I had quite an eye-opening experience this past week, one that shook my belief in the criminal justice system's desire and ability to protect the innocent public.

While I was doing some research regarding crimes against children I happened to come upon some information that a man convicted of first degree sexual assault of a child had been released in my area shortly before my wife, two daughters and I bought our house.

Knowing that my eldest daughter frequently goes on bike rides around the neighborhood with her friends I needed to find out if the individual indeed lives down the street

My first stop was the dozen or so phone directories both online and in print but, like many sex offenders, the one I was looking for had no listing.

The next stop was the Wisconsin Circuit Court database. Using nothing more than the convict's name I was able to pull up his court case including address at the time. I was shocked to see that, when he was convicted of sexual assault of a child in 2000, he lived just a few houses down from mine.

I went back almost 15 years in his criminal record and found he was convicted of criminal damage to property, disorderly conduct, violating a restraining order, criminal trespassing, bail jumping, possession of THC, several instances of operating after suspension, OWI, retail theft, and the list goes on.

This man is no 'incidental criminal' or an innocent victim of the justice system - he is a habitually abusive criminal with no regard for the health, welfare and safety of anyone. He seems to think he can do whatever he wishes to whatever or whomever he chooses.

Not the kind of guy I like to have in my city let alone just a few houses away.

My next stop was the Wisconsin Department of Corrections Sex Offender Registry web site to see if this monster was part of a monitoring program. The site confirmed his general location and that he is being actively monitored. It did not, however, give a specific address.

I immediately e-mailed the folds at the SOR explaining that I am a father of two young girls living only a few houses from the last 'publicly available' address of someone convicted of sexually assaulting a child. The e-mail included all the pertinent information such as names, addresses and so on.

My expectation was that, in the interest of the safety of my family, I would be told whether or not the offender lived at the address I gave. That was the reasonable expectation. What I actually received was quite different.

"Thank you for your inquiry. I am not able to give out exact addresses by departmental policy, but I can tell you that [the offender], as of May 2004, lives in the [XXXXX] zip code. I hope this is helpful for you."

Just to reiterate, the SOR staffer said "I am not able to give out exact addresses by departmental policy." Not able to give out the address of a habitually abusive criminal convicted of child molestation to a parent of two young girls that could live just a few houses away? You've got to be kidding me!

Anyone that keeps up on current news knows that the issue of sex offender release is a hotbed of harsh debate. On one side of the issue are the folks that feel like I do; to protect my family, I need to know if I have a child molester living in my immediate area. I need to instruct my children to avoid the offender's home at all times.

On the other side of the issue are the folks that feel that the criminal did his prescribed time and is now fit to return to society. They seem to think that simply serving a few months in jail is sufficient to repair the damaged and sick mind of a child molester or other sex offender, despite the findings of hundreds of psychological and statistical studies that state otherwise.

Somewhere something has gone terribly wrong. If an adult fails to properly secure a child in a car he can be cited even though data from the National Center for Statistics and Analysis places the likelihood of any given unsecured child to be injured in an accident at less that 1%.

However, the government feels it's perfectly fine to release a sex offender into the neighborhood without informing the community even though, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 5.3% of sex offenders will be arrested for committing another sex crime and 43% will be rearrested for various other crimes.

If we're so concerned with child safety that we actively protect them from a less than 1% chance of being injured in a car crash, why do we let child molesters move in to a neighborhood with dozens of young children knowing full well that there's a good chance they'll do it again?

So why not tell the neighbors or release the address? Simple! Officials are afraid that neighbors may harass the child molester. Never mind the risk to the neighborhood and neighborhood kids. It's more important for a child molester to feel safe than it is for our children to actually be safe and to give parents the ability to tell their children which house and which person to avoid at all costs.

The bottom line is that the justice system feels that my child's safety comes in a distant second to the feelings of a child molester down the block. I'll be sure to explain that to her as she lay in the hospital beaten and battered by the molester she could have been warned about.

UPDATE: Many Sex Offender Registry sites are beginning to provide addresses as well as names and photos of sex offenders released into the community. Click here to access your local Sex Offender Registry web site.

For a more user-friendly map of local sex offenders, visit www.mapsexoffenders.com