Chris Rickert: 'Stranger danger' overblown in child molester

8-17-2010 Wisconsin:

The people who packed a town of Middleton meeting on June 29 were in no mood to hear about all the ways police would monitor the convicted sex offender being released into their midst.

Local television news reports quoted frustrated mothers, a day care operator and others who feared 29-year-old Charles C. Patterson — convicted in 1995 of raping a 6-year-old boy — would target their children, and all the explanations about how Patterson would be under surveillance 24 hours a day wasn't changing that.

But in the eyes of the court, Patterson — after 15 years of treatment and incarceration — is not likely to assault another child.

And as long as he isn't living with or near any children he doesn't already know, that will probably turn out to the be the case.

I was reminded of this last week when Fitchburg police announced they would hold a community meeting about another convicted sex offender, Frank B. Davis, 40, who after three years living free in Madison would be moving to Pike Drive in Fitchburg.

I didn't see anyone in the coverage of the Patterson meeting down-playing the danger of having him in the neighborhood — no doubt for good reason. Speaking up for a guy like Patterson isn't going to win you any friends on the PTA.

But it's worth noting that most sex offenders seek out victims among the people they know. According to statistics from the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, in 2004, 88.9 percent of reported sexual assaults were committed by people known to their victims. Nationwide, in 2005, 75.8 percent of victims knew their attackers.

Patterson knew his victim, according to court records.

Davis didn't, which might make a community meeting on his change of address more relevant. (If not as well-attended; Fitchburg detective Hector Aguirre said only law enforcement, aldermen and media were there.)

Most people don't know the truth about who commits sexual assault, according to Ian Henderson, director of legal and systems service for WCASA, and "things like the sex offender registry and community notification can play into some of the myths and biases — that offenders assault strangers."

I would wager that countering this "stranger danger" myth could be tough, and not just because of the registry or community notification.

It's difficult to accept that, statistically speaking, your child faces more of a threat from her uncle, or her baby sitter, or daddy's best friend. Easier that if there has to be a bogeyman, he be a stranger. ..Source.. CHRIS RICKERT