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for profit
This
page considers commercial 'offender registers' and databases.
It covers -
introduction
The
'naming and shaming' business extends beyond grubby tabloids,
with print publishers making money by selling directories
and online publishers offering a variety of paid services
or generating revenue through advertising on free sites.
Promo for one US service thus claims
- Sex
Offender Notification Service - Receive an e-mail with
map whenever a sex offender moves into your neighborhood.
Only $19.95 per year - less than $2.00/ month.
- Only
technology that continually monitors sex offender databases
so that you are alerted whenever a sex offender registers
a new address within 1 mile of your home
- Risk
Assessment Service - Calculate the number of sex offenders
within a radial of a specified address.
Another, badged as "perpetually promoting peace of
mind and prosperity", states that
There
are 650,000 registered sex offenders in America –
and that number grows by about 25,000 every year. Wouldn't
you like to know if any of them are living in your neighborhood?
Now you can!
Use the Vision 20/20 POM Offender Locator to identify
registered sex offenders living in your area. Do it
now. It's Free! Just type your address and zip code,
and find out exactly where they live. Our system will
reveal their location instantly - with their address
and their picture.
You can also register with POM Offender Locator to receive
an alert the moment any new offender moves into your
neighborhood. It's a Free service!
Now that you are empowered, you can be rest assured
that you are taking the appropriate measures to safeguard
your family.
Australia's
for-profit CrimeNet
site offered information about criminal convictions on
the basis that
If
somebody has handed over their civil rights by being
involved in a major crime then that is their fault and
the public has a right to know.
The site is the latest of a succession of print and online
publications identifying criminals or alleged criminals.
Another example is Deborah Coddington's Australian
Paedophile & Sex Offender Index (Sydney: Mount
View Trust 1997), criticised in relation to claims that
it identified convictions but not successful appeals.
And, dare we say, even newspapers get things wrong, so
scraping data is problematical.
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