Originally Posted by Dave Brockman
Do you know what? I was about to start a thread about this, but in relation to the lynch mob who attacked the home of a paedophile after he was named in Sunday's News Of The World.
Let's be clear about this: the paper didn't act out of any desire to help protect the community. If that was their motive, they would have taken their concerns to the police or to social services.
No, they simply wanted to attract publicity and to sell newspapers, and their actions have now resulted in thousands of pounds' of taxpayers' money being spent rehoming this man.
Nobody is for one second excusing paedophilia, of course, and there's a whole seperate debate about whether sentencing is stringent enough or whether offenders should be allowed to live near schools.
But this man had been judged, rightly or wrongly, to have served his time; and was being monitored by the police. If paedophiles start to worry that their details will be published, then they'll disappear underground.
The overwhelming majority abide by the terms of their release, but in US states where "Megan's Law" exists that figure is only just over 50%. By pushing for a similar law in this country, and by such irresponsible actions as this weekend's, the News Of The World is pandering to the baying lynch mobs and doing more harm than good.
Now, to answer your original point: not entirely. Too many kids treat ASBOs as a badge of honour rather than something to be ashamed of. Getting their picture in the local paper is just a logical next step on their somewhat warped vision of fame.
But I guess it works for a certain percentage of cases, so it's probably better than doing nothing at all.