Mr Crosby is a long-time advocate for the New Zealand government to make online registries for violent and sex offenders to be made (freely) publicly available.

4 years on and online Sentencing Tracker proves hugely successful

It has now been four years since an online database which was designed as faster way to research New Zealand sentence records for serious offenders. Designed an operated by the Sensible Sentencing Trust [New Zealand’s largest victims’ rights advocacy group] the data base has proven to be a highly useful research tool. This is the one online database out of the Trusts three online databases in which offenders do not have to be alive to be listed. The database has a wide range of sentencing data including records of New Zealand’s longest concurrent and cumulative sentences.

Creator of the online Sentencing Tracker Ross Crosby says just like the other two databases the list of offenders in New Zealand is not complete but the list of offenders has grown considerably over the years. Mr Crosby is a long-time advocate for the New Zealand government to make online registries for violent and sex offenders to be made (freely) publicly available. Mr Crosby has written repeatedly to the government calling for them to do so but so far this has been without success.

"For me none of this is about naming and shaming offenders but is to promote public safety and an open and honest criminal justice system. I’ve always believed the public should know what goes on in our courts and who offenders are and the types of sentences they get particularly serious violent offenders as well as paedophiles and sex offenders," Mr Crosby said.

The information on the online Sentencing Tracker is mainly sourced from media articles and sentencing judgments/notes. Normally once an offender is deceased the Sensible Sentencing Trust will take their file off the database or not build a file at all. However there is an exception for this online Sentencing Tracker for the purpose of researching sentencing information particularly because the Trust needs to cite the source that shows where the original information comes from. With online Sentencing Tracker new files for deceased offenders can be build or old ones kept on if it’s for the purpose of researching sentencing data. ENDS

ENDS

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