There were extraordinary scenes across Britain last spring when it became known that Robert Oliver and Sidney Cooke were due for release.
The two had been convicted of the manslaughter of 14-year-old Jason Swift during a sexual assault in 1985. There were riots in six towns across Britain, wherever rumour had it that they were planning to settle. Both are still being held in private custody at unknown locations for their own safety.
It is hard to judge whether the register of sex offenders (Schedule 1 of the Sex Offenders Act) which came into force last September in Britain will help or inflame the situation. Under the Act, anyone convicted of a serious sexual crime must notify the police of a change of address.
This information is then put into the police computer record system. The register is not limited to paedophiles but applies to anyone convicted of a serious sexual crime, although indecent assault is only covered when the victim is under 18.
Since 1991 and the implementation of the Criminal Services Act, sex offenders have been monitored after release, and some 10 charities are involved in providing interim housing. However, Oliver and Cooke were both convicted before 1991.
The hysteria generated by Oliver and Cooke was exacerbated by the knowledge that, unlike more recent sex offenders, there was no compulsion on them to register. In principle they could go where they pleased and there was nothing the authorities could do about it until they reoffended.
The sex offenders' register may mean the police know where former offenders are, but the Act leaves it entirely to the discretion of the local police who is informed, if anyone.
Those informed could be anyone the police considered relevant, ranging from the local authority, individual schools or - as in one case in north Wales - the owner of a caravan site. And there are the inevitable leaks.
However, branding of sex offenders in this way is already creating major problems, making it well-nigh impossible for the former offender (not to mention his family) to make a fresh start.
If a lynch-mob mentality takes over, anything can happen. Sometimes vigilante attacks are directed at hostels, sometimes at individuals, including two documented mistakes of mistaken identity when convicted paedophiles were "outed" by local newspapers.
The penalties for not registering are six months in prison or a £5,000 fine.
But unless the general public accepts at some level the need for calm, the danger is that sex offenders will go underground, thus becoming a far greater risk to the community.