I too have worked with sex offenders on a professional basis. Some have remorse. Some cease and desist the deviant behavior and never reoffend. Some don't. Sex offenders are not a homogenous group, they differ across dozens of variables. These are immutable facts. The true predator (which in Washington state is a legal definition not clinical)is very rare and can be civilly committed per statutory requirements.

Sex offending remains a low rate high severity crime. The streets are not crawling with sex offenders. The odds of a stranger molesting or raping your child are infinitesimal. Worry more about teachers, coaches, relatives, priests and so on.

It is not an epidemic, no matter how much you want to stretch the definitional capabilities of that word.

Society does have a challenge. We can't afford it all. Do we continue to imprison drug offenders under draconian federal and state sentences and clog up the system with addicts (see: Medical Model of Addiction), do we continue to pour resources into foreign adventurism (see: Iraq) or do we step back and decide this problem needs a higher allocation of resources for research, treatment, prison space?

Here is the ultimately sad and highly predictable outcome of all of this, I'm sure every Idaho legislator will scramble to create a "Dylan's Law" or some other kind of fierce statute against sexual predators. Everyone will slap each other on the back about how tough we got. Then it will happen again and again.

Bob Salsbury

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