Sex Offender Laws Limit Rights In Britain
Brian Hauk
Sex Offender Laws Limit Rights In Britain
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from the Militant, vol.61/no.34 October 6, 1997
BY PAUL DAVIES
MANCHESTER, England - The British government is pressing
ahead with a range of measures to restrict democratic rights,
including the establishment of a National Sex Offenders
Register. Guidelines for using this register were drawn up in
collaboration with the Association of Chief Police Officers,
and include giving police the power to selectively release
the names and addresses of those on the list to public
organizations and communities where former prisoners are now
living. The list will in large part comprise of those who
have been convicted of rape and child sex abuse, but it will
also include "indecency" between men and the possession of
indecent photographs of children. Anyone who has been jailed
for these offenses for more than two and a half years will be
placed on the register for their entire lives. They must also
report to the cops every time they move to a different home.
Initially 6,000 names will be placed on the register,
with an estimated 3,500 being added every year. The Home
Office says that 110,000 people in England and Wales have
been convicted of sex offenses.
This step comes after similar legislation was adopted in
the United States, known as "Megan's Law," that requires
neighbors, schools, and other institutions to be notified
when anyone convicted of a sex offense moves into the area.
Several recent incidents in this country illustrate the
impact these laws can have. In Sterling the local media
published the name of a man undergoing a sex offenders
treatment program and he was besieged at the hostel where he
lived by a crowd of people. The police eventually drove him
to a secret location. In Birmingham a local council housing
officer informed residents that a convicted sex offender was
moving into the area, and the person had to be moved at a
secret location after local protests. In Middlesbrough the
local council has announced that it will deny convicted sex
offenders the right to accommodation on council housing
estates.
Announcing the guidelines on disclosure of information
from the National Sex Offenders Register, government minister
Alun Michael said nothing of these incidents, but
acknowledged that the general release of information has led
to vigilantes attacks on individuals wrongly named as
pedophiles. He stated that the "general release of
information has big dangers," but "we are not talking about
automatic notification of the local community." An article in
the Manchester Guardian describing the measures adopted by
the British government bore the title, "Pedophile guidelines
expected to end `outing.'"
What Michael described as a "graded response," however,
gives the police the power to choose when to release names on
the register to schools, local child protection agencies, and
communities.
It will also be tied to new legislation making it a
crime for a convicted sex offender to seek work with
children, and allow employers more powers to dig into the
background of job applicants. In effect the laws impose a
second sentence, without the right to a trial or a jury,
after that handed down by the court.
Giving the police the powers to maintain the list also
gives them the opportunity to pull in and question those
previously convicted when a new crime occurs in the area
where they are living.
The courts have also been using allegations of child
abuse to undermine the right to the presumption of innocence.
In Orkney in September 1996 two children were adopted against
their mother's wishes following allegations of child abuse
that were never proven.
The establishment of the National Sex Offenders Register
comes as the government plans additional attacks on
democratic rights in the name of combating crime. The Home
Secretary announced that courts will be able to add bans on
driving licenses and the withdrawal of passports to those who
are convicted of a crime and receive "community sentences."
Parliament will also discuss plans to extend house
arrest curfews - enforced by electronic tagging - to
juveniles, fine defaulters, petty offenders, and those on
bail. Just as the national sex offenders register gives the
police the powers to publicly name those convicted of rape
and child abuse, so the government is also proposing to give
the courts the right to "name and shame" those convicted of
juvenile offenses.
Debbie Delange in Manchester contributed to this
article.
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