A Little Information....

...Can Go a Long Way....?
...Can Be a Little Dangerous...?

I'm not sure which category this falls into. But my brother shared a slightly disturbing web site with me. Little bro is a guidance counselor in a middle school (how crazy was it when I visited over the summer to see teenagers calling out to him "Hey Mr. Brother!" and introducing him to their parents?!? I mean, I remember when this kid was the idiot who got his head stuck in the rungs of the stairwell. And now he's shaping young minds??? And he claims he doesn't read this....we shall see!).

Anyway, yes, little bro works in a school and now pays attention to the kind of news that affects young kids and the people who work with them. Reality is that means he has to pay attention to things like registered sex offenders and where they live. So now he has used this site, Family Watchdog, to map their area.

I took a look at it and it's pretty disconcerting. Just in my neighborhood, the number of registered offenders is a lot higher than I expected. (Although I was glad to see there was no little box on my actual building - the nearest one is a block away. That's disturbing enough.) The sociology of geography is interesting to look at, objectively. There are definite patterns to where these people are living in the city of DC, pretty much what you'd expect when you know the makeup of the neighborhoods. It's also astounding to see how many red boxes - representing those who have been convicted for offenses against children - are so close to schools. If you click on the boxes, you can access precise information and a photo of each individual.

So my rhetorical question is...how useful is this information? Yes, I know people like my brother and those in jobs like his do feel like they can better protect kids with this kind of data. But is it better to know on the macro level (reminding everyone to be safe and watchful) rather than on the individual level, which could lead to negative interactions between the registered offenders and the community? Trust me, I don't believe that our prison system does much in the way of rehabilitation, and I heard enough first-hand stories from my Dad when he worked in a max. security prison to know that sex offenders do not have an easy time of it socially while they're incarcerated. But there is an argument (some say naive, I accept that) that people do deserve a second chance. This is not saying they deserve a clean slate, but I do fear that info like this can bring out people's fears and thus their worst behaviors, so I'm sure that there are nasty incidents of discrimination as a result.

I'm rambling....but I do think it's interesting to question whether the extreme levels of detail that we can get in information now is always helpful. Or if it's sometimes better to have more general knowledge and worry about taking care of ourselves, not always focusing on what we're able to find out about other people.