Know Thy Neighbor
We hate to start this site with the first entry being about sex offenders, but in light of what happened in Antioch, California in late 2009 with the discovery of kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard and the light the discovery ultimately brought to the community (Antioch has been reported to have 122 registered sex offenders), we thought it might be prudent to provide a source for you to determine if you have a registered sex offender living near you.Because of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act (2006) all 50 states have now passed laws requiring sex offenders (especially child sex offenders) to register with police and report where they take up residence upon leaving prison or being convicted of any crime.Simply be accessing the Family Watchdog website and entering a specific location the results yields a bounty of relevant information.As an example, we’re writing this from a middle-to-upper income area of the East Bay area of San Francisco, California (over 50 miles from Antioch), and yet the results showed there are 20 registered sex offenders living no less than 6.25 miles from the address we entered.Some of the convictions cited were “attempted aggravated indecent liberties with a child” and “oral copulation with a minor under 14 years of age or by force or by fear.” Pretty scary, huh? Especially when you consider the average home in this area came in at 562,091 (2009) and the estimated median household income for the same year was 109,351.The point? Just because you believe you are living in utopian suburbia, you are probably not exempt from an offender being located less than 10 miles away. The best way to arm yourself is with knowledge.So get started.