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 --- from list marxism-psych-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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