A Pressing Need—A Registry of Sex Offenders

Mar 26, 2015 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Sad to say, but even in the midst of the present swirling political turmoil in Guyana facing not only the masses but also the classes, I strongly feel that it’s time for a serious rethink on a pressing issue of grave concern.
What are we going to do with the sex offenders now that there is an ever increasing number of babes being forced into the world of intimacy before their sexual organs are even properly shaped?
At the selfsame time my thinking pales in wondering what has come over the Guyanese males that have forced them to the abyss of pedophilia and hebephilia? Surely they cannot be advancing the theory that a prepubescent child can grant them equal or greater sexual pleasure than an adult. Okay! Go tell it to the Marines! They may be more apt to listen and believe.
In Act 5 Scene 2 of the famous play Troitus & Cressida, the Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare quotes thus: “Ah, poor our sex! This fault in us I find. The error of our eye directs our mind. What error leads must err; O then conclude, Minds swayed by eyes are full of turpitude”.
I unshakably remain of a firm conviction and wish to state for the record that the time has come for the Guyanese Government to give careful and prompt consideration to the setting up of a Registry of Sex Offenders. Such a move is not only a step in the corrective direction, but an extremely significant one in ensuring that the vulnerable of the country are safe and protected from such predators.  Recently David Evans was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for having carnal knowledge of a ten-year-old, and in July 2014 Gavin Nero was sentenced to thirty years for raping a six-year-old. These two individuals are among a growing list of sexual offenders, with grossly age-misdirected sexual satiation.
Once released from prison there are currently no programs in place, (not even pharmacological castration) geared towards fostering rehabilitation, thereby leaving the offender to reoffend. Neither the mental nor the sexual aspect of his behaviour has been addressed during his imprisonment.
Any sane thinking and moralistic citizen would be correct in reaching the conclusion that rape of a minor is tantamount to murder. The current statistics of rape cases with younger and younger victims only shows that present day Guyanese society is full of very sick minds and that it is time for serious action against rape. The exhibited behaviours of the males, besides being shocking, is symptomatic of serious moral decay, which needs prompt attention and intervention.
No one typology fits all sex offenders, because they are a heterogeneous group of people, and do not possess a set stereotype. They can be anybody, and to be exact the offender(s) is most likely to be someone that the child knows and trusts, and who also has access to the child.
The idea of having a sex offender registry is based on the idea that registries through notification would greatly assist communities in better protecting themselves from sex offenders. This idea is based on the assumption that sex offenders are more likely to recidivate than other offenders, thus the community should be on guard from these individuals, and rightfully so.
Initiation of a publicly accessible registry can be viewed as a way for neighbourhoods to be empowered through knowledge. By knowing who the individuals in the community are who have a history of sexual crime(s), communities may protect themselves and their young.
A registry is also thought to reduce sex crimes because the public is able (and more likely) to report suspicious behaviour by sex offenders. In the United States of America, sexual offenders registries have been in effect since 1991, with the state of Minnesota being the first to start the ball rolling. Now most of the states generated laws for sex offender registration and notification after the passage of Megan’s Law in 1996.
Our time has finally arrived and we must take full advantage of it, no pun intended but we must beat the iron while it is hot.  Let there be no escape for rape and other sexual-related crimes, after you have done the time you’ll reside in a different clime.
The registry will provide full accounting of those that have been convicted of child rape to those guilty of indecent exposure. The registry will provide a list of the criminal’s name, as well as his most up-to-date address and the nature of his crime. On account of the registry being a matter of public record, those living in neighbourhoods know exactly who is living around them. The registry also allows parents with small children to know before they move into a home whether sex offenders, particularly those with offences against children, are living in the vicinity.
To be truly effective the registry also calls for proper and prompt record-keeping and reporting by law agencies. I am in no way implying that the initiation of a registry will in any way shape or form prevent all child sex crimes, but instead stating that it is one tool that parents and guardians alike can use to arm themselves with information regarding sex offenders in their neighbourhood, as well as people who have regular unsupervised contact with their children.
So to the Guyana Government I do say give it some thought and for our young let’s do as we ought. We know the acts, and have seen the facts. Yvonne Sam

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