Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Background checks

[Diana Carroll (dianaecarroll]

Do note that the sex offender registry suffers from the same sort of
systemic racism, classism, homophobia and injustice that the rest of our
criminal and judicial system does. In fact, maybe even more so because so
much hinges on what "level" of offender someone is categorized as in the
registry, which has way more to do with who the defense lawyer is and the
plea bargaining process than with the nature of your offense. Can't afford
a personal lawyer? Have to rely on a public defender? Oops.

Diana

On Mon, Feb 28, 2022 at 4:04 PM Jennie Lindberg via Cohousing-L <
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> Background checks are a hot topic.
> My first point: please don’t assume that it is only men who are
> perpetrators of sexual abuse, unfortunately, it is not. I have worked in
> the mental health field for over 25 years.
> My second point:
> In our community we decided background checks would cause more problems
> than they solved - what would we do with the information, how could we not
> discriminate if people have been convicted and served their time? Too many
> sticky situations to navigate when we know that people of color are more
> likely to be caught and convicted. We do not run background checks instead
> we put the burden of qualifying financially to purchase a home on each
> homebuyer.
> My third point:
> Our community did decide to check each prospective member against the
> National Sex Offender Registry. This is public information about  convicted
> sex offenders and is easily available.  Goggle DOJ NSOPW. Our website
> states that we check names against this registry.
> It is my observation that cohousing is an ideal environment for a child
> molester. He or she would typically be a charming and helpful person and
> would find a community of trusting, open, sharing adults. This could be a
> child molester’s dream come true. I think it’s important for us all to be
> knowledgable, have healthy boundaries and believe children when they speak
> up even if it’s hard to imagine.
> Jennie Lindberg
> Sunnyside Village Cohousing
>
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