Photo unwittingly fosters stereotype

A reader questioned the use of an anonymous stock photo showing an ominous looking man that accompanied a local column Tuesday on how some parents overreact when a sex offender moves into the neighborhood. The column also offered suggestions for reducing kids’ risk of sexual abuse.
As the reader noted, the picture “appears to foster the stereotype of the sex offender as a lurking stranger, which is clearly not the point of her article … and it seems to foster a level of unfocused hysteria that Ms. Griffith clearly feels is unwarranted.”
I agree. Clearly, our page designer did not mean to suggest this. Sometimes it's difficult, if not impossible, to illustrate such a subject matter. In these situations, a wiser choice would be to publish the columns without art.
-- Sandy Duerr