>From www.wsws.org
>>There must be an island where they can send these individuals to keep them
apart from otherwise normal people. I would be concerned with recidivism.
However, the Britlanders seem to have evolved into a mob rule (from too much
soccer?) society, which might be slightly contrary to "family values".
A<>E<>R <<<
}}>Begin
WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : Britain
British media incites lynch-mob atmosphere over child sex abuse
By Julie Hyland
12 August 2000
Back to screen version
For weeks the emotive issue of child sex abuse has dominated public discourse
in Britain. This followed a sensationalist campaign initiated by the Sunday
tabloid newspaper News of the World to �name and shame� convicted sex
offenders.
The News of the World, published by Rupert Murdoch's News International, has
been an outspoken defender of draconian law-and-order measures introduced by
successive governments, with one criticism�that they do not go far enough. Its
latest campaign was aimed at forcing the Labour government to introduce
stricter sentencing against sex offenders.
Under the 1997 Sexual Offenders Act, those convicted of imprisonable sex
offences must register their names and addresses with the police. Their names
can remain on the register indefinitely, depending on the seriousness of the
offence. Despite warnings from police and child welfare agencies that its
actions could endanger children by driving offenders into hiding, the News of
the World began publishing the names, photographs and approximate whereabouts
of 200 of the 12,000 individuals recorded on the Sexual Offenders Register.
It promised to continue publishing the list, and justified this on the grounds
of �public concern� following the abduction and murder of 8-year-old Sarah
Payne in July. Under the headline �If you are a parent you must read this�, the
News of the World claimed that there were thousands of paedophiles preying on
the young. Other newspapers joined in, orchestrating a climate of frenzied
retribution. The Daily Mirror July 18 edition front-page led with the demand
that whoever had murdered Sarah should �spend his life dodging razor blades in
his food, needing an armed guard when he takes a shower and fearing his throat
being slashed every night. Hanging these bastards really is too good for them�.
The lynch-mob atmosphere encouraged by the tabloids sparked a series of brutal
attacks across the country. On one housing estate in Portsmouth, rioting ensued
for seven nights outside the homes of suspected child sex offenders, forcing
four innocent families into hiding. Those demonstrating, including young
children, carried placards saying �Don't house them, kill them� and other
incendiary slogans.
Elsewhere in the country, several individuals were wrongly identified as
offenders and subjected to arson attacks on their homes. Two men killed
themselves as a direct result of the campaign�a 57 year-old grandfather with
convictions for child abuse and a 49-year old family businessmen accused of
sexual offences.
The government refused to condemn the disclosures and instead organized a
series of compromise meetings with the News of the World, children's agencies
and Sarah's relatives. Only when the campaign led to serious disturbances
involving hundreds of people did some Labour MPs call for an end to �mob rule�
and for legal action against the News of the World.
The News of the World finally called a halt to its campaign earlier this week,
but made clear that it was only temporary and would be restarted unless the
government adopted the measures it demanded. Any politicians who obstructed
this would be �named and shamed� the tabloid threatened.
With the support of many children's agencies and the Payne family, News of the
World is demanding the introduction of a �Sarah's Law�, modelled on Megan's Law
in the United States. This was implemented by the Clinton administration in
1994 following the murder of 7-year-old Megan Kanka in New Jersey by a
convicted sex offender. Under Megan's Law, states are able to circulate details
of convicted sex offenders to schools and youth organizations, and the police
can conduct door-to-door notifications in the paedophile's neighbourhood. The
law takes different forms in different states. Offenders in Louisiana can be
made to wear special clothes or carry sandwich boards announcing their crimes.
Sex offenders in Oregon can be forced to display a sign in their windows.
The measures being argued for by the News of the World pose a serious threat to
democratic rights that goes far beyond the relatively small number of
individuals ostensibly being targeted. Under existing legislation, those
employed in children's services in Britain are already subject to police checks
and child welfare agencies have access to the Sexual Offenders Register. What
is contentious in the �Sarah's Law� proposals are the public availability of
the register and calls that �indeterminate sentences be imposed in appropriate
cases�.
The Blair government has so far rejected calls for making the register publicly
available, based on police advice, but has welcomed the campaign's proposals,
saying that they �make an important contribution to the debate and demand very
serious consideration�. Blair is particularly interested in establishing the
principle of indeterminate sentencing. The government had previously stated its
intention to introduce such sentences for all those deemed to be suffering
�severe psychological disorders� regardless of whether they were convicted of a
crime, but this met with strenuous opposition because of the dangerous legal
precedent it would establish.
