Should convicted pedophiles be electronically tagged? - DHAI

Ok so in your opinion, should convicted pedophiles be electronically tagged? Here is how it'll work. Electronic tags will be surgically implanted into the convicted pedophiles soon after their release. The tags will have the ability to monitor heart rate, and blood pressure. Any fluctuations can be used to predict a possible attack.

Of course some people will consider this method a tad bit invasive. But to be honest, that individual became invasive the day he/she prayed on a vulnerable child. Simply allowing the pedophile to walk free, overlooking the idea of a future attack is extremely naive. This is why I strongly feel this is a reasonably effective and appropriate method of dealing with pedophiles. If you think about it, this isn't that much different of tracking a hurricane. Both pedophiles an hurricanes (although storms lack consciousness) are dangerous threats that have unpredictable paths. Therefore, its important society knows of the existence of these threats.

As I mentioned above, one key difference between the two is that a hurricane lacks a conscious. Now despite the fact that a pedophile has a conscious, I don't think they can truly change. Sure they may go to a therapist an help cope with their "urges." But even if they don't act on them in the future, that doesn't necessarily mean they have completely gotten over their sick obsession. I'm not saying to treat them like some wild animal. But its important you don't let your guard down. You have to treat them as a threat. By knowing where they are, all the time, we can keep the children a bit safer.

According to this site, here are a some pros an cons of this plan.
http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=189


Pros:

We can place exclusion zones around areas where we know children are likely to be: schools, playgrounds and so on, and forbid known pedophiles from entering them. If a pedophile enters the zone, the police can be alerted through the tagging system. Also, if the monitors measure heart rate and blood pressure, the police can be alerted when a pedophile exhibits symptoms of nervousness that might indicate that they are about to commit a crime. This will make children safer.

This measure protects the innocent: if convicted pedophiles were tagged and their whereabouts known at all times, it would be easy for the police to eliminate them from their inquiries when children were abducted, because they would have a cast-iron alibi: the fact that they have a previous record could not be a pretext for the police to arrest them.

Cons:

This is an abuse of civil liberties: once people have been released from prison they are considered to have paid their debt to society, and we have no right to continue to keep them under surveillance.

The police have lists of convicted pedophiles and their addresses anyway, and they can use these when trying to eliminate suspects without the immense logistical problems caused by having to monitor the movements of pedophiles in real time on computer screens. Also, if the technology was faulty, clever pedophiles might be able to hack into the system, constructing cast-iron false alibis ‘proving’ they were at home when the offense was committed.

So how do you feel about this issue? Let us debate!

Yes, they should because we can use it for cases, IE, in short, some child is ***** in a certain area, and if its an unusual area we can find a pedophile who matches the description or if none do.

I think sex offenders should be tracked, but no one else. And the data should only be used by someone with no personal connections in criminal investigations.

I think this is a bit invasive of privacy which once the pedophile has completed their sentence is allowed to have as any citizen is.

I believe that councelling and therapy would be much better as it can both help society and the individual in question. If the person is known possibly that counselling won't ever work then I'd consider tagging them.

I think reducing the tag to only go off when the individual is within the vicinity of certain areas mentioned (schools, playgrounds) may be a bit more humane as it can help protect children and the person isn't being constantly monitered.


Also adding to this: some people who have pedophillic desires have actually gone to the police to seek help before they act on them (they haven't done anything wrong yet and have a desire to prevent it occurring) but a lot of establishes can do nothing until a person actually commits assault which I think is terrible.

Pedophile ≠ child molester.

That being said, I see a huge amount of flaws with this, though it may simply be my ignorance of the system. It is stated in the link that tracking would be done by satellite, which is fine and dandy, but who's going to be tracking the movement? The police force? A special unit? And if they receive notice that there is a flux in heart rate and blood pressure, who's going to investigate it? Will the police have the resources to respond to every twinge in the circulatory system? Or is it a system provided merely for the sake of alibis?

Situationally, I don't see how this could work. An implanted person could say that he was merely be exercising or working out, and the police could be knocking at his door five minutes later. Sure, he has an alibi, or he could be spying on Mr. and Mrs. Across-the-Road's five year-old. There's really no way of being sure, is what I'm trying to say.

Don't get me wrong, I think implants are a great idea, and the safety of the children should be first priority. Even if a child molester has "paid their debt to society," pedophiles are generally considered mentally sick. But there are flaws with this system that could allow a child molester to circumvent the law. Situational flaws, yes, but I still find them problematic.

lythium said:

Pedophile ≠ child molester.

Click to expand...

I don't quite understand how they aren't the same thing. Unless, you're saying Pedophile is just the classification, and child molester falls under the umbrella of pedophile.

Hmm, so instead of trying to get these obviously mentally sick people help, we tag them like animals and track their movement. Perhaps an ankle tracking device could be worn for a certain amount of time, but I don't think anything should be surgically implanted into them. It's almost as if they're not considered human.

Its already been shown that because of such extreme punishments, sex offenders are going underground, hiding their crimes, and murdering their victims more often.
And so out of fear, we step the crimes up another step?
Perhaps treating their illness instead of focusing on new punishments is the proper route.

CRASHiC said:

Its already been shown that because of such extreme punishments, sex offenders are going underground, hiding their crimes, and murdering their victims more often.
And so out of fear, we step the crimes up another step?
Perhaps treating their illness instead of focusing on new punishments is the proper route.

Click to expand...

Given the assumption that their illnesses are usually treatable of course...
5.3% is awfully large... and it gets bigger if they have had prior arrests.
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/rsorp94pr.htm
Too bad the study doesn't give statistics for convicts who convicted multiple sex offenses and detailed their rates of recidivism.

if sexual offenders are tracked, then what would we use to catch them. They're heart rate? Location? I mean if we do that we might catch them when they're doing something completely unrelated.