The fact that two-thirds of all cases at the High Court are sex offences is proof of the size of the challenge facing the authorities.
Police have the unenviable task of monitoring sex offenders – some of the worst people in our society – to make sure they don’t offend again.
There are so many of them in Scotland now that a new proposal has been raised which would split those who have offended with contact and the so-called “non-contact” offenders, who use digital platforms to feed their sick desires.
There’s merit in making sure stretched police resources are assigned to tracking those sex offenders who are most likely to cause actual physical harm to victims.
But the solution can’t mean lowering levels of checks on other sex offenders just because the problem is too big.