The government is not adverse itself to utilising public concern over
paedophile activity to undermine personal liberties more generally. It has used
the issue to justify censorship of the Internet and to argue for state
surveillance of e-mails.
There is no question that child sex abuse is a matter of great concern, but
this does not legitimise the hysteria over predatory paedophiles being whipped
up by the media and sections of the political establishment. All this has
accomplished is to induce panic and fear amongst many parents.
Photographs and stories about Sarah and her anguished family appeared every day
in the media. Barely a household in Britain did not know the missing child's
name, with Sarah's distraught parents appearing almost daily at press
conferences and news bulletins pleading for their daughter's safe return.
Every mother, father and grandparent was encouraged to identify with the Payne
family's distress and to imagine how they would feel if it had been their own
child. When news broke that the young girl's body had been discovered,
thousands of people, including entire families, made their way to the field
next to the A29 road to lay wreaths, turning the area into a shrine.
Several psychologists have made clear their concern at this phenomenon. The
outburst of collective grief went beyond the very human instinct to sympathise
with another's loss. It expressed the way in which thousands feel they too are
under threat, up against terrible odds in a harsh, cold world. It was in this
climate that the News of the World was able to manipulate the inarticulate
fears of parents for their children to suit its own political agenda. At no
time was the British public encouraged to make an informed consideration of the
issues involved.
Paedophilia is a complex phenomenon, bound up with broader problems of both a
social and psychological character. The idea that it can be eradicated through
a series of judicial measures is false. Indeed the insistence on treating the
sexual abuse of children simply as a criminal offence has only helped to
exacerbate the problem. In the US, there is much evidence to show that Megan's
Law has had no appreciable effect in cutting down child sex abuse.
It has long been acknowledged that the majority of child abusers�70
percent�were themselves abused as children. Many of those who go on to have
sexual feelings towards children consequently see this as normal, or are so
psychologically damaged that they do not possess the normal restraints to such
anti-social behaviour. But the near exclusive emphasis on prison and
retribution means that two-thirds of those discharged have not even been
through a sex-offender treatment programme. Home Office figures show that such
programmes reduce re-offending by 25 percent. With additional resources and
supervision after release a success rate of preventing re-offending of more
than 90 percent can be achieved. Instead of developing such initiatives and
allocating the necessary resources for psychological investigation and
treatment programmes, whenever this is possible, authorities simply imprison
paedophiles and then release them onto the streets, only to offend again.
An emphasis on law-and-order measures to combat what is undeniably a
psychological disorder points more generally to the inability of the existing
order to respond to any social problem in a progressive fashion. The calls for
harsher sentences for paedophiles, and even castration or death, are of a piece
with the implementation of �three strikes and you're out� sentencing for
offences as varied as burglary and possession of drugs. In today's world, the
powers that be no longer seriously believe in either prevention or cure, only
punishment.
The sensationalist media coverage also paints a highly distorted picture. The
figures for the number of children abducted and killed in Britain by a stranger
have remained static for years�between five and ten annually. Just 50 of the
110,000 men convicted of sex offences involving children fall into the category
of predatory paedophiles.
Children are considerably more likely to be killed by their parents than a
complete stranger. In the last month alone there have been at least three cases
in which a father, believing his own life to be at an end, has killed his
entire family. One, a ruined businessman, killed his wife and four children
before committing suicide. Children are also far more likely to be at risk of
sexual abuse by a relative than someone unknown to them. The majority of those
on the Sexual Offenders register for child abuse are family members.
Such facts are ignored because they jar with the campaign by press and
politicians alike to uphold �family values�. The statistics prove that for many
young people the family is not the paradise it is made out to be. But for the
media and politicians to acknowledge this would call into question social
policies that make millions wholly dependent on the family unit, regardless of
its shortcomings and resulting traumas. In doing so, official policy actually
reinforces the conditions that can give rise to the abuse of the young and
vulnerable.
Copyright 1998-2000
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
End<{{
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/This_Britain/2000-08/paedfront130800.shtml
}}>Begin
Name and shame victims to sue
By Sophie Goodchild and Jo Dillon
13 August 2000
Innocent victims singled out by vigilante mobs in search of paedophiles to
attack and harass are to begin legal proceedings against the News of the World.
