The story today about a local community hounding a man living amongst them who they discovered was on the sex offenders' register illustrates why a 'Megan's Law' in this country would simply not work.
The Mirror reported that angry parents beseiged the man's house in Somerset, chanting and pelting eggs, while the man cowered inside.
The solution, according to a local councilor, is to move him somewhere else. But such Nimbyism will achieve nothing. If the man is not safe to live in one community, he is not safe to live in another one 30 miles further down the road either.
The point is that, if we are going to have a system where sex offenders who have served their time can be released back into the community, we have to have faith in the supervision and monitoring services around them that are supporting their rehabilitation and preventing their re-offending.
Introducing a Megan's Law, where local communities are informed about paedophiles living in their area, will - as today's story shows - simply see them hounded out and, eventually, driven underground where they can pose a far greater risk.
The Home secretary should be focusing his attentions on improving the management and rehabilitation of sex offenders, not on following America down this path of mob rule.
Comments (1)
You're right, and there's a very good paper on why it wouldn't be good law, put in a way that the government should understand, here.
The problem is having walked our tabloid media culture up the hill will Ministers be able to get down without making a real hash of things.
Posted by Andrew Brown | December 12, 2006 11:33 PM
Posted on December 12, 2006 23:33