Priya Babbar
Prof. Elizabeth Kramer
English – 1A
9th October’ 18
Megan’s Law
Megan’s Law is a federal law that requires law enforcement authorities to notify communities of the whereabouts of convicted sex offenders. It was first enacted by the state of New Jersey in 1994, named after a seven-year-old girl, Megan Nicole Kanka, who was raped and murdered by her neighbor, Jesse Timmendequas. Under this law, the convicted sex offenders names are updated on its list on time-to-time basis and remains on the list for 10 or 20 years and or permanently depending on the charges under the Penal Code § 290.46. In addition to this, Megan’s law protect children from sexual predators as the information is disseminated through the internet to the public for awareness purpose only. As per the law, the names of the registered sex offenders are listed on California’s Megan’s Law Website with their names, pictures, home address, and the types of sex-crimes committed by them. For example, anyone can look up these sex offenders on Megan’s Law map just be putting their zip code number and it will give them the results of all the registered sex offenders in their neighborhoods. There are some pros and cons of Megan’s law, which I will cover in the research paper; for example, the public defendants argue that this law affected the registered sex offenders miserably with the disclosure of their identities in traveling abroad. Furthermore, the registered sex offenders are tracked down by law enforcement agencies, whenever their plan for a foreign trip. Whereas, the public prosecutors argue that by disclosing the identities of registered sex offenders, the public will be acquainted with knowledge and will be cautious.
History of Megan’s Law
Megan’s Law became a federal law in all the 50 states of the United States, in response to a murder of a seven-year-old Megan Nicole Kanka, also known as Megan Kanka, who was raped before the killing. Kanka became a target of a known child molester, Jimmy Timmendequas who was a neighbor of Kanka’s family. Timmendequas lured the little girl by promising her to show a puppy in his house, but the little girl, Megan, was unaware of Timmendequas’ actual intents.
After the investigation, when Megan’s parents Richard and Maureen Kanka found out that their little girl was targeted by one of their neighbors, Timmendequas, who was a known sex offender but unknown to them. “Both the parents went on a crusade to change the law by demanding mandatory community notification of sex offenders, arguing that the registration required under the Jacob Wetterling Act was not a sufficient protection measure. The Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act (the Wetterling Act) is a United States federal law that requires states to reveal a sex offender and crimes against children registry” (“Megan's Law.” en.wikipedia.org. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan's_Law). Megan’s parents said that Megan would’ve been alive if they had known Timmendequas’ criminal history. Megan’s murder took a turning point after 89 days of her murder, when Paul Kramer, an American Republican Party politician, sponsored a package of seven bills known as Megan's Law New Jersey General Assembly in 1994. President Bill Clinton, signed Megan’s Law as a federal law on May 17th, 1996. New Jersey became the first state to enact this law for children’s protection nationally, which required convicted sex offenders to register with their local police departments, and to notify the police with any change in their names, residency, and employment status. Megan’s Law classified the sex offenders as per their level of risk (the three tier system). As a result, this law required all the other 50 states of the United States to notify the public within their guidelines i.e., what amount of necessary information needs to be put up on the internet for the public’s view.
Besides, the history of Megan’s Law, there are some active measures taken by the law enforcement agencies in promulgating the necessary information about the registered sex offenders. For example, by law all the 50 states sheriff’s and police departments of their respective cities and towns are required to disclose the sensitive information related to the sex offenders to the public, but only when the public is physically present in their departments. For this the law enforcement agencies have to use a technology like CD-ROM, which contains much more detailed information than the one on California’s Megan’s Law Website. For example, as per the statistics of 2000, about 179 law enforcement agencies made the CD-ROM available for public viewing. Currently, the CD-ROM is distributed monthly to more than 450 law enforcement agencies. Agencies making the CD-ROM available includes every sheriff’s department, over 115 police departments, and the California Department of Justice (Department of Justice, 2001). The law enforcement departments main aim is to provide important information about the sex offenders according to the risk-level. By the first time, sensitive information on registered sex offenders were disclosed to the public. As a result, it created public awareness, especially to those who came in to see the CD-ROM in the law enforcement departments.
