Australia's first child sex offender register goes live

As a person who is on the public register in the USSA, I can assure you making the registry public is a terrible mistake. My current project is a documentary on the family of a registrant killed by a vigilante in Port Angeles, Washington. This killer was a career criminal yet he was considered a "hero". One of his victims is a teenager who had consensual relations with another teenager. Why would any country follow America's bad examples? Look for a Jill Levenson study called "Collateral Damage: Families of Sex Offenders," for example.

The registry INCREASES crimes.

This sounds like a whole bucket of trouble about to spill over. Stoke the vigilante fires. Granted, repeat sex offenders(especially of children) have no place in free society, but this system is a bad idea.

Or worse come to think of it, doesn't it actually provide paedophiles with a compiled database of like-minded offenders to hook up with?

I've read that special prisons to house these offenders, reviled by the general prison populace, is where they learn how to better hide their activities from other offenders.

After seeing a braying mob on UK TV in a housing estate after a paedophile scandal that actually attacked a poor woman a few years ago in her home because the brass sign on her residence said "Paediatrician", I think human beings are generally too stupid to be given this kind of information so easily. This will end up with people acting outside the law.

Even if they don't harm or kill the wrong people, what these people have is a sickness for which there is no cure. Certain offenders shouldn't be out on the streets full stop.

Am thinking what if they put an innocent person on the list? A bloke gets a speeding ticket and it is coded wrong. Now the entire community thinks he is a pervert. Perhaps some young men will beat him up or kill him. I think this will lead to no good.

I've never liked this idea. The net result is that people raise their level of fear over something they have absolutely no control over. If an offender lives in your area, what are you going to do besides worry? And why is it that it's appropriate for one criminal and not another? Why not put everyone on a database? Then we can all worry about the rapist down the street, the wife beater next door, the the thief a couple of blocks away, the drug dealer in your apartment complex, etc. It seems that it would be harder for these people to get back into a normal, crime free life if they have a massive target painted on their backs.

These databases need to be handled very carefully. While useful a lot of the systems do more harm than good. In the US we have a sex offenders database where you can go to a map and see where all the sex offenders in your area live. Without context, however, it really messes up peoples perceptions because in the US you can get on the sex offenders list for very trivial things such as urinating in public or streaking.

Now offenders might understand what their victims go through on a daily basis.

seems things are getting toughter down under.

And so it starts . . .

Now that the Australian government is demanding telcos keep all the records of all users for at least 2 years, it shouldnt be too long before they provide an all embracing 'track a criminal' data base.... this will allow you to insert the name of anyone you want and see what criminal records (however minor) they have, what sites they access on their computer and possibily more.... what a wonderful way to control the citizens in a 'liberal democracy'....