Media hypes fear of sex offenders

A friend of mine found out via cell phone app that a registered sex offender lived on her block. Now she regrets letting her kids play in the front yard.

An acquaintance's friend used the same app, and discovered a registered sex offender lived eight blocks away. Now she's concerned for her safety.

Another friend couldn't believe she saw a man identified as a registered sex offender at the grocery store ... buying groceries. Kids go there, she said.

Usually the reaction has been, "What is this world coming to?" My response has been a different question: "... and???"

It's not that I have some desire to coddle sex offenders, or any criminal. It's just that in every case I listed above, nothing has happened and there's little actionable evidence to suggest something will happen. Studies continually show us that crimes against children are dropping in frequency — by 26 percent from 1993 to 2005, according to a 2010 study from the Department of Health and Human Services.

At the same time, our technology has gone on the rise. I think it's good that we can use the Internet and cell phone apps to find this information, when 15 years ago we'd have to drive down to the courthouse to check records. But we have to realize the difference between information and actual threats.

The Atlantic posted a great column a week ago, titled, "The Day Yahoo Decided I Liked Reading About Child Murder." The author saw an article about a horrific child-on-child crime on Yahoo, and this led the website's algorithim to deliver her similar content from around the country every day — without noting that she's reading about statistical outliers.

That's a case of Mean World Syndrome, defined as, "the phenomenon where the violence-related content of mass media convinces viewers that the world is more dangerous than it actually is, and prompts a desire for more protection than is warranted by any actual threat."

I don't want to put fear into your mind, so let me preface it by noting that these are all highly unlikely. But let's rank these, in order of least likely to most likely.

• A registered sex offender who lives eight city blocks from you targets you because it's just too difficult to go after that person who lives 11 blocks away.
• A registered sex offender buying groceries will veer from that plan and abduct your child in the middle of a crowded store.
• A registered sex offender who is a complete stranger to you, and is following the law by complying with registration requirements, will throw all of that out of the window and abduct your child from your house in broad daylight.
• Your child will be inappropriately touched by somebody you know right now.
• Your child will be the victim of an automobile accident where you're the driver.
• Nothing will happen to you or your child, but you'll be so wrapped up in fear that you'll never enjoy life because of what might happen.

OK, so maybe the last one is likely. That's the world I fear we're coming to.

Kevin Wilson is a columnist for Clovis Media Inc. He can be contacted at 763-3431, ext. 313, or by email: [email protected]