Moreover, there are some benefits that have been provided to the public through California Megan’s Law website. For example, the law enforcement agencies put up or update the website with basic and relevant information of the registered sex offenders in their areas of their respective states. Basic and relevant information such as, the name, home address, year of conviction and release, ethnicity, height, eyes color, hair color, date of birth, tattoos or marks if any, known aliases if any, a short description of the sex crime committed by the sex offender. For example, the basic descriptive sex crime would be “LEWD OR LASCIVIOUS ACTS WITH A CHILD UNDER 14 YEARS OF AGE, Penal Code (PC) 288” (California Megan’s Law Website). Another such example would be, “Indecent Exposure, PC 314 of California law that means, intentionally exposing your private parts usually, the genital area in public or place where people are present who are likely to be offended by it as the purpose is to get attention…” (Shouse Law Group Channel), which can also be uploaded on Megan’s Law.
Besides, the basic information provided to the public, there’s another way of identifying registered sex offenders on the basis of the three-tier system of Megan’s Law that states the risk-level of registered sex offenders according to their convictions. According to the Shouse Law Group report of 2017, under California’s sex offender registry, there are six-hundred-fifty-six sex offenders with convictions from the 1940s and 1950s, and three-thousand sex offenders from the 1960s and 1970s. The three-tier system became active on January 1, 2018 which classified the risk-level of sex offenders. For instance, tier one is for the least serious class of sex offenders, that means people convicted to misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies like misdemeanor sexual battery, misdemeanor possession of child pornorgraphy and indecent exposure. The tier-one offenders can petition the court for the removal of their names after being on the registry for 10 years but at the end of their registration period. Whereas, tier-two is for the mid-level offenders convicted of serious and violent sex offenses including lewdness with a minor, oral copulation with a minor below the age of 14, and Nan for sodomy with a minor under the age of 14. Tier-two offenders can petition the court for the removal of their names after being on the registry for 20 years but at the end of their registration period. In addition, the petition can either be approved or be denied depending on the judge’s decision. Tier-one and tier-two offenders are supported by the state of California under the Senate Bill (SB) 384 that indicates lifetime registration will be ended on lower-level sex offenses. Last but not the least, tier-three is for the people convicted of the most serious crimes including rape, lewd act with a minor using force or fear, child sex trafficking, sex crimes against children 10 or younger, and repeated sex crimes. In tier-three, people (the offenders) have to register as a sex offender for life which had a negative impact on their lives, especially at the time of their re-entry in the community.
Talking about the impact, there had been a positive impact on the community and a negative impact on the registered sex offenders due to the disclosure of their identities for public’s awareness. The authors, Jill S. Levenson, an American social worker and professor of social work at Barry University, David A. D’Amora, a criminogenic specialist, and Andrea L. Hern, a Senior Lecturer Director of CAS Pre-Major Advising, gave a brief and short description on the Wetterling Act of 1994 that has been merged with the Megan’s Law of 1994. Wetterling Act was named after an eleven-year-old boy, Jacob Wetterling of Minnesota. He was abducted by a convicted-sex offender in 1989 and his case remained unsolved for 27 years. But after brief investigation, the law enforcement agencies were able to apprehend the suspect. Wettling Act basically, helps the law enforcement agencies to track down the know sex-offenders and if necessary, proactive measures can be taken to apprehend the sex offenders. The collaboration of the Wetterling Act and Megan’s law, had a positive impact on the community as they were able to arm themselves and their children with knowledge. Also, the community became more cautious when they knew that they are living in a danger zone (in an area where sex offenders reside). Shortly, after the bills were passed, the public defendants argued that by revealing the identities of the registered sex offenders broadly could have a psychological impact on them, which actually happened. Also, they must be heard before being described as serious sex offenders on the Megan’s list (Connecticut Department of Public Safety v. Doe, 2003). Both Jacob Wetterling Act and Megan’s Law affected the registered sex offenders in many ways. For example, the registered sex offenders were not able to get any employment, their friends & families boycotted them, they were beaten harshly and by the public, even lost their homes. This as a result, had a physical and mental impact on them. The harsh beatings gave the registered sex offenders wounds and injuries, and the lonesomeness from the boycott of friends & families was even worse. According a report of Tewkesbury of 2005, about one-third of the registered sex offenders in Florida and Kentucky reported adverse events such as the loss of a job or home, threats, harassment, or property damage as a result of public disclosure. In addition, a substantial minority (5–16%) reported being physically assaulted after being publicly identified as sex offenders, and about 19% of sex offenders reported that negative effects had been experienced by other members of their households. Therefore, the lives of these sex offenders became difficult after the disclosure of their sex crimes.
