Why don't we have a Megans/Marks law in place in the UK yet?

Question

I may be a little politically incorrect here but i feel strongly that as parents we have the right to know if there are sex offenders or paedophiles living in our area in order to protect our children. As someone who lived in the same street as the littleboy Mark Cummings who was brutally abused and killed by a registred monster who the authorities knew had a strong likelyhood of offending again, this boys Mum Margaret anne has campaigned constantly to bring 'Marks Law' into our law. And though the powers that be say it is to prevent vigilante attacks on these people they wont name and shame them1 I feel they are placing the needs of deviants ahead of innocent children. So tell me why do you think it is?

I thank all of you for your answers to my question, with regards to a "link" about the "Marks Law" subject try this link-www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/5055862.html

I thank all of you for your answers to my question, with regards to a "link" try this www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/5055862.html

www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/5055862.html

Answer 1

as a UK person living in the USA for the past 3 years all I can say is that over here they have ALL this info out on easy view and there does not seem to be mass beatings in the street....I can tell you prior to buying my house I searched for ALL known offenders in the local area and made my decision from that..............

Yet when I lived in the UK it took a little girl and her brother to be BADLY abused by a neighbour before it came out that this man was a repeat offendor and what they do........move the piece of cra*p to ANOTHER county to start all over again...............hiding behind his RIGHTS .................WTF has happened to the rights of the kids in all this....................but then again does this not smack of Jamie Bulger of sorts...............both those bast&ards are out and free with one of the serving in the British Army.........

I truly dont know the answer to this hopefully as Blair is so far up Bush's butt MAYBE he will add this type of law into British Law as he seems to do everything just like the Americans do and want.

Do you have a link to this story........sorry but if it does NOT happen here or is about the royal family it just does not get reported PERIOD.

Answer 2

Various reasons.

1) the probation service, police and other agencies (such as housing, mental health, education, etc) which make up the MAPPA (multi-agency public protection arrangements) have a hard enough time supervising sex offenders in the community as it is. If offenders believe that they are "outed" and at risk from the public, they can and do disappear. Once they have gone underground in this way, there is no way of those of us who are trying to protect the public to do our jobs.

2) The resources "the powers that be" would now have to put into protecting convicted paeophiles from vigilantism could be much better spent... there is a finite pot, if the police service has to spend money on this, they'll have to stop doing something else.

3) The public has shown that it will conduct such attacks, and that it cannot be trusted with this knowledge. You may believe you could, but what about the mob who attacked the home of a *paediatrician* in 2000 because they didn't understand the distinction?

4) Most importantly of all: the whole Sarah's law arguement deflects us away from the real source of danger. Very occasionally horrible offences are committed against children by predatory paedophiles unknown to them but living nearby. These cases, however, form a tiny minority in comparison with the level of offending which occurs in children's own homes and is perpetrated by someone they know well (the same is true actually of rapes of adult women). Focussing on "stranger danger" creates a false impression that the dangers to children are "out there" and gives victims the idea that what's happening to them can't be abuse because it's being committed within their family. Ultimately this kind of campaign does children a disservice and fails to protect them by leading society's eyes off the reality of child sex abuse.

Answer 3

All Megan's Law does in the US is give the public a perception of safety. That's because, despite conventional wisdom that child molesters and sex offenders always re-offend, the opposite is to be found true. Perhaps true pedophiles are not able to change. But the majority of the people who are placed on Megan's Laws aren't pedophiles, and their personal information (along with their family's) is placed on the internet for all to see. Some have been harmed, killed and hrassed, although the media does a poor job of reporting this.

The biggest fallacy is that Megan's Law can help parents identify the dangers to their children. Studies in the U.S. show that the greatest majority (85%+) of the new child sexual abuse cases committed every year are committed by people NOT on the list (not an RSO) and by someone the child knows. So while the parent is scanning the Megan's Law list for a potential danger down the street, the step father, coach, teacher, family friend or babysitter may be the greater threat and the parent does not even see it until it's too late.

And I believe that when the News of the World did have its "name and shame" that many innocent people got harassed. Didn't even one pedetrician get chased out of town because the yahoos confused her with a pedophile?

Answer 4

America has 900,000 convicted paedophiles who have now been released and are living somewhere, following the end of their sentences. Partly as a result of "Megan's Law", 150,000 have gone missing.
The UK has about 30,000 released, convicted, paedophiles. 97% of those are fully complying with the conditions of their registration as "sex offenders". So, very few are disappearing.
If such a law is introduced, I tend to think that many more will decide that, through their fear of "reprisals", they might be better off going missing.
If they do, what good will it do? Won't it, potentially, be more dangerous?
Megan's Law has resulted in murders, and in some released paedophiles being unable to establish a new life. Some would say they have no right to a new life, but, if they are further marginalised, unable to get jobs, unable to live in peace in their neighbourhoods etc., so that hey are forced to spend all their time indoors, are they more or less likely to be focussing on their sexual preferences?
Has the publication of peadophiles addresses resulted in any long term benefit in the UK? I venture to suggest not.
Where paedophiles have been identified by newspapers or otherwise, they have had to move. That movement has cost enormoous amounts of money, no improvement in the security of local children, and increased anonimity and levels of protection by the police, of the identified person.
Local people have the short term gratification of knowing that someone they have terrified is no longer there, but they do live somewhere else. Is it O.K. to say, as they effectively have, "He/she can't live here, but I care less about anywhere else he/she might be settled in"?
I think that the next released convict who comes to live amongst them, and there will be one, will have more resources aimed at his/her protection, resulting in a greater cost to the community and no increase in security. Meanwhile, the removed convict is living elsewhere, garnering further increased levels of protection, and further expense.
It would be, and usuallly is, the simple view of this forum that it doesn't matter what happens to paedophiles, but it does, because some of them will, like it or not, be innocent, and because, in any sort of decent world, people who have served their time in jail should be given the opportunity to rebuild a decent sort of life.
Or we become barbarian.

Answer 5

yeah, we should try to protect our children. at the same time what about someones rights as someone who is a registered sex offender and they really are innocent. i don't think their information should be public knowledge.

Answer 6

I think people are trying to bring about Sarah's law in this country. [after Sarah Payne?], which is similar to Megan's law.

Answer 7

It's all a matter of Parliamentary procedure and ruling Party priorities.

Answer 8

Coz Tony Blair and all of his dogooders don't want you to beat the crap out of the dirty pervy pedos