‘name & shame’ policy!! The government’s announcement that it would maintain a publicly available database of sex offenders is being portrayed as a significant step in addressing the threat posed by criminals whose crimes largely go unreported and hence encourage them to repeat the offence.

It also addresses the general perception that such criminals tend to repeat their act and hence need to be monitored.

Highlights

• A 2014 report of the office of sex offender sentencing, monitoring, apprehending, registration and tracking (SMART), the US government agency to monitor such crimes, states that such registers are maintained by at least 19 countries including the US, the first country to pass a national sex offender registration law in 1994.
• Other major countries that have similar laws include the UK, Canada, France, Germany, South Africa and South Korea.
• A study of conditions of registration as sex offender in the US, UK, Canada and Australia shows that it is mandatory for those convicted for certain sexual crimes to register themselves in the sex offender database.
• In the US, there are three levels of registered sex offenders. Following their release after the conviction, sex offenders are required to register with the community’s division of criminal justice service, which examines their case.
• Depending on factors like the use of force, victim’s age, number of victims, use of weapons, alcohol or drugs to assault the victim, offenders are classified into level 1, 2 or 3.
  Level 1 offenders are people who are considered the least likely to repeat the crime. Level 3 is the classification given to those judged most likely to commit the crime again.
• The home ministry’s proposal to ‘name and shame’ those charged for sexual offences by putting their names in the public domain runs completely contrary to the principle that underlines our justice system – the accused are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.
• Other countries too have a system of making the names of sexual offenders public, but nowhere is this done prior to conviction.

Expected Question

Name the first country to pass a national sex offender registration law in 1994.

– United States