Sarah’s Law
I am not sure if its relief I feel or a new wave of anxiety at the roll out of Sarah’s Law. It will be a relief to know that I can personally check to make sure that people who deal with my child are not registered sex offenders, but it also creates a whole list of other questions and concerns. First of all, aren’t people in these positions already CRB checked? There is an extensive and cumbersome policy already in place that mandates people working with children and vulnerable adults get a criminal record background check. This covers a wide range of people dealing with the public in positions that vary from nursery workers to museum staff to those working in long term care. What about those who have never been caught? Is this law going to lull us into a false sense of security? How many paedophiles are there out there and for every one that has been caught and registered how many are there under the radar? The pilot scheme had 315 applications for information which returned 21 convicted sex offenders. At the very least, sex offenders that have been caught should be scared enough of the consequences to stay away from occupations where they deal with children. What were these 21 people thinking-’hey I’ll just try it on and see if I slip through’. It is absolutely disgusting. I may be an over protective mum with the privilege to choose, but I don’t want my daughter to be in the care of others until she has the language skills to explain to me if her care is inappropriate. It is really difficult to be a parent in this day and age, but my philosophy is to work harder to be a good parent, so that my child can relax and do her job, which is to be as care free as possible.
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