Sad Question, is there a list of Sex Offenders for the UK?

According to Wiki...

In the United Kingdom, the Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) is a database of records of those required to register with the Police under the Sexual Offences Act 2003, those jailed for more than 12 months for violent offences, and unconvicted people thought to be at risk of offending. The Register can be accessed by the Police and some Probation Service personnel.

Notification Periods for offenders Sentenced under Sexual Offences Act 2003 [1]

* Imprisonment for life, imprisonment for public protection or for more than 30 months or admission to hospital under restriction order, or subject to an Order for Lifelong Restriction: Notification Period: Indefinitely

* Imprisonment for more than 6 but less than 30 months: Notification Period: 10 years

* Imprisonment for 6 months or less, or admission to hospital without restriction order: Notification Period: 7 years

* Caution: Notification Period: 2 years

* Conditional discharge or (in Scotland) a probation order: Notification Period: Period of discharge or probation period

* Any other: Notification Period: 5 years

* Finite notification periods are halved if the person is under 18 when convicted or cautioned.

Lifelong registration has recently been successfully challenged in the High Court. It was ruled that Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights is not compatible with it[2]

The requirement to register was originally imposed by the Sex Offenders Act 1997. The 1997 Act was amended by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 [3]to include the requirement to notify police of any foreign travel arrangements. The 1997 Act was repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which completely reimplemented the provisions of the 1997 Act.

The ViSOR database holds name and address records, photographs, risk assessment, offenders' modus operandi, and an audit trail. The Police National Computer is linked to ViSOR.

Sex offenders subject to the register must inform the Police within 3 days [4] of becoming subject to the notification requirements, or within 3 days of various changes occurring [5], including moving home, changing their name, changes of passport details. Offenders must confirm their registration annually [6]. Failure to comply is an offence, subject to a penalty of up to five years imprisonment.

Construction of the ViSOR application began in January 2003, with a first release of functionality to a pilot site November 2003. The system was subsequently rolled out to a further three pilot sites during early to mid 2004. National (UK) rollout began November 2004, and was completed April 2005. For a government IT project this appears to have been considered a relatively quick and successful development and deployment.

ViSOR is now in use across all 42 geographic police forces in the UK. Roll out to the Prison and Probation services of England and Wales was scheduled for 2006/7, but was considerably delayed and is underway but not complete as of mid-2008.

MEPs have shown some support for a European Sex Offender Database [7]. However there are fears it will be many years, if ever, before it comes to fruition and even then it may not be effective. A recent NSPCC report highlighted the failure of EU countries to share criminal records properly and the fact that in their opinion this was leaving children at risk in the UK. [8].

However, though some individual MEPs position may be favourable, there are a number of European countries (Spain, Germany, Italy and France) that in the past have clearly stated that Sex Offenders' Registration as in the UK is a breach of the European Convention of Human Rights making it very unlikely to be implemented EU wide.

 

In the US don't you have Megan's law? which allows you to know if someone close to you is a danger. In the UK a similar initiative was attempted after the murder of Sarah Payne, but it was unsuccessful. The police and civil bodies can access a database which has this info, and employers can insist that you are CRB (criminal record bureau) checked, which simply means you pay a fee and a civil servant will tell the employer if you have any convictions. CRB checks are normally carried out on those who have access to children, vulnerable adults or areas of security risk like airports etc...

There is no way in the UK to simply ask if your neighbour "John Doe" is a danger.

Hope that helps..
Cheers
Nick

 

Correct. Although i do think there would be a problem with 'lynch mobs' if we had a list like you have in the US (not that i mind a gang of people wanting to kick a child abusers head in) and i believe this is one of the reasons why we do not have it in the UK, after all we dont want to make their lives uncomfortable do we? Do you have those problems in the US?

I have had to visit a couple of child abusers houses due to my job and to be honest i felt sick just having to speak to them.

 

Wasn't it the Daily Star who did the Sarah's law campaign? This resulted in paediatricians and other innocents being targeted by mindless vigilante yobs

 

Yes i seem to remember something along those lines. Perhaps it would be better the get the general public upto a basic standard of literacy first then

 

Its a very good idea but after the attacks on innocent people like paediatricians as Nick mentioned perhaps we cant be cant be trusted with the information in the UK, which is a huge shame

With your system do you just find out that there is someone who has been convicted in the area or do you get more info such as name and/or address? Perhaps the first example would be more suitable over here.

 

Hi Rob
I don't think anything like Megan's law would work in the UK, the UK thrives on knee jerk politics and local policy, the last thing we need is any contributing to that. Also the UK is too small. If you found out that a convicted "felon" lived in your road, what would you do? where would you go? Where could he go?
The courts have the ability to insist on tags and other restrictions, which ensure that such characters are kept away from the school gates/playgrounds, they are curfew-ed at the dangerous hours, short of bringing back the death sentence or locking then away at our expense for the rest of their natural lives can't think what else could be done.
Maybe we start as colony, round up the offenders and put them XXXXXXXXXX (fill in the blanks) but that won't please the neighbours!

 

And those things only target people who have convictions, unfortunately there are a lot of dangerous people out there who have no convictions and are therefore not yet on the radar. Sadly, the safest thing for parents of young children to do is assume that there are predators in their area and act accordingly.

 

On average, every week in England and Wales one to two children are killed at the hands of another person .
Coleman, K. et al (2007) Homicides, firearms offences and intimate violence 2005/2006: supplementary volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales 2005/2006 (PDF). London: Home Office.


Each week at least one child dies from cruelty.


On average, 67 children in England and Wales are killed at the hands of another person every year 1 2 . In 2005/2006, 55 children were killed at the hands of another person in England and Wales .
Coleman, K. et al (2007) Homicides, firearms offences and intimate violence 2005/2006: supplementary volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales 2005/2006 (PDF). London: Home Office.


