Megans Law: Protecting American Families Everywhere Essay

In 1996, Megan’s Law was created to help police during their investigation of sex crimes and to let the public know about the identities and location of the offender. Along with the Adam Walsh Child Protection and the Safety Act of 2006, sex offenders must fill a list of information about themselves in a database; this includes their names, finger prints, a recent photo, etc. this database has three risk tiers in order to know how dangerous the offender is, with tier one is the lowest risk and tier three being the highest. With the community being a big part in dealing with sex offenders, notification statutes were made for people who want information about them. With community notification laws in place, parents must take extra precaution

The importance of protecting the safety of the public and most importantly, the children is a lot higher than the offenders right to privacy. According to a study done by Expert Law, the biggest raised concern is the fear of vigilantism. That is, “law enforcement undertaken without legal authority by a self-appointed group of people.” The fear was if neighbors learned about a sex offender’s presence in their neighborhood and decided to force them out or cause physical harm, which is illegal. Violent acts against offenders are uncommon.

The Law has caused a huge controversial debate and there are people that personally disagree with the law. As in any controversial debate you would have the affirmative and the negative side. Let’s explore some of the positive facts that the Three Strikes Law that support the affirmative side. To start of with one popular note is that it keeps the career criminals, individuals who commit crime as a part of their lives, off the streets. Of course we want to keep the sex offenders, murderers, and rapist, off the street so we can worry that much less for the safety of ourselves and others. Another positive is that it is a deterrent. It is a very effective deterrent after the second conviction (Mersseli). If an offender is released from the second conviction, this law will deter them from any crime, whether it is minor or not. The thought of being sent to prison for 25 years to life is a pretty effective deterrent and will have that offender thinking more than twice before he or she will commit another crime.

Megan is not the only case that I have taken into interest, I have chose to research deeper into the Amanda Todd case. Like Megan, Amanda Todd was just another teenager online. Everyone makes mistakes, right? Well, Amanda made one that would haunt her for the rest of her short lived life. Amanda Todd also hung herself, after an internet stalker, Tyler Boo, bullied her for years. He was charged with a couple of things, but not manslaughter (“The 5th Estate”). Manslaughter was a charge that many people were hoping Tyler Boo would get slammed with. If you can stalk an underaged girl for years, and ultimately push her into killing herself, than you are just as guilty as she is in the crime committed. Amanda fought as hard as she could against

Megan’s Law created a registration and notification procedure to alert law enforcement, schools, community organizations and neighbors to the presence of a sex offender who authorities believe may pose a risk to the community ( Verniero 1) .When sex crime offenders are released from prison according to this new law, they must register themselves with the police. If they are thought to be dangerous and will possibly strike again, they must also register with the

Sometimes the effects are beneficial, for example when an abusive, negligent or violent parent is incarcerated, thus removing the risk of harm from the household. However, sometimes the effects are detrimental, and the child faces mental illness, behavioural problems, failure in school, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and many other problems (Simmons). A child that witnesses the crimes and/or the arrest of their parent might experience flashbacks about their parents crimes or arrests (Simmons). A child might also be bullied in school because his/her child is never present for school events such as family day because he is in prison. Additionally, parental incarceration can result in an increased likelihood that the child will commit offences, either in adolescence or adulthood. According to the Women’s Prison & Home Association, Inc., “Children of offenders are five times more likely than their peers to end up in prison themselves. One in 10 will have been incarcerated before reaching adulthood,” (Simmons). Unfortunately, these negative effects are more prevalent in males. Because it is more likely that a father would be incarcerated, the male child no longer has a male role model and father figure in his life. In both male and female children, the negative effects of parental incarceration results in children engaging in dangerous, illegal activities as a way to cope. These activities include stealing, underage

Although in some courts the registry is stated as a punishment, most sex offenders are not officially given the registry as a punishment during sentencing. This can lead to a few obstacles in the criminal justice system, one of which is that not all punishments are clearly taken into account by the jury and judge. For example, a man convicted of fondling a woman received 5 years in prison and 5 years of probation, but did the judge and jury take into account that the offender will now be on the sex offender registry for the rest of his life? Most likely they did not or if they did they were not fully aware of the impact the registry has on an individual and their reentry back into the community. This harsh lifestyle that can be in part contributed to the registry and it can lead to public harassment, restrictions on employment titles and locations, and sustaining necessary housing. The difficulties presented to sex offenders by the registry gives the ex-offender permanent punishments in which many agree that reoffending and going back to prison is much easier than trying to reenter and sustain themselves in the

