Think Bigg

California voters recently passed Proposition 83 which, among other things, requires lifetime monitoring of registered sex offenders by GPS tracking devices that allow their location to be pinpointed on a 24/7 basis.

Though struck down almost immediately by a federal judge as unconstitutional, the measure passed by an overwhelming 70% of voters, surpassing all other voter-initiated ballot measures by almost a full 20%.

Why does having a GPS tracking device attached to the leg of every convicted sex offender in California seem so appealing?

Certainly no one likes sex offenders, and perhaps any law that makes their lives harder seems like a good one to most people. The problem is that the idea makes sense only if sex offenders are people we don’t know. People we can’t find, or can’t catch.

The reality is that 90% of child victims know their offender, with almost half of the offenders being a family member. Source

According to a study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 38 percent of child abusers were parents, 33 percent were family friends and for all of the press around internet chat rooms, just 9 percent were the result of online enticement.

The Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance bears out similar statistics.

Of the 4,326 child victims seen by sexual assault crisis centers from 2000 to 2004, just 7 percent were assaulted by strangers.

“I think the general public has a misunderstanding about what poses the most threat to children,” said Kate McCord, public awareness manager for the alliance. “Not that stranger danger is not something that children should be protected from. But the primary threat to children are the people who care for them on a day-to-day basis.”

No one needs a GPS device to track the location of their uncle or their cousin or their brother’s best friend. The majority of sex offenders don’t need to be located because the victims already know where they live; what they need is to be exposed and prosecuted.

Get the facts about sex offenders and take a look at the Megan’s Law FAQ site to learn more about what a sex offender really looks like.

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