In my statement about "fact is", I purposely made the following a non-fact. An opinion. And in doing so, coerced you (Quest) into coughing up a bunch of statistics which are no closer to "facts" than my own idiotic statement was. Statistics don't even closely resemble facts. Averaging criminal rates doesn't bring you any closer to "The Truth". And on top of THAT, how many sexual offenders do you think they actually catch? Most offenses don't even make it to prosecution, as they are hidden and stuffed away by embarassed families and "loved ones". And what of the more recent religious exposure? Do you think that since errant priests rape boys and girls that ALL churches harbor such deviants? There are churches all over this nation. Would you have us live in fear every time we pass by one? I really don't mean to be so personal, but it's a personal issue. I have dealt with more rape, murder, and sexual victimization in my life than any human ever should, and have a very accurate perspective on the results of such atrocities on peoples' minds including my own. So to make my point (finally?), I don't think that there's anything wrong with having a registry, but I also don't think it helps anything. What HAS been helping is the personal interactions inside our society. The stigmata of being a victim is lifting, especially since almost everyone is a victim of such things. The effect this has on future sex-crimes is that it helps to break the cycles of abuse, and helps abused people realize they don't have to become abusers. I have witnessed this in my own lovers and family members, as well as in society as a whole. The pressures of archaic conservative sexual morals are lifting and as a result people are less repressed, and don't view sex as a heroin-esque form of escape. Sex is becoming less of a drug and more of a biological function or romantic desire... I wish you well Quest, and mean no personal insult to you. But I also hope that you really don't live in fear of something you can't prevent or change, but instead focus on other things in life you CAN change. May there be peace between us all.