The subject on whether sex offenders’ public records is ethical is open for debate. Some people protested because it seems like a euphemism for eternal humiliation and is morally unacceptable. Violation of privacy of identity by putting the name and the case of the offender into data record is also widely argued. Many people believed that sex offenders deserved it since sex crime is not a laughing matter as it leaves incurable scar to the victims.
It is true that people make mistakes in their lives. But we should also give chance to the former criminals to change for betterment. However, when the mistake ruined one’s life and could be avoided if the person had better control of him or herself, it is best to let the public know the harmful things that the person  could do if someone’s child is left alone with the former sex offender. The sympathy should be with the victim, and not the sex offender.
Committing sex offence cannot be tolerated in any circumstances even when the offender was still at a tender age. The effects of the sexual crimes are irreversible and the sex offender should understand that he or she will always face prejudice in the future even if there are no public record of his or her crimes. Habitual sex offenders do not deserve the confidentiality of their despicable act. Therefore, public have the right to be alerted of potential sexual threat posed by the criminals in public record.
Liberal countries like the U.S. has set up a government body called National Sex Offender Public Registry as a measure to let public know about the background of the people around them. Sex offender public record is also preferred by employers to screen the background of their employees. It is also a step to help to reform a sex criminal into a better person in the future.
Hence, exposing sex offender in public record is rather a safety precaution.  People must remember that there is always the possibility for the re-offending of the crime.

Popularity: 31% [?]

In California sex offenders must be registered as a result of a new law (see meganslaw.ca.gov for more information). To provide anyone with information on more then 63,000 persons the State of California has built a special search engine where you can search for sex offenders close to your home, your kids schools, or just any ZIP code in California you like.

In their database they got over 33,500 home addresses of sex offenders in the California communities. The addresses are however the last reported by the offender so in some cases it may be old information.

If you know the name of the offender you can also search for that or you can simply just enter your own ZIP code to find offenders close to you even if you don’t know their names.

When you do a search in the database you see the results as blue dots on a map where you can just click on any blue dot to find out more about the offender(s) at that location. You can even see photos on some of the offenders.

Is this something that should be allowed? Well, it’s good for families to be able to search for offenders in their neighbourhood, but what about the offenders? They’ve done their time, but now anyone can search for them and also see exactly where they live.

What do you think?

Popularity: 69% [?]