he has never been known to make trouble in the neighborhood. So long as he goes on about his business, then I'm okay.

I live in a very nice suburb. I have a sex offender living right next door. He lives with his parents since he got out of prison. He was there for having child porn or distributing porn to minors. I would have to look it up again to remember for sure.

I have never talked about this to anyone because it is such a touchy subject. But really, it does not bother me at all. My son is 11 and so he knows all about it and what to do if he is ever approached by the guy. The way I see it...I let my son go to the park with his buddies alone. I live in more fear of any creepers that are out and about that I don't know about. So my son is educated on all the dangers.

Now, if my son was younger and just at the age that he is allowed to be outside alone, I probably would look at it differently. The girls who live across the street from us...ages 11 and 13 have not been able to play outside without one parent out there since the offender moved to his parents', two or three years ago. So, these girls are spending their summers not even in their own yard to play, without a parent. That is overkill to me. I won't knock their parenting, but if I was that paranoid, then I would move.

An ironic part of this is that I knew about him while he was still in prison...parents in the area (who lived here before we did) knew the story and knew his release date. What he did wasn't involving any neighborhood children, but somehow, they all knew the details of his conviction. All the paranoid parents were talking of forming a neighborhood watch. But the lady who was to start it kept procrastinating.

I was all for a neighborhood watch because I feel like no one here has any one's back in general and I had really shitty neighbors, at the time, on the other side of me, so I volunteered to take over the reins of getting a watch together. I know someone who knows the owner of a nearby sports bar, with a banquet room. She (the owner) was willing to let us meet there for meetings. But none of the folks around here would join a watch that met in a tavern.
It was the biggest b.s. thing I have ever seen. They were so worried about banding together against the sex offender, but were choosy about where to meet. And this place was a preppy sports bar, with banquet rooms, not some seedy backwoods bar.

I really do not like this suburb where I live. I only moved here because the elementary school is the best in the district.

1. Figure out WHY he's on the list.

2. One of us would be moving.

If he's on the list, then he knows that everyone else around him is on alert and that the tiniest eff-up will get him into more trouble, so it probably wouldn't bother me too much on a realistic level.

If he/she is smart enough, I doubt they'd be bothering anybody. I'd keep my distance and that's about all you can do. Now that you mention it, maybe I should go and check and see if anyone in my neighborhood is actually on the list.

If I found out someone on the list was moving in, I may be uncomfortable with that. . .but if it was someone who had been there all along (and was never any trouble) and I'm just now learning about it, then I would probably have less of a problem. Actually knowing they're on the list may even make me feel better because then I know that they're being watched. Long as they are trying to move on from their past history, I wouldn't join in some sanctimonious lynch mob to make trouble for them.

Having a twelve year old daughter, I wouldn't like it at all, but there'd be nothing I can do. Depending on their social behavior, I wouldn't attempt to harass or run them out of the neighborhood, but I would certainly keep my distance.

Their business, wouldn't bother me. Just knowing would be enough of a public service for me.

I checked the list and there are actually a small handful of registered sex offenders who live in my area (including someone I went to HS with.)

* shrugs *

I honestly don't care, no need to get all up and arms about it. They were busted and they are now marked for life.

Nystyle709 wrote:

It sounds like you're doing such an amazing job with your son RB. And I'm glad you have a level mind cause if I was in that situation and the sex offender did that.....I'd feel that exact same way you would. I wouldn't stop my child from playing or keep him inside either. I would be conscious but I wouldn't be a freak about it. If he was a child killer (he prob. wouldn't be out anyway) then it's a different story.

Thank you, NY for that. I never post about this online in such threads, as it is not all that popular of a stance. I think some are too quick to think that just having knowledge of the "list" is enough to keep them safe. And that is b.s. The soccer dad across the street could have an affinity for little boys. Best method to be safe is to always educate and stay safe.

Looking over this thread again, I'm inclined to agree with the consensus that their being on the list is good enough for me.

I wouldn't move, but I'd be uncomfortable and I'd be keeping a VERY close eye on him, especially if there were children in the neighbourhood.

I know sometimes people get saddled with this label unfairly but being honest, I wouldn't be very happy.