Hey Blackstone!
Oooh, great conversation! Thanks for the input. U placed a VERY convincing argument! OK, no, I don't have any supporting statistics for the working of the current system - it just seemed like it would work on paper (although so does communism, but that hasn't really worked out so far, has it :P ).

And good point with the babysitter situation. I see that I am wrong, but I don't think what you said is 100% right either. I used to baby sit and not once have I gotten a background check (my refferences weren't even called). I guess what I was looking at was if the neighborhood knew that a certain guy was a sex offender then they wouldn't need to check the registery or do a background check or anything because they already know. But this really isn't justified for the reasons you later provide.

there is no way you can come to those conclusions based on the little I said ... ahha! Well, isn't this the problem that is created when we don't say the full story :P I just end up looking like an idiot. Lol.

And I quite appreciated ur vernture into Sociological teritory - it cleared things up. That was a nice adaptation of Durkheims social integration research and works quite well. Indeed this system is quite the recipie for disaster. THe only thing it really had going for it was protecting kids from the ones who are already monsters.

Ok, so I am now in agreence in that the current system doesn't work. But I for one cannot think of a better way to do things. I would be quite interested in the way that you have thought up but neglected to go into full details. If you don't feel like posting it than by all means email it to me (you have my email), as I am very curious to find a system that actually works (or at least does a better job than this one).

Thanks for the discussion! Talk to you soon!
Graces of God,
Deliverance