The constitutionality and justification of the National Register for Sex Offenders

Abstract

It behooves any legislator confronted with a society plagued by continuous and increasingly violent crimes, to promulgate legislation which strives to deter potential offenders by inter alia limiting the access they have to potential victims. It is in this vain that the South African legislator promulgated legislation which established a National Register for Sex Offenders whereby convicted (or in certain circumstances alleged) offenders' access to potential victims are limited by restricting the opportunities these offenders might have to commit another sexual offence. The aim of this dissertation is to closely examine this newly established National Register for Sex Offenders. This examination is performed within a constitutional framework from whence a comparative analysis of an analogous register in the United Kingdom is conducted. This dissertation seeks to pre-empt potential shortcomings of the National Register for Sex Offenders by providing recommendations based on findings from the aforementioned comparative study. This dissertation begins by setting out the scope and parameters of the National Register for Sex Offenders wherein it is also discussed whether or not this register acts as an extenuation of an offender's punishment and if so, whether or not it is justifiable. After this investigation, various possible infringements of the offender's constitutional rights are identified, discussed and justified. This dissertation, subsequently, studies an analogous register also recently established in the United Kingdom which helps to identify certain shortcomings in the National Register for Sex Offenders, whereafter certain recommendations are made. Most importantly, it is recommended that an independent authority should be established to regulate and administer the National Register for Sex Offenders. Furthermore, it is recommended that the National Register for Sex Offenders and the National Child Protection Register should be amalgamated into one register which will not only save taxpayers' money, but will also avoid any confusion. Another crucially important recommendation is that the scope of the National Register for Sex Offenders should be widened to include all vulnerable adults and not only those that are mentally disabled.