The number of registered sex offenders have increasingly grew over the years. Every day you see a man or women added to the registry for crimes against women and mostly children. The sex offender registries biggest and main focus is to keep the people in the community in each city and state informed and protected. ”Sex offenders and sex crimes provoke a great deal of anxiety in our society.” Baker, J, Brannon, Y, N., Fortney. , Levenson, J.S. (“Public Perceptions about Sex Offenders and Community Protection”). The sex offender registry is based solely on protecting the public from being a victim

Child molestation and sexual assault is an ever growing problem in the United States today, but an even bigger problem is that these pedophiles are being released after only serving as little as one quarter of their sentence. In California alone (at the time the bill was first passed), there was an estimated 680 individuals on parole for molestation and other sexual assaults including sodomy by force with a victim under the age of thirteen as well as child molestation with foreign objects.

However, in my experience, this would create some significant issues in regards to our young people. First, sex-offenders know full well the age of consent and will cross state lines with individuals who are underage in one state to another where they are not. Moreover, the use mental manipulation to gain consent from young victims from difficult backgrounds. Secondly, the issue remains at what age do they have the understanding of the potential ramifications of sex? The answer is likely that if they are under the age of eighteen they look at life in the moment with very little regard for their future; So, the probability is that the age of consent should be eighteen years of

In 2007, Florida created a law known as “Romeo and Juliet law, to address issues such as high school youth being labeled as sexual offenders or sexual predictors, as a result of participating in consensual sexual relationship. Reason being these stigma, can have long term consequences, which can affect the offenders, ability to attend his or her child’s school functions, and where the offender can live.(Florida Senate ,2011).

Any adolescent having to be listed on the sex offender’s registry will obviously cause irreversible damage to their health. Nevertheless, the pressures that our children already face today is harsh enough to withstand. Do not get me wrong, I am in support of the Megan’s Law and for those who commit these types of offenses to be ridiculed for their actions. However, I am reluctant that a teen be condone for experimenting or having consensual sex with someone within his or her age range. The impact that they would endure is irremediable to them not to mention their entire family. Imagine, severe psychological and detrimental impact not only the youth but the family will face. For instance, families of youth offenders confront enormous obstacles

I understand that the media is allowing society to become informed about sexual abuse by covering murder cases, high-profile offenders and congressional scandals in headlines and television shows. For decades, the media has portrayed pedophiles as monsters; however, they are no longer being viewed as the “stranger” in “danger.” They are your neighbors, friends, and family members. Most importantly, pedophiles are people before they become criminals. This “stranger danger” perception blinds us from the warning signs when the actual offender could be someone we know and care about. Society is always shocked to learn that someone has sexually abused a child. Often enough, we will ask, how could someone be so evil to sexually abuse a child? But

In recent years sex crimes have been getting a lot of attention. For years sex crimes have been committed, but in the last 20 years many different laws have been implemented due to very notable sex crimes. There have been many cases especially ones against children that have definitely shaped our attitudes toward sex crimes. “Since 1990, fears and anxieties about child safety and sex offenders have continued to grip the public imagination and have been closely followed in the media” (Horowitz). These sex crimes against children got a lot of attention because, we did not think that an adult would do these things to a child. Even though these acts were very gruesome it was mainly because of them why we now have certain laws that protect us, notify

The advantage of this law is that juveniles can be put through rehabilitation as a means to help them develop a sense of responsibility, accountability, morality, and correct judgment. It also avoids them being exposed to the harsh environment in adult prisons. But the only setback in this law is that some facilities offer poor quality of treatment, it is constantly neglected by those who have authority over the juveniles, and it is ultimately the cause of recidivism or the act of repeating of an unwanted behavior after going through behavioral treatment. And also, the environment in the public correctional facilities, unlike in private facilities, juveniles in those facilities are overcrowded, giving them less guidance from the program, and at times a hierarchy develops within the group, these situations can also contribute to the child’s behavior. The only way to resolve this is to modify the way how correctional facilities treat juveniles that benefit both the society and the juvenile while discarding its disadvantages. First, change the people around the juveniles and replace it with someone who will truly uphold its goal, to guide them, and assign someone who will overlook the persons assigned to guide juveniles, since at times they don’t do their just job properly. Secondly, organize the juveniles, especially those in public facilities. Distribute the offenders to different facilities where the environment suits them so that the effectiveness of the treatment will increase. Moreover, assign more personnel who will strictly observe everyone, as a means to nullify the presence of bullying and the like. And lastly, treat someone not the same as everyone else, but specifically for that juvenile only. The reason for that is everyone has its own reason behind their behaviors. If it works for someone, it doesn’t mean it will also work the same as