Do you know how many sexual
offenders, rapists or child molesters live in your neighbourhood? Contrary to the belief of some persons,
many sexual offenders and predators don’t live only behind zinc fences and in
garrison communities, they also live behind pretty walls, automatic gates and well trimmed hedges. They could be your friendly neighbor, extra-lesson
teacher for your kids, Grocer and even your co-worker and unbeknownst to you
they lurk, plan and plot to commit sexually motivated crimes on a day to day basis.
Unfortunately we cannot go into a
person’s mind and know the perverted thoughts they harbour and prevent them,
but as a nation we should have the power to reduce the amount of dastardly acts
by being informed and acting accordingly to protect ourselves and our family from
persons who look so innocent but have a convicted criminal record for
committing a sexual offence, especially against children.
There has been much debate and
discussion over the years about the creation of a Sex Offenders’ Registry to
track local offenders. The Sex Offenders' Registry was established as a part of
the Sexual Offences Act which was passed into law in October 2009.
However, the regulations for the Registry were tabled in November 2012 but were
not put to use because of the absence of a database. In May 2014, we were
told by the Minister of Justice, Mr. Peter Bunting that the data system to facilitate
the Registry was complete and work was to begin to get the stakeholders up to
date.
This is awesome news that we are
actually making headway after almost 5 years of waiting, however I am concerned
about its effectiveness once implemented as this is a collaborative effort
between several Government agencies. Our courts need to have efficient
reporting procedures and as an entity steeped in the paper or hard copy
mentality, they will have their work cut out for them especially as it relates
to sending the necessary information for the previous convicts. For this Registry is to work, we need to establish a proper system of entering
information on the offender within a timely basis in order to facilitate efficient
dissemination.
I anticipate that with this
Registry we will be able to see the communities where most offenders live and
try to stage an intervention and if possible to attack the root cause of the
problem and prevent others from walking
down that road of perpetuating sexual abuse towards others.
Hopefully the fear of having
their name, address, alias, photograph, date of birth and places frequented placed on
a list will detract many from committing these type of crimes, and for those
who have have already offended, the fear will keep them in line. Sexually
motivated crimes are high on the list on crimes where re-offending takes place
and this has been ignored for many years, as we falsely hope that the persons released
just change their ways and choose not to re-offend. and this is ludicrous. There is no evidence that they
receive counseling while incarcerated or special help to understand the issue and
prevent it from taking place which helps to contribute to the cycle.
Now as we know the group JFJ is
the Champion for the protection of the rights of different categories of criminals,
and they have posited that “people have served their time and done their
punishment”, yet we would be “stigmatizing them and leaving them vulnerable” if
their information is made available to the Public. However on speaking on behalf of my law
abiding citizens, I say that for too
long our rights have been ignored, abrogated and treated with disdain. We
deserve the right to at least to know how many sex offenders live where we live; live
where we send our children to school, as
some of our kids have to walk to school
daily. So far we have been taking risks
without knowing the odds, and we should be able to take calculated risks and
not leave things like safety up to chance.
If the Government is afraid of
crimes being perpetrated against convicted persons who have served their time
and now roam the streets, this is indeed a valid concern, as Jamaicans really
have little tolerance of persons even just accused of rape (although it would
seem that persons of the higher echelon are able to get rid of this stain and
be accepted with open arms by many upstanding citizens), however knowledge is
power and I believe this knowledge can empower us. Names can be withheld from
the general public but be of use to
other agencies where this information relating to character is crucial. Also
persons who are sex offenders should be prevented from entering certain
occupations where they may be placed in a compromising position based on their history
and predilections .
This Registry is important and once implemented will play a critical part in Jamaica's development. I am no longer patiently waiting, but I am anxious to see what our Government is coming with, and what terms and conditions will be attached to the implementation. I want to "know" my neighbour. Do you?
No comments:
Post a Comment