news, crime

Online public sex offender registries do not stop those on the registry from reoffending, a new report has found. The Australian Institute of Criminology report found that while a public registry that lists details such as the face, name and addresses of sex offenders have a small effect on deterring first-time offenders, it does not have any impact on decreasing recidivism. "Despite having strong public support, they appear to have little effect on levels of fear in the community," the report said. The institute examined public online registries in the US, as well registries in Australia, although information on Australian registries are not made available publicly. A restricted access public register has been available in Western Australian since 2012, where residents can request information by providing their name and driver's licence. While the study said the impact of recidivism in Western Australia was yet to be evaluated, key stakeholders such as police have raised concern that a public register could be "counter-rehabilitative and could increase the risk of reoffending". As of June 2017, there were more than 150 Canberra citizens on ACT's sex-offender register, although it is closed off to the public. "It is apparent the non-public nature of registration will remain a feature of the Australian legal system, at least for the time being, which brings with it a responsibility for best practice," the report stated. The institute also examined similar studies looking at the effectiveness of US registers and found that the results were mixed. "There is little evidence that the US...policies have reduced reoffending among registered sex offenders; in face, some studies have shown that [public registries] increased sex offence recidivism," the report said. "Conversely, there is some evidence that [public registries] has a general deterrent effect on first time or non-convicted sex offenders in the community, likely due to the perceived risk of being placed on a public register." ACT victims of crime commissioner Heidi Yates said while online registers were one tool being used, it wasn't the only method to stop people reoffending. "If a register is public or private, it has to be part of an overall response that sits alongside other methods," she said. "There's not going to be a magic wand that will fix this, and it's frustrating for victims in the community that we still don't know what works across the board to stop people reoffending." Recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed there were 21,380 victims of sexual assault recorded by police in 2015, reaching a six-year high. Of those, three-quarters of sexual assault victims knew their offender, while a family member was the offender in one-third of cases. While the institute found that public registers of sex offenders do not reduce recidivism, the rate of those reoffending are low to begin with. "Contrary to popular belief, recidivism rates among convicted sex offenders are generally low compared with those of other offenders even accounting for the potential for under-reporting or low detection rates," the report said.

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