Hypocritical sex laws

10-6-2008 Scotland:

When the Sex Offenders Register was established, it made sense to me that society should have the ability to identify the whereabouts and movements of certain types of criminal – predatory paedophiles, rapists, those who commit violent crimes with a sexual content, and particularly serial sex offenders.

I now find myself disturbed by two reports (3 October). One detailed how two people made love on the canal towpath, were prosecuted and placed on the Sexual Offenders Register. The other reports the Scottish Parliament's determination to retain the powers, in law governing the age of sexual consent, which encourage the prosecution of persons under the age of 16 for having consensual sexual intercourse.

What was the point of placing two young adults on the SOR, maybe impairing their career prospects and potential usefulness to society for ever for what was at worst a public nuisance.

Similarly retaining the powers to prosecute boys and girls of 14 and 15 for a consensual act of sexual intercourse with their peers – leading to their potential imprisonment and inclusion on the SOR – is both mad and hypocritical.

Scotland would be better served if we spent less money prosecuting the essentially innocent, and more, for instance, on researching how to increase the efficiency of rape prosecutions. Stop going for the easy targets, and tackle the important ones.

..Source.. Opinion of DAVID FIDDIMORE, Calton Road, Edinburgh