Sex offenders database: Is it needed in India?

After several brutal incidents of sexual assault and rape this year in India, and especially after the Delhi incident, there has been a flood of ideas and demands to stop this kind of  crime.

These ideas include calls for new laws, more effective implementation of current laws, increase in punishment, judicial reforms (fast-track courts), change in society's and especially the police force's attitude to women, addressing and rectifying rape culture, self-defense courses for women, gender-sensitivity education for men, reforms in media portrayal of rape and many others.

One of the suggestions is to create a sex offenders database for the country. Here I'm trying to explore this particular issue and whether it has any merit and is worth pursuing,

Disclaimer: my knowledge about this issue is limited to that gleaned from the internet. This post is more about putting down thoughts and information learned, on paper and hoping to gain some insights if anyone knowledgeable about this cares to share them here.

Some places to start, to get a grasp on this issue are:

Sex Offender registration across the world (Wikipedia link)
Debate on pros and cons of creating a sex offender database (External debate site) - an excellent compendium of pros and cons about this issue.
Some thoughts and a discussion can be found at this post by Nirwa Mehta.

A brief summary from above-

1) A database like this could act as a deterrent (" Knowing that, if they commit an offence, their name, photograph, and a description of their crimes will be widely published deters people from committing the offence in the first place and equally of reoffending. ... Such publication may limit their opportunity to access such encounters in the future, and therefore the policy aims to operate such as to minimise what a person desires should they commit a crime")

2) It can help people take precautions to protect themselves

3) It can encourage vigilantism. ("In at least two instances, convicted sex offenders were murdered after their information was made available over the Internet.")

4) It can be a stigmatizing and alienating tool

5) It will be expensive to maintain. (Also, given India's population and infrastructure, this would be a logistical nightmare)

6) Australia, Canada, UK, Ireland, US and Norway have these systems in place.


I think in the Indian context, one purpose that such a database might serve is to act as a deterrent for a particular kind of rapist - the urban affluent rapist who preys on women and children in his family or at his workplace. This kind of person is more likely to have access to, be aware of and be affected by his name and details of his crime being made publicly accessible. It has severe implications for his career, housing and social standing. In a case where rapes are committed by a relative or a neighbor on minors, it is unclear how improving policing or raising the punishment will help. Apart from the parents taking precautions, such a database might help in preventing rapes by acting as a deterrent.

Perhaps having such a database might also help in preventing cross-border crimes (across state lines) by helping police to have faster access to a person's criminal records. I'm not aware if such a system already exists at the national level.

(The issue of migrants is controversial and I couldn't find numbers that give a good picture of how many of the rape crimes are committed by migrants. To blame this issue on migrants is irresponsible and wrong and that is not what I am trying to do here. The reason for including this point is to acknowledge the possibility that some criminals would be likely to commit crimes in one state and move to another.)

Currently, police encourages people to register and verify details of any new domestic help or driver they are hiring. It is not known how many do this. Having a centralised database (not necessarily national) will help in identifying if a person has a history of sexual offences. The police can then advise on precautions to be taken while hiring such a person. And this need not be limited to people working as hired help. Even those working in white collar jobs can be subjected to such background checks with the help of a registry.

There perhaps is no one single solution to the problem of rape. Every suggestion to counter this menace can be questioned with 'Oh, but how would it have prevented this particular case of rape?' (It wouldn't have, but perhaps it would help prevent another variant of this crime.) If someone suggests better policing, they will be asked how will it solve the rapes occurring inside homes. If capital punishment is suggested, there is the example of capital punishment not being able to eradicate homicides.

Implementing one change does not prevent us from taking other steps.

I'm sure there are a lot of limitations to creating a database like this. It will definitely be useless in countering some situations where rapes occur. But would this database be considered worthwhile if even a small percentage of such heinous incidents are prevented because of it?

There would of course be a lot of steps and counter checks needed for this kind of system to be useful. An efficient police and judicial machinery, regular maintenance and revision of the database, provision of mental healthcare to both the perpetrator and the survivors are only some of those steps. Although a huge chunk of the population does not use Internet right now, is the situation going to remain the same over the next say 20 years? The rapid growth of smartphones provides another avenue for using such a database.

The government of India seems to be already taking steps in this direction  . But it is sad to see the focus being on just shaming the convicted, which will perhaps have more of an effect on the relatives of the convicted.. Nowhere does the word prevention or how the public should effectively use the database or how the government plans to tackle possible vigilantism, figure in the press release.