Last night the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, Mr Robin Corbett, called for the News of the World to be prosecuted over its "name and shame" campaign listing the names and addresses of convicted paedophiles.
Mr Corbett has asked the Home Office to consider prosecuting the newspaper for incitement of public order offences, following the targeting of suspected sex offenders.
Mr Corbett said it was "perfectly predictable" that the name and shame campaign, which ended last week, would encourage people to take the law into their own hands.
Police in Portsmouth yesterday called for local residents to end their protests after more than a week of targeting convicted sex offenders and innocent people in the area.
Violence has been a feature of some of the protests in the Paulsgrove area of Portsmouth, but the majority of the demonstrations outside the homes of people believed to be convicted sex offenders have been peaceful.
However, some people have been wrongly denounced as sex offenders - four families were mistakenly targeted this week - and the residents taking part in the protests have insisted they will continue targeting people until all the sex offenders living in the area have been moved out. They also want convicted sex offenders electronically tagged, including those who were convicted prior to 1997 when the Sex Offenders' Register was introduced in England and Wales.
Residents have employed a variety of methods to access information about the 20 sex offenders living in the area. They have gained information from the Internet, by word of mouth and they have used scanners to access police radio messages.
One resident who has taken part in the demonstrations, Mr Barry Pettinger, told journalists that people wanted the sex offenders to move out of the area and would not rest until they were gone: "Where they go is not our problem. We don't want them in our community. They ruin children's lives, so we are going to ruin their lives."
The police commander of the area, Supt Bob Golding, said: "I think now the point has been made, so let the politicians and others do their work, they have received the message so let's get back to a sense of normality."
The residents' campaign began shortly after the News of the World started its "name and shame" lists of convicted sex offenders last month. It has discontinued the campaign but has threatened to reinstate the lists if the government does not introduce "Sarah's law" - named after the murdered schoolgirl, Sarah Payne - giving parents controlled access to information about sex offenders living in their area.
The Labour MP for Portsmouth North, Mr Syd Rapson, said the temporary rehousing of sex offenders was a possible short-term solution to easing tension in the area while the government worked out a long-term solution.
"The long-term problem is causing a lot of discussion at national level with the Sarah's law issue, and it is one for the government to look at very seriously," he said.