chainsmoker: "I for one would rather live next door to a refugee than a racist, but we can't always choose our neighbours, can we?"

Quite so, and to my mind that would be a far better hypothetical question. In fact, I'm on record in this forum as saying that I'd much prefer to have a quiet Muslim family living next door than a mob of redneck yobbos.

Chainsmoker, I got the same interpretation of the original post as you did - more of a dig at those that have been loudly whinging about refugees than a serious comparison of the two.

To follow the line the discussion has taken though, there has to be some point drawn in the sand where an offender reliquishes their rights beyond that of any arbitrary prison sentence. At the same time though, we probably need to draw a line between different types of offenders, and even different types of sex offenders. For example the older partner involved in under-age consensual sex, is labelled a sex offender. Whilst this act may be morally bankrupt, we probably need to look to the impact of the crime on the victim, rather than being too quick to stick wide labels on offenders. Someone in this category is a vastly different risk to society in general than a serial rapist (or even one-time violent rapist), or paedophile.

The choice between castration and release or permanent gaol should be the only choice for repeat sexual offenders. Very few if any hawe proven to be trustworthy after being released from prison Amazing how everyone suddenly find absolutes when it comes to paedophiles. What refugees and paedophiles have in common I have no idea.

My reading of this initial post is that the writer believes refugees are second only to paedophiles on the scum-of-the-earth barometer, but I could have misread it, the point of the post didn't seem all that clear.

I don't see any parallels to be drawn between the two groups other than the fact that they are both victims. I'm not defending paedophiles, their crimes are thoroughly indefensible, but they are invariably the victims of a neglectful and abusive upbringing. They need to pay for their crimes, but it should be a punishment meted out by our legal system, not by a self-appointed and self-righteous suburban vigilante movement.

Geez everyone, cut the forum member some slack

Let them explain themselves before you get on your highhorses.

I for one interpreted the initial post to be an assessment of societal risk. For example, you could say that your risk of violent domestic invasion (by mistake) would be increased if a cop lived next door to you; you could say that the risk of late night party noise might be higher if a bunch of uni students lived next door to you; you could hypothesise anything you like about anyone in terms of maybes and mights, so let him explain himself first before jumping to conclusions.

STG! That is not one of your most intelligent posts. We all clap your concerns, but you need to put forward an apology to all our new guests that now live with us. The man in question should never be released! Refugees is a whole different subject. Don't you ever bring the two together again. Your IQ just dropped very sharply. I think you are better than that.