File spoon-archives/marxism-psych.archive/marxism-psych_1997/97-04-21.221, message 18


Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 08:17:12 GMT
From: Chris Burford <cburford-AT-gn.apc.org>
Subject: M-PSY: Sex offenders and civil society


iSex offenders and civil liberties


With the loss of the external enemy, the internal 
enemy looms more menacing, and the response to this,
is shaping the nature of our civil society in a 
number of dramatic ways.


Less than a year ago I was hearing with astonishment
how quite a number of towns in the USA are insisting on
posting notices of the identity, past history and 
residential address of convicted child sex offenders.
And I was wondering how therapists cope with that 
situation, and whether the principle will get 
extended to any crimes of violence associated with
psychological problems. (What about people with
schizophrenia who have a fire on their records -
its a big risk!)

Then a few weeks ago it was reported that a book has
been published in Australia providing a register
of all Australian child sex offenders. Furthermore the
publishers will be bringing out a British edition this
year.

This morning I glanced at the local newspaper delivered free
through my letterbox in North London. It is a recent 
development in communications. There is a niche for capital
to publish local newspapers paid for by advertisements, 
hand delivered by people paid peanuts, run with a staff of 
abour four, whose job is to ensure 2 high profile personal 
interest stories per week of a local character, and 
reproduce press releases. The same company runs the same
format in several areas, and just the selection of the 
local interest stories is customised to different areas.

This paper announces that after its courageous campaigning 
against a 44 year old unemployed chef with a previous 
conviction for child sex offences, this person has now moved
to Lewisham, in another part of London, where the council 
has issued letters to parents advising them that
the named individual has moved to live locally. A description
of the paedophile has been given to all headteachers and 
parents warning them to be on their guard particularly over
the Easter holiday. The news got out in our part of north London
after the police in September had merely warned head teachers.

Oddly this combination of populism and capitalism, linked to 
the speed to new communications, is creating a situation like 
in post revolutionary societies where prostitution could be
stamped out by posting a list in the village square of everyone
who attended a prostitute.

Can we resist this powerful trend? Or should we go with the 
flow even if it is double punishment from a bourgeois 
democratic point of view? Has anyone got any more information
on this development?

Chris Burford

London




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