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The knee-jerk scheme that is the "sex offenders register" supposedly allows parents to protect their children against the monsters lurking in every corner.
But child abduction by strangers is an extremely rare phenomenon (see link), and problably not worth worrying about more than the kid being hit
by a lightning.
Instead, why not inform parents of somthing that is 1,000 times more likely to kill the child on the way to school? Namely dangerous drivers?
Anyone who is caught breaking the speed limit near a school three times, is placed on the "Road Offenders Register" for a period of 15 years. Paranoid and mass hysterical parents in the neighbourhood can then look up their address, number plate, and car make online.
(I can already picture the angry mobs of tabloid-reading mothers embarking on nightly car-burning rampages throughout the country.)
abductions
http://www.crimered...ence/violence12.htm
[manicdictator, Mar 15 2008]
road deaths
http://www.theaa.co...ts_and_children.pdf
[manicdictator, Mar 15 2008]
[link]
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The argument often used by sex offenders and their apologists is that the offending behaviour is the result of an illness rather than conscious acts; this being the case, the offender will always be dangerous, which justifies lifetime identification. Speeding may well be habitual but it's always by choice, and punishment is intended to modify that choice.
In the short term, of course, motoring offences are documented in the local press; further, there's no guarantee that an offender will keep the same car. |
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//this being the case, the offender will always be dangerous// |
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Most mental illness is curable. Also, it has been estimated that a significant minority of people (5-10%) have sexual fantasies involving children. Child molesters are the few who make a conscious choice to act on those fantasies. |
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Paedophilia is a form of paraphilia which is no more curable than diabetes, but there's much debate with a body of evidence and opinion on each side. |
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Can mental illness be cured? to 'cure' is such a subjective concept. I think 'manage' is a more accurate approach. Mustn't we all be accountable for our vices, and how well we manage them? |
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I hadn't noticed that car/ped incidents were all that common either. Are you sure that hysteria about this issue is any more reasonable? Can you back up your statistical reasoning? Are scool zone speeders the most likely cause of kiddie deaths? If pedestrian accidents are common in a given area then the road should be redeisgned (speedbumps, high visibility crossways, etc). If children are not taking care when they cross the street then a program of education is needed. Villanizing drivers who deserve a discrete (and in my opinion progressive relative to income) fine is silly. |
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I think there's already enough knee-jerk reaction to a perceived "speeding menace" without this nonsense. |
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The problem with "branding" systems like this is their perceived infallibility. |
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I know a sad tale of a young man, too true. |
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Both he and his girlfriend were 17. Both sets of parents approved of the relationship. |
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The young man turned 18 a few weeks before the young woman did. |
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During this time the girl and her mother had a falling out. Mom called the police and told them the now 18 year old man was bedding her daughter. |
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The young man is now a registered sexual offender for life. |
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I can only imagine how easy it would be to get on the wrong side of the "registered speed offender" list. |
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//an you back up your statistical reasoning?// |
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In the whole of the UK there were only 68 successful child abductions by strangers in the year 2002 (see link) |
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There are 60m people in the UK.
This works out as roughly 1 child abduction per 900,000 people per year. |
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I estimate that roughly 10% of the population are children under 15. The probabibity that a child will be abducted by a stranger in a given year is ROUGHLY 1 in 100,000. The probability that a child will be killed or tortured by an abductor is even lower than that, in my estimate around 1 in a million. |
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According to the link above, |
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5,000 children in the UK were killed or seriously injured on the roads in 2001, 20% on their way to school. That is roughly 1,000 children a year. In some Western countries (eg Portugal) this number is many times higher. |
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Compare that to the 4 or 5 highly-publicised cases every year of children being brutally killed or tortured by anonymous predators. |
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//Both he and his girlfriend were 17 [...] The young man is now a registered sexual offender for life.// |
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yet another reason why I'm glad I don't live in America... |
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ah yes, the subject of lowering the age of majority in the US has rarely come up. This may be a good reason in the future. |
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