Does the public have a role to play in monitoring sex offenders?
THE last two decades have seen a sea change in society’s understanding of the harm caused to children by sexual violence and exploitation. Facing up to the reality of child abuse has been traumatic, but it has created a positive energy and a shared commitment towards putting in place the most effective child protection mechanisms involving all the key State agencies.
The protection of children is the most universal and fundamental community value and presents complex challenges to all of society. One important area relates to the sharing of information about previous sexual offending. In this context, the Irish Penal Reform Trust welcomed the publication of TD Denis Naughten’s private members bill, the Child Sex Offenders Information and Monitoring Bill, earlier this month as an opportunity to deepen the national conversation about our response to the danger of child abuse. There are aspects of the bill which we think could improve child protection, but there are also proposals contained in it that we believe might prove to be counterproductive.
The first part of the bill contains a proposal to place on a statutory footing existing practice whereby the gardaí may inform individuals or community bodies of a particular threat to child safety. The gardaí have the expertise and necessary information about convicted offenders (who are generally subject to reporting requirements), and An Garda Síochána is the primary public protection agency; so it makes sense to empower them to make judgments about when child safety might be served by notifying a school or other agency working with children.
The second and more contentious area addressed by the proposed bill relates to the role of the public and media in child protection. How information is communicated to and received by the public is critical to this debate. The provision of more information — and accurate information — around what gardaí do to improve public safety would lessen public fear, without having to resort to disclosing information about individual offenders. However, placing the public in the place of police or child protection agencies is wrongheaded and potentially dangerous. The Irish Penal Reform Trust strongly believes child protection should be controlled by the relevant agencies. Any decision about disclosing information should be made in terms of the best evidence around managing risk.
Many will be aware of laws in Britain and the US which allow for disclosure of information about convicted sex offenders to the general public. ‘Megan’s Law’ in the US requires all states to establish some form of community notification system in respect of sex offenders living locally. What is being proposed here is closer to ‘Sarah’s Law’ in Britain, where there is no direct public access to the sex offenders register. Instead, the public are allowed request information from the police about a person who has contact with a child. The question is: What are the benefits of making such information available to the public?
Evaluations of Megan’s Law and a similar scheme in Canada “showed no demonstrable effect in reducing sexual offences”. Evaluations of the Sarah’s Law pilot revealed that more than half of requests were about an ex-partner’s new partner; a family member; boyfriend or girlfriend; or a neighbour; and the largest group of people making these requests were fathers concerned about ex-partners’ boyfriends.
There is little evidence on the impact of community notification — access to information about the ‘stranger at the school gates’ — on public safety, and certainly no empirical evidence to demonstrate any reduction in re-offending rates.
At its worst, public disclosure can lead to stoking public fear and presenting a real danger of vigilantism, of which we have seen tragic instances in both Britain and the UK. There is also the risk of driving sex offenders further underground, thereby increasing the challenges of safe monitoring. Groups working in the area of supporting victims of child abuse here have expressed concern that placing undue focus on ‘stranger danger’ might divert attention away from the more real risks, which, in more than 90% of cases, are people known to the child.
In the absence of overall benefits, we also need to consider that any new scheme will cost money to run — money and resources that could be more effectively spent in areas where we know we could protect a child from potential harm.
Frances Fitzgerald, the children’s minister, said last week that “the best way to protect Ireland’s children is to report concerns and to ensure they are acted upon. This also means that when child protection concerns are reported we must trust the professional judgement of our dedicated frontline services to screen and assess such reports and to respond accordingly.”
There is a long way to go to achieve the type of child protection system we need. We need to empower, strengthen and, improve HSE, Garda, and probation systems. That must be our priority — not a misplaced delegation of child protection roles to the media or to the general public.
* Liam Herrick, executive director of the Irish Penal Reform Trust.
THE legislation I recently introduced — The Child Sex Offenders (Information and Monitoring) Bill 2012 — is aimed at providing parents and/or guardians of a child with information regarding the presence of a high-risk sex offender in their community.
The objective is to allow for the effective, appropriate and measured use of a large amount of data held by gardaí on high-risk sex offenders within our communities.
We have recently seen a school principal take such matters into their own hands in Dublin by informing parents of the presence of a convicted paedophile in their area. The fact that there is currently no formal structure in place to warn parents of the danger posed to their children by a convicted sex offender left that school principal with no choice but to act.
There is no point in investigating afterwards how a child came to be harmed. We all have a responsibility to take a pro-active approach to the protection of children and this includes providing parents with the tools and the knowledge needed to protect their children.
My Bill will enable information on convicted sex offenders and soft information held on individuals to be made available, where appropriate, to allow action to be taken to protect the most vulnerable in our society from those who pose a risk to them.
It was situations which occurred within communities in my own constituency, similar to that which we have seen recently in Dublin, that drew my attention to the gaping holes that exist in our current legislation and this ultimately led to my decision to publish this law 15 months ago. For the first time this bill will allow information on those who may be hanging around the school gates or the local playground or anyone, else who may pose a risk to children, to be made available to parents, teachers and organisations in order to protect those very children or vulnerable adults who are at risk.
There is a large amount of Garda intelligence and other important information — including so-called ‘soft’ information — concerning individuals which sits passively on the Garda information systems. This bill aims to put that information to good use in an intelligent and proportionate way.
The bill would enable parents and guardians to enquire whether a person coming into contact with their child or vulnerable adult has been convicted of a sexual offence or is otherwise likely to pose a serious danger to children.
There are those who wish to undermine this law, who will argue that this is about “stranger danger” — a child being assaulted by a stranger which makes up about 1/10th of assaults. Yes, this law will help to deal with that, but it is also about much more.
Recent figures from the Rape Crisis Network Ireland indicated that 31% of sexual assault cases featuring children involved a close family member — this means that the majority did not involve a close family member. In many instances this is someone who has not only groomed the child but the parents as well.
A review in Britain of the operation of a similar law showed that half of all requests for information did not involve a stranger but a relative, a neighbour or someone known to the immediate family member — perhaps a new partner of one of the separated parents of the children.
This law provides parents with an avenue to ensure that the grooming does not dupe them as well.
We have seen recently how there is one breach of the sex offenders’ register for every five offenders on it. We currently have 1,303 people on the sex offenders register and between 2004 and June of this year there have been 261 recorded breaches of the conditions attached to those on the register. The sex offenders’ register simply does not work.
As parents we should have the right to know about high-risk individuals who may be living in our area, and not just those who have been convicted of sexual crimes, but also those who pose a danger, in order to protect our children.
The controlled release of information on high-risk individuals would equip parents and schools with the facts and ensure they will be best placed to take preventative measures to safeguard children in their care.
As the mother of Sarah Payne, who was abducted and murdered in Britain, stated: if just one child can be kept safe as a result of this bill it will have been worth it.
* Denis Naughten is an independent TD for Roscommon-South Leitrim.
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