Letter to Editors. Upon the bill on prevention of sexual delinquency threats

Marshal of the lower house of the Polish parliament received the bill on preventing sexually-motivated crime threats (together with secondary legislation drafts) presented by the Prime Minister of Poland, Beata Szydło. In relation to the ongoing discussion, first, concerning the regulations proposed in the draft and then – the effects of adopting this act by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, I would like to make also my voice audible. Voice of a person who has devoted over ten last years to studying the phenomenon of pedophilia, which involved conducting research (with financial support from the Polish National Science Centre), publishing results and offering therapy to sexual crime victims and offenders. The decision to speak up was also influenced by the course of the meeting of the Extraordinary Subcommittee for considering the govern-ment's bill on preventing sexually-motivated crime threats (subcommittee of the Sejm I highly identify with the statement that a legislator's objective should be to ensure a decrease in the number of sexual crimes by coordinating actions undertaken at various stages of preventing perpetration. Legislative efforts should also be integrated with all rules governing the operation of a democratic state, the existing legal solutions, and the current system of social reintegration. The government's bill on preventing sexually-motivated crime threats (hereinafter referred to as the Act) is not going to give the above mentioned result because the solutions proposed therein are an example of only seemingly effective solutions that will not contribute to lowering the amount of sexual crimes. The Act provides for three particular protective measures (Article 3 of the Act): 1) sex offenders registry; 2) obligations of employers and other organizations with respect to activities related to upbringing, education, and medical treatment of minors or taking care of them; 3) determining locations particularly endangered with sexually-motivated crime. The measure mentioned as first is of major importance. The other two refer to peculiar methods of using the data on the registry.