Why do we need sex offenders’ registries?

Multiple incidents of sexual violence in recent months have raised serious concerns over the safety of women and children in Bangladesh. According to a report published by the rights organization, Ain O Salish Kendra, at least 975 people were raped across the country in the last nine months from January. Of them, 208 women were gang-raped, 43 were murdered after rape and 12 victims of rape died by suicide afterwards, the report added. ASK prepared the statistical report based on information from daily newspapers, online news portals and its own sources. In the last nine months, 161 women also became victims of sexual assault.

However, the real number is likely to be far higher, since many victims do not report sex crimes due to the fear of being blamed for the rape or disowned by their families. The whole procedure of claiming justice for the victim is a complicated one. The financial and societal power of the perpetrators silences the victims' voices. Moreover, there is an increasing tendency for the victim to even get married to her tormentor.

Bangladeshi children are also increasingly becoming victims of sexual brutality -- even schools do not seem to be safe for children anymore. There has been an alarming rise in the sexual abuse of children, including the rapes of male children, in madrasas in recent years.

Sexual harassment has turned out to be the most dangerous menace in the country, and experts believe exemplary punishment should be ensured so that culprits and their abettors can’t get off the hook. The concept of sex offenders’ registry has been the topic of various debates in today’s society. 

The sex offenders’ registry is a system for monitoring and tracking sex offenders and provides important information about convicted sex offenders to local and federal authorities and the public, such as offender’s name, current location and past offenses. In nations like the United States of America, such directories have been operational for more than 10 years. In fact, in the USA, ordinary citizens have access to these records so that they might be aware of a convicted sex offender in their midst. With the shocking rise in sex crimes and child rape across the country, a sex offenders’ registry can ensure the safety of families, especially women and children. 

A sex offenders’ registration system can act as an important tool for public safety -- it could make or break a decision when people are trying to decide where to live. It helps police in investigations and trying to understand who a suspect is and what the person has done. It provides people with the right to know where and who the sex offenders are, so they can be fully aware of their surroundings. Such a registry will also provide a sort of deterrence to potential offenders, due to the lasting label attached to being caught. 

However, why do some people believe that creating a sex offenders’ registration system is not a good idea?

Some believe that having such a registration system may heighten public shame and make it difficult for past offenders to find employment afterwards. It may also take away the past offender’s rights of privacy. 

Very few victims come forward when they have been sexually abused or assaulted, which consequentially leads to those offenders going free and undetected. A sex offenders’ registration system can help identify those offenders.

Not all registered sex offenders may be a threat to the society, but it is important o remember that they do have the potential to cause harm. Anybody would want to know of that possibility, especially if that person was in close proximity of their family and friends.