Sexual Offence Investigation - Assignment Example

Sexual offence Investigation Introduction Sexual offence is deservingly considered to be a crime that brings the greatest harm, despite the fact that the information received about the cases of sexual offence are usually not full. The victims of sexual offence are usually little and weak individuals, thus the crime is commonly committed against children. Children are the most valuable wealth of every society, thus the developed European countries do their best to reduce the cases and provide the victims with necessary medical and psychological help. The given paper will consider the two main reforms connected with sexual offence issued in Great Britain during the last 15 years. The overview of laws will be provided and their efficiency will be evaluated. According to the statistics, 20-40% of girls and 1 out of 6 boys become victims of undesirable sexual contacts until they become 18. The so-called “rule of silence” around the theme of sexual offence allows to assume that such cases happen much more often. Sexual violence takes place when a personality, a child or an adult, is used by an older or stronger individual for the satisfaction of his own sexual desires. There are many kinds of violence: verbal, visual and physical contact without victim’s consent. In order to understand the nature and the consequences of sexual aggression in relation to children, it is essential to realize that the offence happens in the context of relations with a adult, who was supposed to defend a child and take care of it. In the majority of cases the offence is committed by an adult who has an easy access to child and has a certain power over it. Usually it is a relative or a friend of a family. In 12% of cases, which become known, a child is offended by a person, who was unknown to a child. The majority of offenders are men and they are usually much older than their victims. A great number of researches held in the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany proved that the growth of sexual crimes is connected with the development of pornographic industry. In 2003 the Sexual Offences Act was issued in Great Britain. According to this Act, any sexual contact with a person under 12 years is considered to be a sexual offence and the only possible punishment for that is imprisonment for life. However, the hard punishment for sexual offenders is only half the work. It is important to exercise control over the released criminal, whose crime is connected with sexual offence. Thus, the Violent and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) was introduced in 2003 under the Sexual Offences Act in Great Britain. Such law already existed in the UK since 1997, but in 2003 it was seriously amended. The police of England and Wales composed a secret list, which includes more than 60 thousand people who committed sexual offences. The new notification order stated: “This is a new order which can be made, on application by a chief officer of police, in respect of individuals who have been convicted abroad of sexual offences equivalent to the sexual offences listed in Schedule 3 of the 2003 Act (cited in Middleton). The effect of the order is to make such offenders subject to the notification requirements of the 2003 Act as if they had been convicted in the UK of a relevant offence”. According to new travel orders, “This is a new order which will enable the courts in certain circumstances, and on application of a chief officer of police, to prohibit those convicted of sexual offences against children aged under from travelling overseas where there is evidence that they intend to cause serious sexual harm to children in a foreign country” (cited in Middleton). Every criminal who was punished for sexual offence should be included in special database. This database is checked by the director of kindergarten or school every time when they hire a new employee. Thus, there is a certain barrier on the way of the criminal who tries to find a job in the child organization and it is essential to mention that such attempts are very frequent. All the criminals must register in the database domiciliary. If a criminal changes the residence, he should register with the police during one month. If he did not do that during one month, he receives a warning, then second warning after which he may be imprisoned. “all convicted sex offenders must register with the police within three days of their conviction or release from prison. This is monitored by the police who receive notification from the court’s following conviction, and both the prisons and probation service following an offender’s release into the community. Failure to register is an offence, which can carry a term of imprisonment. Registrants must inform the police within three days if they change their name or address, and disclose if they are spending seven days or more away from their home. Convicted sex offenders have to register with their local police every year” (Sex Offenders Register). The Sexual Offences Act 2003 is very helpful both for victims and police officers. For victims it is very important to know that their offender is punished and punished severely. The law facilitated the work of police officers and made it easier to find the offender. The year 2013 brought two reforms. British government made the amendment to The Sexual Offences Act 2003. The reform toughened the law for sexual offenders. Such criminals will have to serve time equally with murders and terrorists and will not be released before the appointed time. Such reform helps to defend the society from the sexual offenders. The victims feel safer and recover faster when they know that their offender will never be released. Speaking about the secret database composed by the police of England and Wales in order to defend the population, it is essential to mention that the situation is quite different. The police started excluding criminals from this list and British population is afraid of serious consequences of such actions. Many people who suffered from sexual offence state that they would like offenders to be controlled by the