Australia FINALLY getting a public registry of child sex offenders: Parents will be able to check images and details

[Jim Burton]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... tails.html

[Not Forever]

Am I the only one who believes in things like the right to be forgotten, the right to anonymity regarding one’s crimes, and so on? Seriously, what’s the point of prison then? It’s as if we’re outright denying that it could ever be a sufficient punishment or have any kind of rehabilitative value.

Even convicted people should have rights.

[Jim Burton]

Queensland to create public register of sex offenders as Daniel Morcombe’s parents ‘hope it will go national’

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... o-national

[Jim Burton]

Not harsh enough! Hang them! Feed them to chippy!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ister.html

A public register of child sex offenders in Queensland has finally been launched, but some experts have already spotted flaws in it, amid calls for it to be introduced nationwide.

The state government introduced the register to allow people to access a database and apply for images of child sex offenders in their area.

Known as 'Daniel's Law', named after 13-year-old Daniel Morcombe - who was abducted while waiting for a bus in 2003 and murdered - the register features a three-tier system for publicly reporting information.

[...]

The register has been celebrated by Daniel Morcombe's parents, who shared the link to the webpage on their charity foundation's Facebook page.

But it has been criticised by some experts for not going far enough, including Adam Washbourne from Fighters Against Child Abuse Australia.

Although he praised the launch of the register in a video published to the organisation's social media, he took issue with the 'anti-vigilantism mechanisms'.

Users have been warned they could face a criminal offence, including possible jail time, if they share photographs provided or harass a suspected offender.

'I understand why they're there, but vigilantism against child abuse isn't a thing we have a lot of,' he said.

'We have a lot of people who come here in our comments and say, "Wood chip or hang them" all this sort of stuff. But at the end of the day, no one does it.

[...]

The issue of how the register could create a 'false sense of security' in the public has also been raised by criminologist Dr Vincent Hurley from Macquarie University.

'It's got great political appeal, but there's little evidence to suggest it actually deters crime,' Dr Hurley said.

'It could help parents to educate their children, but the information's got to be right in the first place.'

He added that the majority of child sex abuse cases occur within the family or among acquaintances, rather than being perpetrated by strangers.