Halloween and Sex Offenders

For the past few years, the Marion County Probation Department in Indianapolis and the Indiana Department of Correction have been requiring all registered sex offenders who are on probation or parole in that county to attend a mandatory meeting during the evening hours of Halloween. The object is to contain these offenders while kids trick-or-treat, thus minimizing kids' exposure to sex offenders.

You can read a little about the program here.

I understand the reasoning behind this practice, but I offer a different point of view to ponder.

I don't know how much manpower is involved in orchestrating this event, but Halloween is on a Saturday this year, so I can only assume that many of the probation officers and parole officers will be earning overtime to work. And we're not cheap to begin with. At time-and-a-half, that's a lot of money just in salaries. Offenders are going to have to be notified in writing, likely with some sort of proof of receipt, of the requirement to attend this program, so there's additional cost in office supplies and postage. Plus there's the cost associated with using a building that is likely not normally used on weekends.

Keep in mind, too, that this program is only mandatory for those on probation or parole. Those who have already completed terms of probation, parole, and/or incarceration cannot be forced to attend. The article says that nearly 300 people attended last year, with only four people not attending. According to the Indiana Sex Offender Registry, there are close to 2000 registered sex offenders in Indianapolis. For those who don't have a calculator handy, this program is only containing 15% of the registered sex offenders in the city.

But these are sex offenders we're talking about, right? So it's worth the cost to taxpayers to corral 15% of the registered sex offender population on Halloween, right? After all, these monsters will be lurking in the bushes, ready to dine at-will from the smorgasbord of kids out that night, right?

Read this recent study and decide for yourself. Unless you're a mathematician, the statistical analysis part of the article is likely to be a little dry for you, so let me hit the high points. According to this study, there is no increase in sex offenses on or around Halloween. (However, our children are four times more likely to get hit and killed by a car on Halloween than they are on any other day of the year.) And the belief that sex offenders lurk in the bushes, ready to pounce on unsuspecting kids? This study shows that only 2 out of every 1000 sex offenses against kids are committed by non-family members. The study simply confirms what I have come to believe after being a probation officer--and working with sex offenders--for 13 years.

I don't mean to poo-poo what Marion County officials are doing. I truly believe that they are genuinely trying to do everything they can to protect the public. I also don't question that a threat exists that kids can be molested during Halloween. Nor do I mean to minimize the lasting psychological and physical damage that offenders inflict upon their victims, or in any way, shape, or form justify sex offenders' behavior when they offend.

What I question, as does the study, is the cost-benefit equation of programs like Operation Halloween, especially when there is such a cheap and easy alternative: active parenting. I also worry that programs like this lull the public into a false sense of security, thinking that all the sex offenders in the city are rounded up and contained on Halloween night when, in fact, 85% of registered sex offenders (not to mention all the offenders who haven't registered, who aren't required to register, or who haven't been caught yet) are still out there on Halloween. "The bad guys are all rounded up, Ma! Cut the kids loose for a few hours!"

As a parent, and reinforced by my experience as a probation officer, I don't believe that kids should just be let loose to roam neighborhoods unattended while trick-or-treating. Bad things can happen--in addition to sex offenses--when kids are left unattended. Several years ago on Halloween, in one of our affluent neighborhoods where kids from all over the county are dumped by their parents in order to get candy from the "rich people," a young man was severely beaten by a handful of other kids and nearly died. What was the attack over? Halloween candy. The attackers demanded it, the victim didn't fork it over, and the victim wound up in the hospital with significant head trauma.

My kids are very young, but still, they only trick-or-treat at the homes of people we know. And, of course, we walk with them. The chances of a sex offender jumping out the bushes and snatching my kids, a pack of teenagers putting my kid into a coma over Halloween candy, my kids getting hit by a car, or anything else bad happening to them are reduced exponentially by me and the Mrs. being there to watch and protect. As my girls get older and want more independence while they trick-or-treat, that's fine. But they can't stop me from trailing a half-block behind them in my car.

By simply spending some time with our kids on Halloween, we're going to have a much higher success rate--and at a much lower cost--of protecting our kids than government officials are going to have with programs such as Operation Halloween. And as a taxpayer, I'd like to see the resources that were set aside for Operation Halloween spent instead during the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. That period of time is the most dangerous time of year in terms of drunk drivers and the death and destruction they cause, and that money could be used to beef up funding for law enforcement, public information, alternate transportation, and other ways of keeping us safe on the roadways during the holiday season.

Or should we just round up all the convicted drunk drivers who are on probation and parole and keep them contained during the entire month of December?