Why Australia should not have a public register of child sex offenders
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
To many, “sex offender” conjures a specific image: stranger abduction, child victim, sexual assault, murder. Such horrible things do happen but’s it extraordinarily rare. It’s so horrible that it makes the news. And it happens so rarely that it makes the news every time it happens, and when it happens it shakes us to our core.
In the US, in the wake of the murders of Adam Walsh, Jacob Wetterling, Megan Kanka, Jessica Lunsford and others, states passed various pieces of memorial legislation named for these victims (Megan’s Law, Jessica’s Law, and so on). Fast-forward to the present day and that nation’s publicly available sex offender register is about to reach one million people.
The outcome of these laws has irreparably distorted what constitutes a “sex offender”. The unfortunate and unintended consequences of this legislation are far-reaching and permanent. Those individuals branded with this label include the handful of (mostly) men who have been convicted of abhorrent sexual crimes against stranger children. But it also includes a 34-year-old Florida mother convicted of indecent exposure for publicly breastfeeding and a Massachusetts man who was 18 when he had a consensual sexual relationship with his girlfriend who was just shy of 16 at the time. It’s gone too far.
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how many sex offenders wave at their neighbors? I’d like to know. I’d especially would like to know if any of you wave at neighbors with kids, or do they wave at u, when u are taking the ride of shame down ur own street? I’m just curious, thanks
Unfortunately, Australia is already well on the road to a US model:
https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/14/asia/australia-child-sex-offender-travel-ban/index.html
And the comments are just the same as Americans’:
https://twitter.com/HumanHeadline/status/940800469630365696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E940800469630365696&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2017%2F12%2F14%2Fasia%2Faustralia-child-sex-offender-travel-ban%2Findex.html
National registry coming to Australia:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6569091/Peter-Dutton-pushes-national-sex-offenders-registry-Australia-paedophiles-live.html
Just read the last line of this article:
https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/korean/en/article/2019/01/09/child-protection-group-rejects-duttons-register-track-child-sex-offenders-stunt
“He said the register active in the US since 1996 hadn’t encouraged vigilantes.”
A bold-faced lie!!!
Anyway, this is all irrelevant to US registered citizens since Australia won’t allow us to visit or move there.
Very educated and balanced safety oriented article. Good job Sydney Morning Herald . Good to see there are actually some sane people left in this world.
All for the sake of an Al La Carte Constitution, establishing The Police State
From the reader comments of this article:
“I live in a large suburb. In fact two suburbs share the same postcode. I am sure there are people living in this suburb who have served time for sex crimes. What would I do with information telling me the names of registered sex offenders in my suburb? I don’t see the point. I am not going to move as a result. I am not going to carry around photos of them on the off chance I see them and can point out to my children to steer clear.”
I’ve been asking for years – what is someone supposed to do with the information from the registry that is so different from general safety and security practice? And to follow up, why has no one else asked that question in the 20+ years since the registry went public?
Even reading the comments under the article it appears Australians are more well thought out and practical then Americans.. The same article in America would be followed by frothing at the mouth, torch and pitch fork kill em all comments..
I’m Australian, married to a US RSO. I hope and pray that we don’t take the same path as the US in this issue but we have a crazy government in power right now. This will benefit no one.
As a culture, we are very distrustful of any form of government, people in power and people with money. This comes from our roots as convicts, I believe. We have a saying in Australia where we say that “everyone deserves a fair go.”
I’ve never had an issue with my family and friends understanding my husbands circumstances. I just wish everyone here in the US would be as understanding.
We had to devote a quarter century to building up this registration scheme, in each of the states and at the Federal level, before it became clear what a waste it is. It is far from what we would put in place today, were we to start from scratch and knowing what we know now.
Unfortunately, once it is in place, it takes years to tear down.
I hope that Australia can learn from our mistakes.