Keeping a Register of All Sex Offenders
Should we have a sex offenders’ register which keeps track of all those who have been convicted of crimes such as rape or sexual assault? Should there be continuous monitoring of those who have served their time in jail and are now free in the society? This is already happening in more than one country around the globe and if Fiji decides to do the same, we would not be reinventing the wheel- just borrowing from some of the best practices from the world over. But, why would we need to keep a register of all those convicted of crimes of sexual nature? If we do keep a record of the residential addresses, work details, and other details such as DNA, should it be made available publicly? Or, should we do what is done in America. In America, through a website,
www.nsopw.gov people can know if there is a registered sex offender living in their neighbourhood. They can also find out the identity of the perpetrator. Also, convicted paedophiles are not allowed to live near schools, day care centres, have access to toys which they could use to entice children or be allowed access to internet. In South Korea, through their website (http://www.
sexoffender.go.kr) people can know who is a registered sex offender. And, their details such as where they work, their car registration number is all available.
In countries such as Australia, the register with DNA details are kept to assist Police in ruling out sex offenders in new sexual assault and rape cases.
However, the register that South Africa keeps is for employers and government officials to do background checks on people.
Will a similar registry have any benefits in Fiji? There will no doubt be many legal problems arising out of this. Human Rights groups will not take too kindly on convicts being discriminated against – since this would no doubt be seen as a form of discrimination. And, if we do start keeping tabs on convicted sex offenders, do we make the details publicly available? A lot of thought needs to be given to something of this sort. While we would not want to discriminate against even those who have been convicted of heinous crimes, we do want to equip our people with knowledge of those with a history of serious crimes who live in their neighbourhood.
But, why would we need to keep a register of all those convicted of crimes of sexual nature? If we do keep a record of the residential addresses, work details, and other details such as DNA, should it be made available publicly? Or, should we do what is done in America.