State Legislators across the United States have enacted “Megan’s Law”; this requires all convicted sex offenders to register at their local police department and notify their community about what they have done and where they are currently residing. But is it constitutional? Many can that it leaks too much information about the offender’s life. Having this information for the public is very useful and should be used to know the whereabouts of sex offenders.…
Personally, I agree with the Supreme Court’s decision in the landmark case of R. v. Dyment. Particularly, with La Forest J. commentary it provided on the importance of privacy:…
Megan’s Law is named after a 7-year-old Hamilton Township, New Jersey girl named Megan Nicole Kanka. On July 29, 1994, she was lured into her neighbor’s home with the promise of a puppy and was brutally sexually assaulted and murdered by a two-time convicted sex offender who had been convicted in a 1981 attack on a 5-year-old child and an attempted sexual assault on a 7-year-old. Sparked by community outrage, petitions began circulating throughout the state of New Jersey demanding the right to be made aware of sexual predators. Megan’s parents, Maureen and Richard Kanka, had gathered more than 430,000 signatures, and 89 days after Megan’s disappearance the first state law that mandated active community notification was signed into law, New Jersey’s Megan’s Law.…
Thousands of people are sexually abused every year, however not all sex offenders are ever apprehended. There really is no description as to who is a sex offender as they can seem normal and be highly intelligent. They have been known to premeditate and to use deceptive techniques to get what they want (Crosson-Tower, 2008). Many believe that sexual offenders should be monitored for the rest of their lives because statistics show that they are likely to repeat their first offense and to ensure the safety of society.…
One emergent sub-theme to arise for all participants was the importance and significance of the connection between working with both victims and sex offenders, as they believed it provided a true representation and an overall interconnecting picture, “you get the balance, you get the full sort of picture or you get the full experience or impact from both parties so you don’t become too skewed in a way”.…
Sex crimes in Tennessee are offenses that the public does not tolerate .These crimes are viewed as…
Megan’s Law is named after a little girl slain by her new neighbor, a habitual child molester. It mandates that community residents be notified of the arrival of foreraly incarcerated sex offenders, so that parents can take measures to better shield their children from potentially dangerous strangers.…
However, this is something that is very hard to enforce. This is hard to enforce because that indicated perpetrator won't always disclosed their indicated status to everyone they meet. This means that if you have a child and you were to meet someone, started dating that individual, and at one point left them home alone with your child while you ran to the grocery store and you were unaware that that person was an indicated perpetrator, that perp would have unsupervised contact with a child. Those indicated perpetrators often try to find single parents, just to get closer to those children.…
Talk to the children/young people about predators about never talking to strangers, meeting them etc.…
This is an example of how an ex-felon liberty is limited upon their release from prison. The ex-child molester may not like the idea of having their name put online because they would face an enormous amount of discrimination but such legislation has been declared constitutional since it serves to protect vulnerable civilians (children). Whether or not sex-registry laws need reformation is neither here or there. The main argument is that sex-registry laws have an intrinsic value in aiding the safety of children near an ex-child molester. However, what benefit is there in preventing ex-felons from voting. There is absolutely no correlation in preventing ex-offenders from voting with preventing ex-felons from committing crime. If such legislation did prevent ex-felons from committing crime then there would be some sort of justification. So where does the intrinsic value lie in legislation that prevents ex-felons from…
The sex offender registry is an excellent example of how civilians can use openness of society to stay out of harms way. Citizens can keep themselves, their families, and friends safe by staying informed with the help of tools like the sex offender registry. Since sex offenders are required to register and provide certain information like name, age, address, offense, etc.…
The sex offender registry has been a topic of debates and formal studies since the Minnesota Sex Offender Registration Act was first passed in 1991 (Stevens, n.d.). The use of the sex offender registry has been saving lives of potential victims. Before the registry was enacted, sex offenders who lived in their neighborhood victimized adults and children and no one knew about their prior criminal history. In very public cases, it was brought to light that children were being abducted, sexually assaulted, and finally murdered by sex offenders that should have been registered. Those children could have been kept safe and may still be alive today if the public knew the information about their attackers. Also the surviving victims of sexual abuse…
A sex offender’s name should be made public for many reasons. Knowing there’s an offender in your neighborhood creates a sense of awareness. Studies have shown by The Department of Justice show that more than likely offenders will become repeat offenders. If offenders are likely to become repeat offenders then parents have reason to believe their child could be next. It’s common for victims of sexual assault to wait some time before telling someone. When the person was…
It is important to note that there are approximately 700,000 sex offenders that appear on registries in all 50 states of our country; however, their crimes may vary extensively from highly violent sexual predation down to those who have made several foolish decisions, such as public nude exposure (Yoder). Therefore, a significant percentage of those people listed in sex offender registries pose almost no threat to children or other possible victims, making it difficult for us to know who is really dangerous to the public…
Protecting Children From Being Solicited By Convicted Sex Offenders On The Internet: The Need For A Federal Mandate…