Sex Offenders

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 4:12 pm on 7 June 2007.

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Photo of Ian McKee Ian McKee Scottish National Party 4:12, 7 June 2007

This is an extremely emotive topic, and as the father of three children I share the repugnance and horror experienced by most normal people whenever details of a vile sexual offence come to light, especially if children are involved. However, a strong emotional revulsion is not necessarily the precursor to good legislation, and it is important to introduce rational proposals in a clear-headed manner if we are to serve society in the purpose for which we were elected. We have moved on from the days of lynch law, for example.

I will consider some of the ancillary issues. Let us take risk, for example. I am convinced that risk is something that none of us completely understands or that, if we do, we often do not put our understanding into practice. I mention that because the emotive concept of risk, as it relates to sexual offences, is beginning to have an adverse effect on the lives of our children.

I remember being told as a child that whenever I was lost or in trouble, I was to ask an adult for help. Today, our children are taught never to talk to strangers. Most are never allowed to play outside unsupervised or to walk home from school unaccompanied by an adult. As a result, they are losing out on the experience of relating with their peers and having the innocent adventures that enhanced childhood in the past. Time on the computer is hardly fair compensation.

Although schoolchildren are invariably taught about the dangers of talking to strangers, many lessons on safe cycling have been abandoned on grounds on cost, yet very many more children die or are injured when riding bicycles than as a result of assaults by strangers. Moreover, the chances of a child being assaulted or abducted by a stranger have not increased over the decades. As we prepare new legislation, let us do our best not to fan the flames of ignorance and prejudice, lest we harm our children still further.

When does a victim become a villain? We all despise a sexual pervert who harms children, and we all feel nothing but sympathy for the child whose life has been ruined as a result of the abuse. However, general practitioners who may work in the same area for decades see those children grow up and become adults, perhaps parents. Most, although scarred by their childhood experiences, form relationships and warm to the challenge of parenthood, but sadly a few, badly affected by their trauma and lacking the emotional development that only a loving relationship can develop within them, become abusers themselves.

I ask again: when does one stop sympathising with a victim and start to insist that they are locked up for life or subjected to an even more radical solution? That is not simply an abstract question. It is fair to say that society must be protected from such folk and that it is enthusiastic about supervisory measures that we have heard about, such as warning the community that such a person is in its midst and other robust measures. However, it is also true that in almost every case, there is a background in which the subject of that attention was a victim at one stage.

Many measures that have been mentioned might be effective in the short term, but a longer-term solution can be found only by attempting to tackle the root cause of people's dysfunctional behaviour. I refer to measures such as those that Mike Pringle and Richard Simpson have advocated.