Halloween in Fear Nation

It seems this year we don’t have to worry about razor blades and needles in the candy. This problem used to cause parental hysteria. Concerned public officials would appear around the boo season and demonstrate on TV how easy it would be to slip these items into Halloween treats. Of course, there is no documented record of this ever happening. But it was a pretty safe way for some politicians to get some mileage. Never mind that you are taking away a bit of some kids’ Halloween fun.

This year’s big deal is sex offenders. Now before you start e-mailing me—I favor, at the very least, sex offenders be castrated with a rusty knife. But, I also resent having to live in Fear Nation—and I don’t like politicians scaring kids.

Around the nation there are dire pronouncements coming out that sexual predators may be lurking near our children this Halloween. I have yet to discover why there is expected to be such a dramatic increase this year—since the trend seemed to be non-existent last year.

But anyway, state and local governments around the nation are requiring sex offenders to shut off their lights, not dress in costumes, and hide in the closet. A few states want the pervs to make a visit to the probation office sometime during the night. And, like I say, I don’t really care if they ruin Halloween for these scumbags. And, I don’t really care if there is no real documented Halloween crisis in this regard. But, I don’t like politicians patting themselves on the back and getting folks all alarmed.

In some states Probation and Parole officers will be doing spot-checking on the offenders. I don’t know how many officers there are for each offender. I could be wrong, but I suspect that enforcement of this mandate by these over-worked, under-staffed, under-paid officials will be spotty at best.

Obviously, if these laws prevent one pervert attack it is a good thing. But these measures are what they call in the military “all show and no go,” or in Texas “All hat—no cattle.”

So why am I being so bitchy?

First of all, it is fear mongering. As far as I know virtually all parents accompany their children when they trick or treat. Besides, over ninety percent of sex offenders were convicted of molesting children in their family or members of the youth soccer team they coached. There is not a high incidence of strangers in masks jumping out and abusing children.

Second, these kinds of laws generate a lot of publicity, and tend to lull the public into thinking that something worthwhile is being accomplished. But funding for child abuse prevention efforts remains criminally low. Child abuse prevention agencies remain horribly understaffed. Education and training of children remains unacceptably low, and monitoring and supervision of sex offenders is still dangerously inadequate because budget cuts have completely over-stretched the capabilities of the officers that remain.

High-profile laws and policies like these Halloween restrictions give elected officials a way to seem like they're tough on sex offenders-- without having to do anything that would cost any money or make a significant difference in the problem.

Rather than scaring kids and parents—or worse, giving them a false sense of security, I suggest the real problems be addressed:

--the vast majority of sex offenders remain at large –undiscovered and unmonitored.

--a huge number of sex offenders are known, but nothing is done. This is particularly the case with teachers.

--budget cuts have dramatically decreased the number of experts who can identify and catch these perverts.

--treatment for victims of sex crimes remains uncommon.

--budget cuts have all but eliminated programs that will assist in teaching kids how to avoid being victimized.

--the criminal justice system has made little or no progress in making it easier for victims to report sex crimes. Nor has it improved its ability to provide satisfactory justice for these victims.

--budget cuts have reduced the number of Child Protection advocates. They are the single best weapon we have in this fight.

So don’t let the politicians fool you. Talk is cheap. Stuff like their Halloween publicity stunts do nothing to undue the years of neglect and budget cutting.

When I hear them spouting off on this stuff I am reminded of what Shakespeare, another guy who can get pretty spooky, wrote in Macbeth:

“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Yeah—just a bunch of pumpkinheads.