Three men who were subjected to vicious attacks by anti-paedophile
demonstrators told the Independent on Sunday that they had taken legal advice
and intended to seek "significant compensation" from the newspaper.
Last night libel specialist Amber Melville-Brown, head of defamation at London
solicitors Finers Stephens Innocent, said the men were clearly entitled to
damages.
"They will be able to show that the mob looked at the pictures and identified
them, however wrongly, from the paper," she said. "There is no doubt that this
is defamation because they have been shunned by the public as a result. The
paper should have carefully identified specific individuals so there was no
confusion."
Ms Melville-Brown added that the important issue was that the mob believed that
the published pictures and personal details referred to those they targeted.
"The person can say 'Look at my bruises. I was driven from my home.' It's as
simple as showing that the public understood it related to him," she said.
The News of the World began its campaign after the death of Sarah Payne, the
eight-year-old murdered last month in Sussex. But following the newspaper's
decision to publicise the names of convicted sex offenders, members of the
public took the law into their own hands in towns across the country. This led
to four nights of rioting in Portsmouth last week.
Last month, Iain Armstrong was targeted by a crowd of up to 300 people outside
his home in Beswick, Greater Manchester. They also threw a brick through the
window of his ex-wife's home, which hit her in the shoulder.
Last night she said: "I said all along that the News of the World should pay
out at least to take us on holiday. They make their money out of other people's
hardship."
Mr Armstrong, 49, wears a neck brace similar to one worn by a convicted sex
offender who was pictured in the News of the World. This is because he suffers
from viral meningitis and a spinal disorder.
Mr Armstrong blames the News of the World for the violence and says his six-
year-old son is now afraid to go upstairs alone. "You've got to blame them,
haven't you?" he said. "It's changed our lives completely. You can't go
anywhere without being recognised."
Victor Terry, a 78-year-old widower, was targeted because he has the same name
as a paedophile who indecently assaulted two boys. He has linked up with
Michael Horgan, also an innocent victim of the anti-paedophile campaign, and
together they intend to pursue legal action with a third man who did not wish
to be named.
"You've got to get a few quid behind you to sue a newspaper," he added. "But it
might be that the three of us can do something about it."
The Government has been urged by Robin Corbett MP, Labour chairman of the home
affairs select committee, to support legal action against the News of the World
and its editor. But last night the Home Office said it was not a matter on
which ministers could intervene. Barbara Roche, the Home Office minister,
called for a "calm atmosphere" to allow a review of the operation of the sex
offenders register to be completed. She added that there would be public
consultation as well as expert advice from children's organisations, police and
probation officers before any changes to the register were made.
Last night the Tory leader, William Hague, joined the debate, calling for
automatic life sentences for repeat child sex offenders, restrictions to
prevent offenders living near their victims, and tighter supervision after
release from prison.
Ministers also came under pressure to reverse failures in British prisons to
meet targets for treatment of sex offenders. According to the Prison Service
annual report for 1999-2000, only 585 prisoners convicted of sex offences
completed a treatment programme against a target of 700. The shortfall was
blamed on a shortage of qualified treatment managers.
Experts are worried that a failure to ensure treatment in custody contributes
to reoffending on release. Of 90,000 prisoners released from prisons in England
and Wales each year � not all sex offenders � more than 50 per cent reoffend
within two years of release.
Additional reporting by Amy L Anderson
End<{{
A<>E<>R
Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960)
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The libertarian therefore considers one of his prime educational
tasks is to spread the demystification and desanctification of the
State among its hapless subjects. His task is to demonstrate
repeatedly and in depth that not only the emperor but even the
"democratic" State has no clothes; that all governments subsist
by exploitive rule over the public; and that such rule is the reverse
of objective necessity. He strives to show that the existence of
taxation and the State necessarily sets up a class division between
the exploiting rulers and the exploited ruled. He seeks to show that
the task of the court intellectuals who have always supported the State
has ever been to weave mystification in order to induce the public to
accept State rule and that these intellectuals obtain, in return, a
share in the power and pelf extracted by the rulers from their deluded
subjects.
[[For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Murray N. Rothbard,
Fox & Wilkes, 1973, 1978, p. 25]]
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