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Essay on Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act
Essay on Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act
Essay on Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act
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Policy Analysis: Megan’s Law Sexual violence, particularly against children, is a significant issue all around the world. In the early 1990’s in the United States, there were multiple well-publicized cases of sexual violence against children. From kidnappings, to rapes, and everything in between, violence was being committed against children and something needed to be done about it. In 1996, Megan’s Law was passed in response to the sexual assault and death of Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old from New Jersey (Corrigan, 2006).
On July 29, 1994, New Jersey resident Megan Kanka was lured into the home of Jesse Timmendequas, a convicted sex offender, with promises of seeing a puppy (Corrigan, 2006). Once she entered his house, she was raped twice, strangled with a belt, and suffocated with a bag (Corrigan, 2006). Timmendequas was arrested soon after and confessed to this crime (Corrigan, 2006). This event outraged Kanka's parents and the surrounding community (Corrigan, 2006). They used this tragic death to create Megan's Law as an addition to the Jacob Wetterling Crimes against Children Violent Offender Registration Act, which required sex offenders to register within their counties (Welchans, 2005).
The Utah Sex Offender Registry has many purposes and has been around for quite some time. Unfortunately, every state is different and often times the entertainment industry portrays the registry in a false light. The Utah Department of Corrections wants to deflate some of the major myths surrounding the sex offender registry. The most common myth the sex offender registry office receives daily is, “An offender was on the registry yesterday, why are they not on there now?”
In the “The List”, Sarah Stillman (2017) explains how the juveniles are getting accused of sexual crimes as young as nine and are put onto these public registries humiliating them for life. Youth shouldn’t be held liable for things like these as they are not fully aware and their brain is still developing. Stillman's thesis was asserting that juveniles are accused of sexual crimes labeling them as sex offender being equal to a life sentence. The author's argument in the article is strong and convincing as she presents huge amounts of cases where youth have experienced these labels and were put on the registries. These stories were saddening as it mentioned how the sex offender list affected their life for worse as now they can not leave a normal
Furthermore, this leaves room for states to implement their own practices and ways to address status offenders. It has also been argued that the Act “fractured the juvenile justice system so that officials in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare handled white, middle-income youth” (Hinton, 2015, p. 816). Programs which labeled white youths as “children in trouble” marked minority youths as “chronic offenders” who were deemed a danger to society, and tried as an adult. The exceptions and revisions that have been made to the Act make it possible for repeat status offenders to be detained in secure
This would be beneficial to communities to know where these offenders live and what they look like so they could avoid them. Megan’s Law provides info about the offender’s conviction and a very detailed description of the offense. Even for non-violent offender’s this would be good for the community to know the identity of the person and a description of what they did. Lisa Squitieri stated, “It has been effective for what it was intended to be. It put sex offenders on notice and notifies the public.
It includes lesser sex crimes like, video voyeurism of a minor, lewdness, or non-violent sexual contact with anyone over 18 or possession or receipt of child pornography. Within Tier 1, there are also some more harmless offenses like urinating in public or streaking. If the offender with a Tier 1 has a clean record he/she may reduce the registration time from 15 to 10 years. It is required by law for sex offenders to appear in person every certain time to have a picture taken and verify registry information. Tier I sex offenders must appear every year, Tier II sex offenders every six month, and Tier III sex offenders every three months.
No other law will require you to register as a sex offender, and restrict you to live near children for the rest of your life. However, there are some aspects of it that are needed, especially if the person is a repeat sex offender. The flaws of the Scarlet Letter Laws are clear. People can change,
Oklahoma State Legislature must act swiftly and with force to impact the fight. Laws already in place are being amended in an effort to reduce potential threats for adolescents in Oklahoma. For example, Oklahoma State Senator Josh Brecheen added to an already existing law to include how a person can be penalized, rather than increasing the penalty itself. “Another major change is currently sex traffickers can only be penalized if they recruit through fraud, deception or coercion. Under the new law, anyone found recruiting for sex trafficking, regardless of how they do it, will be penalized (Oklahoma State Senate).”
Analysis of Social Policy: Indian child Welfare Act (ICWA) According to the Children’s Bureau there were 415,129 children in foster care in 2014. American Indian children made up 2% of this number, or 9,517 children (AFCARS Report, 2015). The proportion of American Indian Children residing in foster care is alarming because it is more than twice as large as the proportion of American Indians residing in the general population. American Indians make up .9% of the population of the United States.
Should Sex Offenders Name be Public? It is debatable if sex offenders names should be public, some people believe is a invasion of there private life, “There is a real danger of vigilantism and publicizing their names (and the info required goes far beyond just their names) is an invasion of privacy of the wives, children and families of these offenders, which is an invasion of privacy no other class of criminal faces”(debate.org) . Others believe this is not even debatable, that Sex offenders name should be public, period, “Once somebody commits a sexual crime, they have given up their right to anonymity.
UPDATE Failure to register would result in additional legal penalties. These registration requirements were initially developed to serve the needs of law enforcement with the identification and tracking of sex offenders living and working in their jurisdictions, and in theory provide a starting point from which to work in the event there were any reported sexual offenses in a given area. (explain) These notification initiatives were ultimately combined with community notification strategies which extended the information available to law enforcement to the general public. Doing so, was viewed as method of force multiplying, by educating more people about the , previously only disclosed to law enforcement, to the general public, presumably as a force multiplier allowing the community to help monitor known offenders while taking individual actions to protect oneself and their family.
Before Megan’s Law was enacted, The Wetterling Act was in place, requiring the registry of all once-convicted sex offenders. They were not, however, required to publicly release their information unless they were volunteering to do so. In 1994 in Mercer County, New Jersey, Jesse Timmendequas, a two-time convicted felon for sexual assault, lured 7 year old Megan Kanka into his house, raped her, then killed her by strangulation. Her parents, devastated by her death, went on to push for justice. They demanded the community notification of all registered sex offenders.
When working with children and young people, it is important that their safety and well-being is paramount. There are a number of guidelines, policies and procedures which cover the safeguarding of pupils, including; Working together to safeguard children (2013)- This policy sets out guidelines of how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004. As well as laying out these guidelines, the document also provides a summary of: The nature of child abuse and neglect and the impact it may have on children and young people. How to operate the best practice in child protection procedure.
1. Know about legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people, including e-safety. 1.1 Identify the current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people, including e-safety. Children Act 1989 This act was bought about to simplify the laws that protect children by bringing private and public law together.
