Crime and Such
The half-acre of land that we’re considering is located right near the school I’m working at part-time, and it’s right near Henry’s daycare. That means I drive by it pretty constantly, in an attempt to get a feel for the neighborhood. The land is at the end of a tiny little cul-de-sac (with basically only one or two houses). On one of my trips, I saw a neighbor sitting on his back porch, so I decided to introduce myself and ask questions about the neighborhood. Specifically, I’m worried about the crime rates in the neighborhood. He told me about a website that will send you alerts about crimes that happen within a specified radius of your home. It’s called Spot Crime. I definitely recommend it if you want to keep tabs on what’s happening in your neighborhood. I also think it’s valuable to search the sex offenders database and see the specific locations and pictures of sex offenders in your neighborhood.
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8 Comments
Julie R.
While I definitely think it's important to have an awareness of your neighborhood's level of safety, I would be somewhat weary of an electronic database, which may not always be competely accurate. Especially when it comes to tracking sex offenders, which can often be skewed by those who landed on the list unjustly, ie. teens having sex or even public urination. Just my two sense really. But the property looks awesome! Good luck!
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Katie
I agree with Julie! I know that safety is important, but I think that we have all been a bit screwed up by "Stranger Danger" and the like. Most crimes are committed by a perpetrator known to the victim. Really, there are no unsafe neighbourhoods, just riskier behaviours.
b
In California, we have a website called Megan's Law, which lists the offender's crime and a recent photo. I check it out before I move anywhere, and I've found that usually areas where a lot of the 'bad' kind of sex offenders live also have a lot of other crimes like recent and often shootings. Looking at crimes is always disheartening -there are so, so many – but I'd rather live in a nice, safe are where I don't have to worry about going outside. I used to live in a bad part of Sacramento, and nothing ever happened to me but there were a few scary instances with neighbors fighting and being taken away by the police. I'd rather not be in an area like that again.
Alycia
Sara and B, don't forget that only the people who have been "caught" are on those databases. If you are really worried about sex offenders, you should be worried about family members and close friends. You can teach your kid not to talk to strangers but also teach him to speak up when a loved one does something wrong.
lmba
Yes, I know that this wasn't the point of your post, but I have to agree with what Julie said regarding the sex offenders' registry. I used to work in disability support with a lot of young people with FASD. A number of them had records of sexually-based offences, but they weren't dangerous and they wouldn't try to victimize someone. They were just young guys with high sex drives and without the ability to discern whether something was appropriate or to control their impulses. That sounds scary, but what they actually ended up DOING were generally consensual acts in socially inappropriate ways that got them into trouble. They weren't violent, they weren't pedophiles, but they still carried the stigma of "sex offender."
Sarah
Gotta agree with the previous comments about the sex registry. That list is a bloated mess. I think that the best way to judge a neighborhoods crimes is by its incident rate violent crimes, not its inhabitants.
saracotner
I definitely agree with what you all are saying about the limitations of the directory, but you can get some specific and helpful information from the database. For example, there's a sex offender nearby whose victim was eight years-old. That's not peeing in a park or consensual teenage sex with a minor.
Faye
Having worked with offenders, what scared me the most is that they are normal. Rapists can be funny, murderers can be intelligent and hold down sucessful careers in high powered jobs, wife beaters are often the nicest guy in your office. Same with those who harm children. Having a picture will make you aware, but with the best will in the world, if someone wants to hurt someone else, they will. I have observed that the best tool a parent can give is to give your child serious self-confidence and belief in themselves to fight back, say no means no and report all untoward happenings. In this respect, I don't think you could be doing any better Sara!