Editorial: Scrutiny of sex crime offenders

Friday, May 14, 2004 | 8:46 a.m.

This week state government rolled out its sex offender Web site, which lists those who have been convicted of violent sex crimes but are no longer in prison. Nevadans using the Web site -- www.nvsexoffenders.org -- will be able to find out the ages of the criminals' victims, the offenders' aliases, conviction information, mug shots and, for more than 1,800 of the most violent offenders, the zip codes of their homes and where they work. A $24,000 grant from the Henderson-based Children's Advocacy Alliance, a nonprofit group, and federal matching funds made the Web site possible. Prior to the Web site, people had to call state government to find out about sex offenders, a situation that effectively limited the information's availability to the public.

Civil libertarians have objected to sex offender registries, saying that they are punitive, continuing to punish an individual after he has already paid his debt to society. They add that the former convicts could be subject to harassment because their identities and where they live are revealed. The Nevada registry, however, provides just the zip codes. Given that many thousands of people live in zip code areas, this lack of precision affords the ex-offenders more privacy than if their street addresses were known. Such limits, however, substantially restrict the intent of these online registries, which is to empower the public with information that they can use.

Balancing the rights of convicted sex offenders versus the rights of society is a tough issue, but, ultimately, preventing further sexual assaults should be paramount. We believe that providing more specific addresses of convicted sex offenders is in the public interest. People should know exactly how close these ex-convicts live to them, so they can take the appropriate steps to protect themselves. We shouldn't have to wait until a child has been sexually assaulted to belatedly discover that her attacker lived on the next block. State Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, wants to remedy this. He plans on introducing legislation next year that would require making public a convicted sex offender's street and block number. The next Legislature should change the law so that Nevadans, for their protection, have the right to know where convicted sex offenders live.