Here's how Malaysian's can check if your babysitter is a sex offender

[NORMAL CRIME vs SEXUAL CRIMES]

[GOOD NEWS FOR PARENTS, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE OFFENDERS?]

[START WITH SELVA KUMAR?]

In the 2006 film Little Children which features the lives of typical American families in the suburbs, a character named Ronnie stood out. He stood out because he was convicted previously of a sex crime, and the whole neighbourhood knew about it and they ostracised him.

This is pretty peculiar because former convictions are usually hush-hush. In other words, people can’t simply find out about your past convictions. However in the western world, things are a little different when it comes to people convicted of sex crimes – their names are on a sex offender registry. And this registry will be available to law enforcement and sometimes the general public, so that the offender’s whereabouts are known and the public can take precautions. Some even argue that it acts as a deterrent, because even if you’re outta jail, you’d basically have a sign over your head indicating you’re a sex offender.

There has been calls in Malaysia for such a system to be in place in after the return of Canadian serial rapist Selva Kumar. However, it took sometime for the system to be put in place. But according to a recent report, Deputy Minister Hannah Yeoh announced that the system will be up and running by April 1^st (and we assume it ain’t an April Fool’s prank).

Here’s how the Malaysian system is gonna work…

Here’s how the Malaysian system works

So this system already has the names of 3,000 offenders that have committed sex crimes against children. According to Hannah Yeoh, the list is updated from 2017 to February 2019.

The list was created for those who run organisations that work with children, meaning those who hire people to work with children day to day (so basically schools, daycares, school buses etc). It basically allows them to check if someone has a sex crime conviction before deciding to hire them. It’s not really available to the general public, but parents can use the system if they have a valid reason – like hiring a new babysitter.

So if you wanna use the system to do a check, here’s how it works:

1. Get the IC of the person you’d like to check
2. Head to the nearest Social Welfare Department and give the IC number there
3. You’d also have to explain why you’re performing the check
4. If they accept your explanation, they’d give you the result

We don’t know how effective this system is gonna be, because this is a first for Malaysia. However, it seems like Malaysians are generally responding well to the news. 

“Those who want to send their children to daycares, or schools looking to hire new teachers, simply have to provide the individual’s IC number to the Social Welfare Department.”  – Deputy Minister Hannah Yeoh reported by The Malay Mail
 

Malaysia isn’t the first country to implement a sex offender registry, but other countries do it somewhat differently. For example in America…

Anyone can perform a check online

In 1994, there was a 7 year old girl named Megan Kanka who was raped and murdered by a man who lived across the street, he apparently had a pervious criminal record of sexual crimes against children. 

Her parents believed that her rape and murder could’ve been prevented if they’d known that a former sex offender was living in the vicinity. As a result, the federal government came up with Megan’s Law which was enacted requiring local enforcement authorities to make information of the sex offenders living in the area available to the general public. 

[mention it’s difference is by state]

So the result of this law is that, once a sex offender moves into an area, the local police must notify the residents. The only discretion is that each state can choose how much information they’d like to reveal to the publict. For example the police must inform the community a sex offender is living in the area, but they an withhold information on what exact crimes he committed.

There are two type of online systems running concurrently in America, one is run by the Department of Justice called NSOPW, and there are a few private ones like familywatchdog. It works like this:

1. You put in the name or the address of the place you want to check
2. The website will show whether or not the person has a criminal record, or whether there are offenders in the area
3. You can see exactly where the offenders are located, along with their names and photos and sometimes offences they were convicted with

As you can see, there are some glaring differences between the Malaysian system and the American one. Firstly, the American one is available to the general public online while the Malaysia one requires people to go to the Social Welfare Department and give a reason for using the system. So technically it that sense the American system is more convenient and transparent, given that ANYONE can use it in the comfort of their own home.

However, the American system isn’t all rainbows and butterflies….

First studies seem to show that, it doesn’t deter offenders from committing crimes again. While you may think having the whole neighbourhood know about your deviant criminal past, may make someone wanna change and their ways to fit in with society, it doesn’t seem to work – there are instances where offenders commit crimes again.

Another criticism seems to revolve around the privacy argument. Basically, after the sex offenders served their sentences they should have a right to privacy; no one should simply know about their criminal past. And of course, the counter-argument to this is – the rights of the resident to be safe should trump the rights of sex offenders. Nevertheless whatever side of the argument you may choose, some reference to the consequences of such a system should be made. Particularly to the fact that that, having such names public may result in vigilante justice where people try to take the law into their own hands.