The Polish justice ministry has announced they will be publishing the names, photographs, and details of some 800 convicted sex offenders, including those found guilty of child sex offences, on their website to keep the public informed.
The list of 800 convicted sex offenders is based on a similar policy by the United States, according to Polish Justice Minister and Attorney General Zbigniew Ziobro. The government say they hope the list will help educate the public rather than keep them in the dark and stop criminals hiding behind anonymity in local communities, Kronen Zeitung reports.
“The right to protect our children is above the anonymity of criminals,” Justice Minister Ziobro said.
While there are 800 individuals on the list available to the public, the full comprehensive list of 2,600 convicted sex criminals is still largely restricted and requires registration with the government. Those included on the larger restricted list include individuals convicted of viewing child pornography.
The Justice Ministry has also called out to school boards across the country to become familiar with the sex offender registry to make sure that no teachers are hired who may have a history of sex offences.
The publication of the names and locations of sex offenders by Poland shows a distinctly different attitude to several other European Union member states in regard to crime and crime statistics.
Sweden Blocks Request for Data on Link Between Crime and Immigration https://t.co/IoQwkATITh pic.twitter.com/VfXnytCzBf
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 19, 2017
Countries like Sweden have been slammed by many, including politicians within the country, for not being transparent with crime data as it related to the ethnic background of criminal suspects.
In November, the Swedish Moderate Party requested the publication of ethnic crime statistics but was rejected by Justice Minister Morgan Johansson, who argued that the only important factor in sex attacks was that most were committed by men.
The Swedish government also announced it would be heavily restricting websites that dared to publish the ethnic origin of criminal suspects.
In the UK, a sex offender list and weak disclosure scheme exists, following a public campaign which followed the abduction and murder of 8-year-old Sarah Payne by a convicted paedophile.
However, it is nothing like as easily accessible as the Polish registry, and many were outraged last year after a Freedom of Information request revealed that half of those on the list were taken off when they requested it.
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