The chief of the Polish police force is planning to prepare and publish a map of the locations of sexual offences risks.

Is the sex offender map a good idea?

Is the sex offender map a good idea?

It will be possible to learn not only the name of the village or town where a previously convicted sexual offender (convicted either of pedophilia or rape) lives, but also the street name. The map will supposedly be publicly available.

Sex offender registries exist in most English-speaking countries, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. However, the United States is so far the only country to have made the registry public. You can enter the name of a suspicious person and check if they have a record, or just search if there are any registered offenders in your area.

Some aspects of the public sex offender registry have already been widely criticised by human rights associations and professional organisations. Some have even called it pointless.

According to experts, the idea will not improve security, but will rather lead to lynching and trigger a wave of mutual accusations.

If I was the owner of a property located on such a street I would sue the State Treasury for loss in property value. Do we really want to create ghettos and lead to business and social degradation of entire neighbourhoods? That’s what this idea leads to – says lawyer Zbigniew Krueger.

The date of the publication has not been announced yet, but the project is sure to raise a discussion.

 

Please share:
fb-share-icon0