police even after they are released. This can guarantee that they will not be able to commit crimes again. However, during the last year many criminals were deleted from the database and considered nonhazardous. If a sexual offender received a term that is longer than 2.5 years for his crime, he must be included in the database for term of life. The police will trace the location of such criminals and inform local schools, hospitals and potential employers about them. Those offenders who are included in the list are thoroughly supervised: “those on the register are required to notify the police if they change their name or address, and are also required to reveal any plans to travel outside the UK. Again, failure to comply is an offence. The police can photograph offenders every time they register, and all forces exchange information about the movements of such offenders, with a national computerised database having been set up to facilitate this procedure. Police forces can also apply for “sex offender orders” that bar offenders from certain activities and areas frequented by children. The most high-risk offenders are subject to further surveillance – which can include electronic tagging – by local multi-agency public protection panels, which include police, probation, social services and other agencies. Offenders are given strict licence conditions and can be sent back to prison if they fail to cooperate” (Sex Offenders Register). However, according to the Human Rights Act, to keep criminals in the database for term of life without the possibility of appeal is the violation of their rights. The database can’t be accessed by anyone accept the police. It contains the data about all the sexual offenders in England and Wales. After the changes in Human Rights Act made in 2012, 43 criminals were excluded from the list. However, the representative of Lucy Faithful Foundation Donald Findlater states that it is necessary to release those individuals, who are not dangerous for the society anymore and concentrate all the efforts to fight with those, who are really dangerous. However, the victims of sexual offences are indignant with such idea. They are very afraid that those criminals, who offended them, will be released and excluded from the database. If they get to know that this person is free, all the efforts taken to recover become useless. According to psychologists, it is not clear if sexual offenders can change their behavior. The Ministry of Home Affairs of Great Britain did not approve the decision to exclude criminals from the list. However, the Supreme Court decided to defend the rights of former criminals, who ask to give them a second chance. The Court decided that even former sexual offenders should have a right for private life and family. As a consequence sexual offenders got a chance to have an access to children as to forbid this means to violate their rights. Experts consider such measures to be very dangerous. They consider it wrong to value the rights of an offender higher than the rights of a victim as it can become a reason of very serious crimes, which could be avoided. In order to understand all the seriousness of the situation it is enough to recollect the case, which led to the introduction of secret database for sexual offenders. It was the murder of Sarah Payne, an eight years old schoolgirl. She was raped and cruelly murdered by a person, who already served his term in a prison. He was given only 4 years in spite of the fact that psychiatrists warned about the danger of recidivation. After the murder he received a 40-years term without any right for release and Sarah’s parents supported the idea of a new bill introduction. It was unofficially called Sarah’s law. According to his bill, the parents of little children received the right to know if a sexual offender lives near by. The law was similar to a very effective one issued in the USA, where sexual offenders had to register in a special base after the release. The consequences of sexual offence are much more serious than one can assume. Conclusion The damage influences the future of an offended child. Those children, who went thought rape, very often suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, become asocial and even commit suicide. Many of them become criminals. Thus, the recent amendments to law are very controversial. The first reform, which made the sexual offenders treated as seriously as murderers and terrorists is good and effective. It will help stop the violence and provide victims with a chance to recover as they would know that their offenders were punished and would not be able to cause any harm. The work of police will be also facilitated as the number of sexual offences will be significantly reduced. The second amendment can’t be called positive as it made many victims indignant with the fact that the offenders who ruined their life would have a chance to build their own. This can prevent them from the recovery and cause panic. Moreover, the exclusion of the criminals from the database will complicate the work of police. Everybody should have definite rights, but such measures can lead to trouble. It is a well-known fact that former sexual offenders, who were caught because their victim remained alive, tend to correct this mistake and becomes killers in order to make their crime unrevealed. Thus, the law issued under the unofficial name “Sarah’s Law’ is very effective. The only way out is to consider each case separately. For instance, if a person was imprisoned, because he watched child pornography, he should have a chance to have normal life after the release, but if the reason of imprisonment is rape, the criminal should not be excluded from the list. Correct laws can help reduce the number of sexual offenses and save many lives. References Middleton, David. The requirements for notification by sexual offenders in England and Wales (known as the “sex offenders register”). National Offender Management Service & National Probation Directorate, Home Office, London. Sex Offenders Register. Accessed February 20. 2014 at http://www.falselyaccused.co.uk/sex-offenders-register/ Read More