The Register is growing...

I didn’t think I was going to have an opinion for today. I was actually a bit worried, “Am I sick?” was my first thought. I scoured the BBC website looking for a subject and then it hit me. The headline that will provide Frankie Boyle with material for the next six months: “One in ten inmates is sex offender.”

Yes, this is the news released by the Scottish Government today that out of the 8ooo people in Scottish prisons 798 of them are registered sex offenders. That is a pretty incredible statistic, one in ten! Some men may say this is a sign of Scottish virility; those men, however, are probably the ones in jail. How fortunate.

This figure raises many questions. Why is the number so high? What is being done about it? How many more sex offenders are there on our streets?

In his statement today the Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said, "The sad reality is that sex offenders and the threat they pose have existed for all of human history but what has improved is the way in which they are managed.”

I tend to agree with this view, people; the older generation in particular, seem to think things are much worse than they were when they were in their youth. As relatively young adults we hear it all the time, “Teenagers are so badly behaved these days... they have no respect for anyone... et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”

I considered this notion on my way up road tonight, mugging an old lady and kicking a baby on the way of course, and decided it is quite preposterous. Things may be slightly worse, but I put this down to normal changes in social patterns, it is a case of old folks doing what they do best; moaning! True enough there are a lot of ghastly people out there, this is reflected in the stories we hear in the media all the time. This, however, doesn’t mean it has always been that way. There have always been bad people in this world; you just don’t tend to notice it as a child. Added to this the fact media has never been so close to our fingertips and you have the perfect recipe for people to pick up on every bad story.

As a result I agree with Mr. MacAskill that these iniquities have existed throughout history, and it is how we manage it today that counts. In 2007 Mappas (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements) was formed to assess sex offenders in Scotland. This allows the Police, the Scottish Prison Service and councils work together to manage this problem.

I don’t feel this goes far enough. People, governments in particular, spend a lot of time talking about sex offenders but not enough time doing anything. Programs to monitor them are not enough. People who are a danger to the community, children in particular, must not be allowed to commit these crimes, and when they do the consequences must be tough. Real prison sentences are needed in these scenarios, not being let out early for good behaviour.

Anyway readers, enough for today, my five hundred words will turn into 1000 if I’m not careful, and remember kiddos; hands to yourselves, we don’t want you becoming another statistic!