Megan's Law Research Paper

In 1996, Megan’s Law was created to help police during their investigation of sex crimes and to let the public know about the identities and location of the offender. Along with the Adam Walsh Child Protection and the Safety Act of 2006, sex offenders must fill a list of information about themselves in a database; this includes their names, finger prints, a recent photo, etc. this database has three risk tiers in order to know how dangerous the offender is, with tier one is the lowest risk and tier three being the highest. With the community being a big part in dealing with sex offenders, notification statutes were made for people who want information about them. With community notification laws in place, parents must take extra precaution

There have been many federal acts passed in correspondence with sex offenses that illicit feat with the public. There are many different types of ways in which Levenson & colleagues’ (2007) describes the perceptions that the public has based on certain factors. For instance, in relation to the perception about the sex offender notification system, a survey produced results of around 80 percent in favor of these registries, because these individuals felt safer in their communities knowing who was in their neighborhood. Further, due to this fear that resonated in the early 1990’s communities do have tools such as residential restrictions, civil commitment, notification procedures, etc. that aid in the protection. However, there are myths associated with sex offenders, for example legislation often states that the reasoning for new laws and regulations is due to the high recidivism rates. However, sex offenders have significantly lower recidivism rates than believed. Also, there are countless people who do not believe that sex offenders can be assisted with techniques from a psychological standpoint. Most people think that these offenders cannot be treated, however, there is research being conducted that is promising. Finally, there is a common misconception that sex offenders kill their victims, especially children more often than other killers, however this is not true.

Notification: Public Attention, Political Emphasis, and Fear”, by Richard G. Wright, makes the following statement that goes along with issue involving the allocation of funds, “For the millions of direct and indirect expenditures spent on compliance and implementation with registration and notification laws, there is very little funding spent on sexual assault prevention, victim support, and offender treatment” (Wright 102). It is extremely important to put money towards rehabilitation, and the support of the victims of sexual assault, not just the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

Megan’s Law was named after a seven year old girl from New Jersey Megan Nicole Kanka. On July 29, 1994 she was invited by a neighbor to see his puppy. He was a twice convicted pedophile; he sexually assaulted and murdered her. Due to the brutality of the crime that was done to Megan it mandate registration of sex offenders and corresponding community notification.

Megan Kanka and several other children have been the reason for the safety of children around this country. I know that you’re wondering in what way this person contributed to the safety of other children. Well Megan Kanko was a 7 years old child who was next door from a previously charged pedophile in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. The difference between then and now is that in the past there were no laws stating that pedophiles had to inform those who lived near them that they were there, of their past convictions, or even some type of registration available. This was the case of Megan Kanka’s offender, Jesse Timmendequas. His record consisted of attempted aggravated sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl in Piscataway, New Jersey, in 1979. He had pleaded guilty to the charges for attempted aggravated sexual assault. He was given a suspended sentence, but he failed to go to counseling, so he was forced to spend nine months at the Middlesex Adult Correctional Center. In 1981, he again pleaded guilty in regards to the sexual assault of a seven-year-old girl and was imprisoned, at Avenel, for six years. He’s an example of a recidivist who was controlled and

Prevention of child sex abuse has risen in recent years with various programs and policies that help reduce the rate of children being abused. Sex offender registries was formed to notify the local communities about a sex offender living near the families. The Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Act requires states

On July 29, 1994 in a small town in New Jersey, a 7 year old girl was lured into the home of Jesse Timmendequas after the promise of a puppy. What followed was the sexual assault and brutal murder of Megan Kanka, her body found in Mercer Park the next day. Timmendequas was arrested quickly and at which time his prior charges were brought to light. Timmendequas had been priorly charged with attacking a 5 year old child and attempted sexual assault of a 7 year old (“Parents For Megan’s Law”). These facts sparked community outrage, and petitions that demanded the right to be made more aware of sexual predators circulated the state. Megan Kanka’s parent pushed for the state legislators to create a new law, stating that “ if they had known about

