Quote:
Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu
Just to clarify something, before this thread, becomes all out war between members, concerning a freephone number, you would place your postcode in the computor, and the answer would be the person and the street, BUT not the actual number, as in some areas, of the UK we have houses, that many occupy, and some residents know that they are there.
In fact, if l am not wrong, this happens in USA, and it has strong support, except for this country.  |
Several points:
Some streets only have a few houses. While in a street containing hundreds of houses/flats, it would be difficult to ascertain where the person lives, if the street has less than 20 houses/flats (as a lot do), it would be easier. Combine that with the fact that a lot of people are ready to believe someone is a sex offender just because they look a bit different, and you have a recipe for potential victimisation of innocent people.
At the moment, sex offenders have to register where they live, so, the authorities do know where at least most of them are. If they feel they are going to suffer attacks, they are more likely to just move to an area without notifying anyone. I read (a while ago, but can't find the link now) that there is evidence that "Megan's Law" caused up to 40% of paedophiles in the US to move and not register their new addresses.
My question is: Are we safer not knowing where the Peadophiles live, but with the authorites knowing, or are we safer when we are given possibly incorrect information on where they live by the Authorities, and the authorities actually having no idea where they live? It is important that the authorities know where they live as that way, any treatment given can be monitored.
Also, according to
http://www.appa-net.org/resources/pu...itingmegan.pdf , there is some evidence that Megan's law may have caused some apparently reformed sex offenders to re-offend. There is evidence of a link between sexual/violent offences and stress in some kinds of people. Putting this into practice may cause some of these people to re-offend.
Admittedly, Megans law is not a direct comparison, as the authorities seem to actively advertise the presence of sex offenders, and our government doesn't appear to be promoting that, but what would prevent the papers phoning such a line, giving random postcodes, getting the names of paedophiles in each area and publishing them?
While I am not defending the rights of sex offenders of any kind, I am uncomfortable with the idea because of the possibility of innocent people being victimised, and I feel we should not be actively encouring borderline re-offenders to re-offend.