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Criminal Law Encompasses The Regulation Of Conduct On A

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Criminal law encompasses the regulation of conduct on a social level as well as outlining the consequences when conduct is deemed detrimental to public safety. For this reason, Sex Offender Registration Laws were originally established as a risk management tool for law enforcement to monitor sex offenders as a means of deterrence. “There are perhaps no crimes that inspire as much fear, revulsion, and outrage as sexual offenses” (Levenson, Grady & Leibowitz, 2016). Opponents to current Sex Offender Registration laws point to public access to sex offender registries, all-encompassing registration criteria and lifetime registration established through the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offenders Act of 1994 …show more content…

Convicted sexual offenders were required to verify their address with local law enforcement for at least 10 years after their release from prison. As a subsection of the Wetterling Act, federal Megan’s Law of 1996 required law enforcement to notify communities and therefore establishing sex offender registries as public. Notification includes the name, photo, address, incarceration date and convicted offense. The law is named after Megan Kana, a seven-year-old who was raped and killed in 1994 by a registered sex offender who resided across the street from her home. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 established a three tier organization to sex offense crimes. The Act is named after Adam Walsh, a six-year-old who was abducted and killed in 1981. Those convicted of Tier 3 offenses have a lifetime registration requirement which must be updated every three months. Tier 2 offenses have a twenty-five-year registration requirement which must be updated every six months. Tier 1 offenses has a fifteen-year registration requirement and must be updated yearly. Lastly, the Adam Walsh Act created a national sex offender registry, prompting states to create a standardized registration criteria and dissemination format.
Problem Identification While originally created to meet public safety demands, sexual registration laws have been ineffective in deterrence and provide a false sense of

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