Local members of parliament in Birmingham, UK, are expressing a concern over a new website called TheRatBook.com. The Rat Book’s website reads:
Our goal has been simple:
To create the UK’s largest crime database, exposing Murderers, Paedophiles, Abusers, Perverts, Terrorists and Violent criminals, with the end result being a safer Britain for ourselves, our families, and our friends.
The Rat Book currently holds over 10,000 criminal profiles, and this figure grows by 100’s of new profiles DAILY – our work never stops.
Whether you use The Rat Book for your own protection, or to expose a criminal who has had an impact on your life (for the benefit of other users), we welcome you to our website.
In a recent story from the Birmingham Mail, local officials said that they were worried that the information on the site could be used for vigilantism or misinformation. The concern is valid. Certainly, a member of the public could get on the website, look at their area on the map, see that it contains 12 pedophiles, and then proceed to try and track those pedophiles down. But there are some limitations to the website’s information.
In the US, we have sex offender registries, complete with personal addresses. These registries are even mapped on websites, like CrimeReports. But the UK doesn’t have the same system, and they do not publish sex offender registries. So, when you look at the Rat Book website, all you can see is a region and a number (similar to the home office’s official crime mapping website). These regional numbers may be linked to a news story about pedophiles in the area. There are no addresses and no pictures (besides those found in publically accessible news stories).
The website does not publish unsubstantiated reports and ventures to backup each report with a news story. If the website is not publishing any more data than that which is available in local papers or in broadcast news, I fail to see how the site is as nefarious as local politicians make it out to be.
The one and only comment on the Birmingham Mail story, by “Pauline,” reads, “And the problem is??????????????????????????????????”
My sentiments exactly.
Do you think a site like this would be useful in the US? Or do we even need it since there are already sites that go well beyond this level of information?
James Gunter is the editor of The Crime Map and the director of social media for CrimeReports.com.
Get on the National Crime Map at CrimeReports.com
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the problem is that…well…the truth hurts? MPs should focus their time on sorting the problem rather than moaning about websites which report the problem!
Right on, Tom. Focus on the underlying problem and not the “annoying” symptoms like these will take care of themselves. Thanks for your comment.