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Megan's Law Essay

1552 Words7 Pages

The sexual offender registration and notification act, also known as Megan’s Law, was enacted in 1995 by Pennsylivania Governor Tom Ridge. Megan Kanka was a seven year-old girl that resided in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, with her family. On Friday, July 29, 1994, Kanka was raped and murdered by their 33 year old neighbor, Jesse Timmendequas. Timmendequas had two prior convictions of attempted sexual assault on five and seven year old girls. He lured Kanka into his house by offering to show her a puppy. He then raped and strangled her. He placed her body into a wooden toy chest and dumped her body in Mercer County Park. One day later, he confessed and led police to her body. The court sentenced Timmendequas to the death penalty, but on December …show more content…

First, it informs the public of offenders’ important addresses and convictions. This can help guardians protect the children under their care. A prime example of this is Megan Kanka as she might still be alive today if her parents had access to this information. Second, Megan’s Law also has a picture of the offender where all their information is listed. Addresses can be helpful to a certain point, but offenders can go to other places such as parks and stores. A guardian can show a child this picture and explain to them that they are dangerous. A child could possibly recall the picture of the offender and avoid him or …show more content…

It is known that some individuals listed do have repeat offenses, but some offenders are reformed and live successful lives. One minor incident could haunt someone for years and impact his or her career, relationships, and community involvement. A person who wants to live a better life and be a better person may have trouble escaping the label of a sex offender (The Law Office of George Gedulin, 2017). Another major criticism is that it affects the family members of those on Megan’s Law. It might degrade the whole family's reputation, because one member is listed. A final criticism is that it subjects sex offenders to indefinite punishments (Levenson,

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The United States Supreme Court in the Packingham v. North Carolina first amendment case has ruled in favor of Lester Gerard Packingham. The state from now on may not bar social media access to registered sex offenders. The case’s build up dates back to 2002 when 21 year old college student Lester G. Packingham had a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl. For involvement with a minor he received a 10-12 month sentence, but having never met problems with the law, the judge required him to go on a 24 month probation and register as a sex offender. Five years had passed and in 2008 North Carolina forbid any person on the sex offender list to use any type of social media.

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Megan was last seen riding her bike home, her parents began to search when they found her bike in the front lawn. Cops found her body in Mercer County Park. How Megan's law helps. By helping locate sex offenders. Being able to locate sex offenders allows for less rape cases, less sexual assults, less indecencies with childern, less kiddnappings, and murder.

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The stakeholders who are affected by the law include children, parents and guardians of children, and law enforcement. All parties involved would benefit. With Caylee’s Law in place, no more innocent and missing children will have to go without justice and would be reported as missing in a timely manner. Parents or guardians and law enforcement will also benefit. If a child is reported under the requirements of Caylee’s Law, it will be easier to initiate the proper steps needed to find the missing child.

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This is because the law is overly vast when it describes what the sex offender can and cannot due over the internet. This is unfair because in today’s world almost every website use reviews and opinion based comments. Many of these websites don’t require a user to have any sort of account or username. This means that any person, including minors, are able to use this website regardless of whether or not it is allowed, and the very possibility of a minor being on a website restricts it from the use of a sex offender. An example of this is Cooks.com, this website allows users to leave comments without requiring any type of account, email, or identification.

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Megan’s law was exactly that. By keeping the public informed about who their neighbors were, parents and children alike had better chances of staying safe in their neighborhoods. On July 27th, 1995, Megan’s Law was introduced in the House. No action was taken until May 6th, 1996, when the bill was added as an amendment to the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement act of 1994.

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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).

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To have a law passed under the name of a victim is world-wide changing, as the terrible acts could be restored into the criminal justice system today. Although, the circumstance of any law passed by legislation is too hard to understand why would anyone want to commit such a horrific crime, the answers, we may never know. As many Americans may remember it, the world stopped on July 15, 2008 as people heard across the nation on the news, radio, and perhaps social media. A two-year old little girl from Orlando Florida was missing, and her name was Caylee Marie Anthony. Casey Marie Anthony gave birth to Caylee on August 9, 2005 in Orlando Florida.

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I will repeat again; our system is not perfect. Our last act of criminal law stated is the penal sanction. This law states that all violators will receive just punishment or at least exposed to disciplinary action by the state. I believe the Megan Law can be a characteristic of all five criminal laws listed. The Megan Law states that any person convicted of a sex offense must be listed with the state.

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A prison sentence is designed to punish people who break Society’s laws, but that isn’t always the case. In March of 2016, Star Student athlete Brock Turner at Stanford College was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious and intoxicated woman behind a dumpster, while he also was intoxicated, he was possibly facing ten years. June 2nd, 2016, Turner was sentenced to 6 months in Jail by Judge Aaron Persky, his reason being that “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others” (Why Brock Turner Only Got 6 Months in Jail, 1). Although his sentence was light, he also had to register as a sex offender.

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The first study conducted by by J.J. Prescott of the University of Michigan and Johan Rockoff of Columbia University, established that requiring sex offenders to register with police may significantly reduce the chances that they will re-offend. But, this same research also found that making that same registry information available to the broader public may not go as planned, leading to higher overall rates of sex crime. On the other hand a study by University of Chicago PhD. Student Amanda Agan found no findings that sex offender registries actually worked in increasing public safety (University of Chicago Press Journals, 2011). Data from 15 states was examined over a ten year period by both Prescott and Rockoff on the evolution of sex offense rates during the time states passed and began enforcing their registration and notification laws.

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Megan's Law is a controversial law that requires sex offenders to register with law enforcement authorities upon their release from prison. The law was enacted in response to the sexual assault and murder of 7-year-old Megan Kanka by a neighbor who had twice been convicted of similar sex offenses and was on parole. The law requires offenders to provide their name, photograph, physical description, list of offenses, current address, place of employment or school, and automobile license plate number. In terms of the ideal characteristics of criminal law, Megan's Law can be seen as a positive step towards protecting public safety. The law aims to prevent future crimes by providing the public with information about convicted sex offenders in their

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Sex Offender Treatment system 's three fundamental objectives are: • Helping offenders figure out how to diminish and oversee hazard • Providing information

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The first attempt by the U.S government to require criminals to register emerged in the 1930’s, in response to organized crime and mobsters involved in numerous criminal activities such as the illicit liquor trade, gambling, and drug trafficking. Utilization of these registration provisions was largely sporadic until the early 1990’s when such laws began reemerging albeit this time in response to a new national villain - sex offenders. California was the exception; in 1947 California became the first state requiring sex offenders to register (Megan’s Law). During the 1990’s, laws requiring that sex offenders register with authorities were quickly adopted in all 50 states, Massachusetts being the last to adopt such a law in 1996.

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