Definition
Megan’s law is a federal requirement made by the New Jersey General Assembly and affecting all states and that requires that every state has a registry of every sex offender that has ever been found guilty of the crime. The registry is supposed to be made available to the public so that everyone could protect themselves against potential sexual harassment and sex offenders.
Origin of the Law
Megan’s law was introduced in 1994. This happened after Jesse K. Timmendequas, a sexual offender that had been registered, raped and then murdered Megan Kanka of New Jersey who was seven years of then. Megan and Jesse were neighbors. A month after this incident, several bills were passed by the New Jersey General Assembly. These bills required that all sex offenders were put in a registry and that the registry should be made public. This was turned to law and exists until today. However, there have been a lot of questions on whether this law is fair and effective.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Who Does the Law Protect?
With the sex offenders registry made public, the law hoped to protect the public against potential sex offenders. Citizens are expected to keep away from the registered offenders. However, as earlier stated, the effectiveness of this has been put into question by criminologists (Zgoba, Jennings, & Salerno, 2018) . This is because statistics show that almost 50% of those found guilty of sexual offenses happen to be family members.
How the Law Is Used
The law requires any person convicted of crimes related to sex against children to notify the authorities in case they change their home address or their stations of employment after they get released. This way, the authorities can keep track of all the offenders, update the registry, and make them public.
References
Zgoba, K. M., Jennings, W. G., & Salerno, L. M. (2018). Megan’s Law 20 Years Later: An Empirical Analysis and Policy Review. Criminal Justice and Behavior , 0093854818771409.