Furthermore, “Megan’s Law directly violated the Constitutional Rights of the registered sex offenders, especially at their time of traveling abroad,” according of Christopher Moraff, an American journalist and photographer. Moraff argued that the registered sex offenders, now, are the registered ex-sex offenders who pose not threat to the public after all they have gone through in the past years. When they want to travel abroad for family trips and for work purposes they are mandatorily required to notify the U.S government about it. So that, the U.S government transfer the past data of the registered ex-sex offender to the government of another country where the trip is planned. For most part, each and every country has its own laws in dealing with criminals, whether they are low-level criminals or high-level criminals. Thus, disclosing the past criminal records of the registered ex-sex offenders it violates their Constitutional rights.
Therefore, the federal Megan’s Law passed after the rape and murder of a seven-years old Megan Nicole Kanka, shook the entire nation by it painful history. This federal law was first enacted by the state of New Jersey as the shameful incident took place there, and it gave broader powers to the law enforcement agencies to disclose the sensitive informations on sex offenders to the public, only within their departments boundaries through a CD-ROM. Megan’s law became a subsection of Jacob Wetterling Act of 1994, in which the registered sex offenders were classified according to their level of risk as per the three-tier system. This system indicated the risk level as low, moderate and high depending of the sex offenses of the offenders. Furthermore, by the disclosure of basic and necessary information of the registered sex offenders, it had positively impacted the public but negatively impacted those sex offenders. Majority of results from Megan’s Law were really effective for the public, as the were aware of the whereabouts of the registered sex offenders in their neighborhood. But yes, it did badly affect those sex offenders as they were beaten up and were isolated after the released of their identities on Megan’s list. In addition, how the Constitutional Rights of these sex offenders were dishonoured by their own nation at the time of their foreign trip.
Department of Justice, 2001, “Megan’s Law History” pdf. Agencies responding to the 2000 Megan’s Law Questionnaire
http://ag.ca.gov/megan/pdf/july2001.pdf
Prezi, Benefits of Megan’s Law, November, 2014.
https://prezi.com/wn4ymtvpq32v/benefits-of-megans-law/
Rehnquist. “CONNECTICUT DEPT. OF PUBLIC SAFETY V. DOE.” Legal Information Institute, Legal Information Institute, 5 Mar. 2003, www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/01-1231.ZO.html.
Leverson, J. S., & Cotter, L. P. (2005). The effect of Megan’s Law on sex offender reintegration. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 21(1), 49–66.
The Effect of Megan’s Law on Sex Offender Reintegration, October, 2018
.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241531174_The_Effect_of_Megan's_Law_on_Sex_Offender_Reintegration
Moraff, Christopher. "Expanding Travel Restrictions for Sex Offenders Is Dangerous and Unnecessary." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2018. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, http://0-link.galegroup.com.library.sjeccd.edu/apps/doc/KEJNKQ867853883/OVIC?u=san57663&sid=OVIC&xid=67482cb7. Accessed 12 Oct. 2018. Originally published as "The long arm of sex offender laws,", 8 Feb. 2016.
Shouse Law Group Channel