I completely understand. I was raised in Colorado so my first experience of hearing about events like this (when I was a kid) was Columbine (fortunately I didn't know anyone involved, I just lived nearby), and I began reading everything I could about it. I particularly liked the book A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold (the mother of Dylan Klebold) - the Aurora shooting was another one I found particularly horrific and fascinating...it makes me think of the book/movie We Need to Talk About Kevin about a mother who's basically held hostage to her son's malevolence and mistakes...I feel so bad for every family involved, I see the families of the perpetrators as victims as well.

most recently there was that HBO documentary called Beware the Slenderman about those two little girls who stabbed another girl because of Slenderman (allegedly)...and it interviews the families of the girls that committed the crime - I really admired how open and raw they were about it (particularly the father who opens up about his struggle with schizophrenia), they received so much hate mail and insane vitriol from the community (and really the world) - most of the time these feel like freak accidents even to the family of the perpetrators...those families shouldn't be eviscerated by the media in my personal opinion.

I believe people should be accountable in a court of law, but I honestly don't believe in the American justice system most of the time. If you do any digging on the Sex Offender list (even just read the Wiki page) it is disturbing how we just accept these things as a society. Why would we want to drive people back into their horrible ways by branding them with no chance of recourse for their entire lives? If you think about it logically, it makes no sense to me. I'm of the mind (obviously on a case by case basis) that people who are given second chances are far more likely to want to heal and be better people - demonizing them and never allowing them to function in society is just cruel, and only puts people in desperate mindsets which in turn makes them do terrible things. Desperate, stigmatized, fucked up people, will continue to do fucked up things. I think we need to have compassion for a lot of these people if we are to heal as a society. Especially if they're victims of abuse themselves. Rehabilitation should be the most important thing. But we live in a society that are trying those two little girls I mentioned as adults in a court of law (and they're 12!!) and I think that's barbaric.

We have the highest prison population in the world, and the largest rate of recidivism because our justice system is based on excessive punishment. I absoltuely believe in holding people accountable, but reasonable accountability...and we need to understand that the way we punish people may actually perpetuate cycles of violence

I really liked the lawyer they talked to a lot in Pervert Park, he inspired me to research the sex offender list more thoroughly and helped me realize how dehumanizing and ridiculous it is (especially due to the prevalence of police entrapment)

here's a quote from the wiki (emphasis mine):

Some aspects of the current sex offender registries in the United States have been widely criticized by civil rights organizations Human Rights Watch and ACLU, professional organizations Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers and Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, reformist groups Reform Sex Offender Laws, Inc., Women Against Registry and USA FAIR, and by child safety advocate Patty Wetterling, the Chair of National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Virtually no studies exist finding U.S. registries effective, prompting some researchers to call them pointless, many even calling them counterproductive, arguing that they increase the rate of re-offense.

I'm sleep deprived so I apologize for the disjointed ranting >.<

obviously I'm really addicted to depressing documentaries haha