          In the summer of 1994 in Hamilton, New Jersey, a small girl by the name of Megan Kanka was raped and murdered by a convicted pedophile, Jesse Timmendequas. The shocking crime rocked not only the small town, but the entire country. A desperate mother told reporters “Please, please help us find our daughter, she’s a wonderful girl ... she’s only seven. Let her come back.” (www.crimelibrary.com) No mother should ever have to beg for her daughter’s life. People thought that everyone had a right to know if a child molester was living in their midst. Dick Zimmer, then a state senator in New Jersey, and later a one-term congressman,

Sex offenders have been a serious problem for our legal system at all levels, not to mention those who have been their victims. There are 43,000 inmates in prison for sexual offenses while each year in this country over 510,000 children are sexually assaulted(Oakes 99). The latter statistic, in its context, does not convey the severity of the situation. Each year 510,000 children have their childhood's destroyed, possibly on more than one occasion, and are faced with dealing with the assault for the rest of their lives. Sadly, many of those assaults are perpetrated by people who have already been through the correctional system only to victimize again. Sex offenders, as a class of criminals, are nine times more likely to repeat their

The number of registered sex offenders have increasingly grew over the years. Every day you see a man or women added to the registry for crimes against women and mostly children. The sex offender registries biggest and main focus is to keep the people in the community in each city and state informed and protected. ”Sex offenders and sex crimes provoke a great deal of anxiety in our society.” Baker, J, Brannon, Y, N., Fortney. , Levenson, J.S. (“Public Perceptions about Sex Offenders and Community Protection”). The sex offender registry is based solely on protecting the public from being a victim

Megan’s Law created a registration and notification procedure to alert law enforcement, schools, community organizations and neighbors to the presence of a sex offender who authorities believe may pose a risk to the community ( Verniero 1) .When sex crime offenders are released from prison according to this new law, they must register themselves with the police. If they are thought to be dangerous and will possibly strike again, they must also register with the

Stories of sex offenders have been increasingly a focus of attention by the criminal justice system over the past years. By legal definition, a sex offender “is a person who is convicted of a sexual offense (Sex Offender Law & Legal Definition),” an act which is prohibited by the jurisdiction. What constitutes as a sex offense or normal/abnormal sexual behavior varies over time and place, meaning that it also varies by legal jurisdiction and culture. In the United States of America, for example, a person can be convicted of wide range of sexual behavior that includes prostitution, incest, sex with a minor, rape, and other sex offenses (Sex Offender Law & Legal Definition). As the nature of sex crimes have long held the

Perpetrators of sex crimes committed against children often start by gaining the trust of potential victims and the adults in their lives’ by using a tactic called “grooming.” The purpose of this memo is to give the court a baseline understanding of what sex offender victim grooming is, its purpose, and techniques. Because of the extensive amount of research and information on this topic, this paper does not detail all of the grooming techniques used by child sex offenders to groom potential victims.

Misguided laws are compounded by media outlets use of the very words regarding sex offenses. I found an interesting study by the National Center For Reason

There are four major eras that deal with sex offender laws. They are the Progressive Era from the 1800 to1935, the Sexual Psychopath Era which was from the 1930 to 1955, the Liberal Era occurred from the 1950’s to 1980, and finally the Containment Era which was from the 1980’s to the present (Logue, 2012). Logue stated that in the Progressive Era sexual abuse of children became the focus as it had shown to be the leading form of sexual crimes and as a result there were some of the first laws passed against it in 1894 (2012). In 1896 females became the leading victims of these crimes and as a result it was proved that victims of sexual violence experience some sort of trauma (Logue, 2012). From 1908 to 1916 there was a spike in sexual crimes and serial killing which led to the creation of the Bureau of Investigation, which is now known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the “FBI” for short. In 2012 Logue stated that series of movements that helped to create the FBI were called the Mann Act, they protested against involuntary prostitution and white slavery. Also from 1925 the death penalty was allowed to given as a sentence for rape charges (Logue,