Untended Consequences of the Sex Offender Registry

Amy Alkon blogs about how easy it is to get on the Sex offender registry. Read the article.

Perhaps the worst side effect to this obsession is that decent men are hesitant to act correctly toward children.

About ten or so years ago a friend and I were at the Renaissance Faire here in Southern California. We noticed a girl of about four or five standing alone with an expression on her face that practically screamed, "where's my mommy?". Both of us being (more or less) normal human males we approached the girl and asked a couple of simple questions to verify she genuinely was lost.

I picked up the girl and carried her to the nearby ale stand where, after a brief misunderstanding of her status, I convinced someone to call security and report the situation. Turned out the parents had already noticed her absence and were at the First Aid booth when the call came in. They high tailed it to the ale stand, picked up their little girl, offered their thanks and some lame excuse as to how they were separated. All was apparently as well as it was before.

Then, the possibility that I might be accused of some horrible crime never even occurred to me. However after reading about incidents like the above, I can't but wonder that, if I knew then what I know now, would I have acted as I did. I like to think so but there is now a doubt where self preservation conflicts with virtue.