Tracking offenders.....

[nemosmum]

nemosmum- the article you are talking about was in the hearld sun today apparently the guy has walked out with over $100,000 i cant remember the exact amount but ti was over 3 times the amount of compo the guy's victim got when they did a bid for compo.

What the hell is this country coming too, when a criminal, nah an animal who preys on OUR innocent children can recieve this sort of money- Tax payers money because they cop it in jail.......................This guy is in jail to be punished

I say he got what he deserved- harsh? Yes it is harsh but i tell you what if he had hurt my child I would have paid someone to do alot worse to his sorry ***!

[SassyMummy]

I think it would be great to know the general area of sexual offenders...as in knowing there are 3 sexual offenders in the suburb of "...". I would definately want to know...even though I'd do my best to protect my daughter anyway, having that as a little reminder would warn me not to slack off.

20 years ago, in Ipswich (where I live) a baby girl (under a year old) was found dead and raped on top of a shed in a public park. The man took the baby girl from her bedroom at night...he snuck in the window. The man is still around...and that really freaks me out. It makes me lock DD's windows EVERY DAY AND NIGHT... I think that if I didn't know this story, I'd probably just close them (but not lock hte security screen).

I think it would also be better when deciding what school to tend your child to... I'd definately choose the area with less registered sexual offenders than the one with MORE.

[juliek]

I don't think a register would prove to be very successful. I agree that these people are lowest form of scum describable, but a public register would cause more crimes to be commited (eg:assult, murder) by vigilantes and hate mongers.

To be honest, it's the ones we don't know, that we should be worried about. I can count on one hand my friends who haven't been abused. So much more goes on that isn't known about . We need to be proactive in teaching our kids about personal boundries and what is and isn't acceptable contact and how to react to get themselves out of those situations. I think it would be much wiser to educate parents and children on how to stop this from happening than to deal with the monsters afterwards.

[Verdi]

Honestly with the amount of proof that is attained from DNA, these people should be castrated, they want to act like animals well lets treat them like animals get them neutured!!!

[Mister Noodle]

But it doesn't help. It isn't about libido, it's about power.

[Verdi]

I know but atleast we are taking a major physical tool from them
What to do about their brain maybe a transplant

[draught]

While I understand the passion behind many of the sentiments expressed in this thread, they are the same sentiments that make me glad that a register of reportable offenders is maintained by police and not available to the public. Not every sex offender has offended against children. Not every sex offender is a serial offender. Long term international studies have shown that only a very small percentage of men charged with sexual assault of another adult actually repeat their crimes after release. While the stats on paedophiles are not as positive, we need to be very careful when lumping all sex offenders into the same basket.

But for those who live in Queensland you will be interested to know that the government is in the process of introducing legislation at the moment that will allow police to take out prohibition orders against people who have previous convictions for offending against children and are now exhibiting "concerning behaviour" such as hanging out at schools, making friends with mothers with young children, etc. This means that Qld, NSW, WA and the NT now all have this new legislation - the police can act without waiting for a person to offend again which gives them more power to be proactive. Again - let's focus on the good that is being gone to protect our children instead of whinging about what isn't happening.

[Tam-I-Am]

I know but atleast we are taking a major physical tool from them
What to do about their brain maybe a transplant

No, only taking away the most portable tool - anything remotely resembling a phallus can be used to commit a rape. Sexual assault often doesn't even have anything remotely to do with a penis - its about power (for the attacker) and fear and degredation for the victim.

I agree 100% with what Mr Noodle has said.

If we think that sex offenders are unreedemable - lock em up forever. If we release them into the community, then we have to give them the same rights as any other member of the community.

[Verdi]

If we think that sex offenders are unreedemable - lock em up forever. If we release them into the community, then we have to give them the same rights as any other member of the community.

The rates of recividsim is about 70% it is extremly high! So why are they being let out into the community! Again a gross injustice by our stupid legal system

[Tam-I-Am]

Just out of curiosity, where did you get that rate of recidivism from?

The research that I've looked at shows that, in actual fact, the rate of recidivism cannot be accurately measured because 1) only a small percentage of sexual crimes are ever reported, let alone the offenders committing sexual crimes actually being caught and convicted and 2) in the case of reoffending, the same small rates of being captured and caught apply - so even if a sex offender has been convicted once, which is unlikely anyway, the chance of them being recaptured after being released from the prison system is, again, exceedingly small.

However, the research that has been done on the measurable recidivism rates, ie when a sex offender has been charged and convicted of a sexual crime, and is released from jail to re-offend and be caught, charged and convicted again, is actually much much smaller than the general population thinks.

The Medical Journal of Australia published findings on 19th of September, 2005, which show that the measurable recidivism sexual offenders rates are actually around 13.4%, which is actually lower than for other crimes such as theft and other violent crimes, and research into the indicators that a sexual offender might reoffend are being refined and reprocessed all the time. You can view the article for yourself here. You will need Acrobat Reader to view it.

Of course, as I said before - this is only the MEASURABLE rate. But I presume that's what we're talking about here - as we're discussing having a watch dog program for KNOWN sex offenders.

Like I said before - if you want to believe that sex offenders are completely unredeemable - then you need to lobby the government to lock them up for life. If you believe in the current system - then everybody who has done their time and been released from jail needs to be treated as any other member of the community.