In what seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to the problem of sexual violence, the government has informed Parliament of its plans to introduce a sex offender registry on the lines of those in western countries in order to “instil fear among sex offenders” and benefit the public. This proposal is reportedly still in the primary stages. Though it’s laudable that the government is concerned over the rising crimes against women, its latest move shows it’s looking for ‘quick-fix’ solutions rather than addressing the larger problem. The government’s statement implies that the proposed registry will be publicly accessible, such as the registries available in several states of the USA.
The US policy of sex offender registries has been widely criticised by human rights, rape crisis and child protection activists. A variety of studies, including those funded by the US government, have shown that these registries have virtually no effect in preventing crimes, are expensive and if anything, by contributing towards the destabilisation of the lives of convicted offenders (by making it impossible for them to find and keep jobs) actually contribute towards recividism. Full Article
I hope the US is not behind getting this going and/or encouraging this foolishness elsewhere. Modi of India seems to be the world leader closest to the US right now. Angela Merkel of Germany used to be the closest world leader until we got all FaceBooky with her and were caught spying on her, which she understandably did not like. I would hope Modi and the Indian Parliament are aware of the counter-productive failures of the registry such as false sense of security, which are a catalyst for non-registrant sex crime as seen at the Runner’s Desert Christian Academy, and homelessness it causes in the US and take heed on this bad idea.