While the number of child homicides fluctuates each year, the overall child homicide rate in England and Wales has remained broadly similar since the 1970s.
Creighton and Tissier (2003) Child killings in England and Wales. London: NSPCC Research briefing.


Infants aged under one are more at risk of being killed at the hands of another person than any age group of child under 18 in England and Wales.
Coleman, K. et al (2008) Homicides, firearms offences and intimate violence 2006/2007: supplementary volume 2 to Crime in England and Wales 2006/2007 (PDF) London: Home Office.
Special Tabulation supplied via private correspondence with the Home Office, September 2005.


Almost two thirds of children killed at the hands of another person in England and Wales are aged under five.
Coleman, K. et al (2007) Homicides, firearms offences and intimate violence 2005/2006: supplementary volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales 2005/2006 (PDF). London: Home Office.


Every ten days in England and Wales one child is killed at the hands of their parent.
In half (52%) of all cases of children killed at the hands of another person, the parent is the principal suspect .
Coleman, K. et al (2007) Homicides, firearms offences and intimate violence 2005/2006: supplementary volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales 2005/2006 (PDF). London: Home Office.


In 2005/2006 in England and Wales, 24 children were killed at the hands of their parents .
Coleman, K. et al (2007) Homicides, firearms offences and intimate violence 2005/2006: supplementary volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales 2005/2006 (PDF). London: Home Office.


On average, 11 children per year in England and Wales are killed at the hands of strangers. This equates to an annual average of 16% of all cases of children killed at the hands of another person.
Coleman, K. et al (2007) Homicides, firearms offences and intimate violence 2005/2006: supplementary volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales 2005/2006 (PDF). London: Home Office.


In 2005/2006 in England and Wales parents were the principal suspect in 24 child homicide cases (44% of all cases).
A further 13 children (24% of all cases) were the victim of suspects known to them (i.e. other family member, friend or acquaintance).


12 children (22% of all cases) were the victim of strangers .


As of October 2006, there were no suspects for 6 (11%) of the victims.

Coleman, K. et al (2007) Homicides, firearms offences and intimate violence 2005/2006: supplementary volume 1 to Crime in England and Wales 2005/2006 (PDF). London: Home Office.

"Killings of children by a natural parent are committed in roughly equal proportions by mothers (47%) and fathers (53%), but that where the child is killed by someone other than a parent, males strongly predominate" 15 .
Brookman and Maguire (2003) Reducing homicide: a review of the possibilities (PDF) London: Home Office. p.16.


"The proportion of child homicides in which the perpetrator is a parent is exceptionally high among infants". For example between 1995 and 1999 in England and Wales, 80% of homicide victims under one year old were killed by a parent.
Brookman and Maguire (2003) Reducing homicide: a review of the possibilities (PDF) London: Home Office. p.16.


The proportion of child homicides where a parent is the principal suspect falls as children get older. For homicides of children aged under five the proportion of cases where a parent was the principal suspect was over 70%; for homicides of children aged 14 or 15 it was a quarter or fewer .
Special Tabulation supplied via private correspondence with the Home Office, September 2005.


In a study into the relationship between child deaths and child maltreatment, 63% of the paediatricians sampled had some experience of suspicious child death. Of these, the most commonly cited alerting factor was inconsistent accounts (such as parents or carers changing their story), followed by unusual bruising, and the death of another child in the family.
May-Chahal et al. (2004) The relationship between child death and child maltreatment: a research study on the attribution of cause of death in hospital settings. London: NSPCC

Tentative Conclusion: there a very few murders by strangers: If you want to avoid child murders, try to avoid having any parents!!

 

I use list 99 on a regular basis at work as part of safeguarding children - Regardless of having a CRB discolsure we check out List 99 and other checks on all my staff monthly. List 99 is not availble to the general public - I run an education agency hence I have access.

List 99 is a register of men and women who are barred from working with children by the Department of Education and Skills (DfES). More than 80 years old, it is maintained by the Children's Safeguards Unit of the department and contains the names, aliases, dates of birth and national insurance numbers of all those forbidden to work with children in schools, social work and voluntary settings.

How are people added to the list?

All additions to the list are made at the discretion of the Secretary of State for Education. Although there are some automatic grounds for inclusion on the list, ministers have a broad range of reasons for barring people from schools, including stealing and helping students to cheat in exams.


What automatically places people on List 99?

Adults convicted of serious sexual offences committed against children under the age of 16 since 1995 can automatically be placed on List 99. Those convicted of possessing indecent photographs of children can only be automatically barred if they were convicted after 1 June 2003. Since June 2003, a judge can also effectively bar an offender from working with children by giving them a "disqualification order" as part of their sentence.

What other grounds are there?

The DfES has a wide list of reasons why people can be barred from schools. Sexual or violent behaviour towards children, abuses of trust, drug related offences, any violent crime, stealing school property and deception in job applications can all lead to a ban. Medical conditions such as drug or alcohol abuse and mental illness are also grounds for exclusion.

How is the list updated?

According to DfES regulations, names are considered for List 99 through a variety of sources. Schools that dismiss employees because they consider them unsuitable to work with children are obliged to report the case to the DfES, which may bar them from working in a school again. The DfES also receives police reports and follows up articles in the media, but there is no automatic updating of List 99 from any other databases such as the Sex Offenders' Register. All schools, however, must check prospective employees with the Criminal Records Bureau and local police forces.

 

I sincerely hope you wouldn't make any of the detail from this list available to anyone on a public forum like this!

 

True.

Its strange how this would cause such problems in the UK but in some states you can find everything about these people in the US and you dont seem to have many problems with it.