Megan's Law

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Megan's Law
Great Seal of the United States (obverse).svg
Long titleTo amend the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 to require the release of relevant information to protect the public from sexually violent offenders. [1]
Enacted bythe 104th United States Congress
Citations
Public law Pub.L. 104-145
Codification
Acts amendedViolent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
Titles amended42
U.S.C. sections created§ 13701 note
U.S.C. sections amended§ 14071 et seq.
Legislative history
  • Introduced in the House as H.R.2137 by Dick Zimmer (R–NJ) on July 27, 1995
  • Passed the House on May 7, 1996 (unanimous voice vote)
  • Passed the Senate on May 9, 1996 (unanimous voice vote)
  • Signed into law by President Bill Clinton on May 17, 1996

Megan's Law is the name for a federal law (and informal name for subsequent state laws) in the United States requiring law enforcement authorities to make information available to the public regarding registered sex offenders. Laws were created in response to the murder of Megan Kanka. Federal Megan's Law was enacted as a subsection of the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act of 1994, which merely required sex offenders to register with local law enforcement. [2] [3] Since only a few states required registration prior to Megan's death, the state-level legislation to bring states in compliance—with both the registration requirement of Jacob Wetterling Act and community notification required by federal Megan's Law—were crafted simultaneously and are often referred to as "Megan's Laws" of individual states. Thus, the federal Megan's Law refers to community notification (making registry information public), whereas state-level "Megan's Law" may refer to both sex offender registration and community notification.

Individual states decide what information will be made available and how it should be disseminated. For example, they disseminate the information via social media platforms such as Facebook. Commonly included information is the offender's name, picture, address, incarceration date, and offense of conviction. The information is often displayed on free public websites, but can be published in newspapers, distributed in pamphlets, or through various other means.

At the federal level, Megan's Law requires persons convicted of sex crimes against children to notify local law enforcement of any change of address or employment after release from custody (prison or psychiatric facility). The notification requirement may be imposed for a fixed period of time—usually at least ten years—or permanently. Some states may legislate registration for all sex crimes, even if no minors were involved. It is a felony in most jurisdictions to fail to register or fail to update information.

Together, the Wetterling Act and Megan's Law provide two major information services: sex offender registry for law enforcement, and community notification for the public. The details of what is provided as part of sex offender registration and how community notification is handled vary from state to state, and in some states the required registration information and community notification protocols have changed many times since Megan's Law was passed. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act supplements Megan's Law with new registration requirements and a three-tier system for classifying sex offenders according to certain listed offenses requiring registration.

History

Before Megan's Law, the federal Jacob Wetterling Act of 1994 required each state to create a registry for sexual offenders and certain other offenses against children. Under the Wetterling Act, registry information was kept for law enforcement use only, although law enforcement agencies were allowed to release the information of specific persons when deemed necessary to protect the public. [4] [3] After the high-profile rape and murder of seven-year-old Megan Kanka in Hamilton Township, Mercer County, New Jersey by Jesse Timmendequas, a sex offender with two previous convictions of sex crimes against small children living across the street from Megan, her parents Richard and Maureen Kanka worked 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. They said that Megan would still be alive had they known of the criminal history of Timmendequas. [3] [5] Paul Kramer sponsored a package of seven bills known as Megan's Law in the New Jersey General Assembly in 1994. [5] 89 days after Megan was murdered, New Jersey enacted Megan's Law, which required sex offender registration, with a database tracked by the state, and whereabouts of high-risk sex offenders moving into a neighborhood to be made public. [6] Before Megan's death, only five states required sex offenders to register with local law enforcement as required in Jacob Wetterling Act. [3]

The New Jersey law became model for federal legislation, introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Dick Zimmer. [6] On May 17, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed federal Megan's Law, an amendment to the Jacob Wetterling Act, that set the guidelines for the state statutes, requiring states to notify the public, although officials could decide how much public notification is necessary, based on the level of danger posed by an offender. [2] [7]

International Megan's Law

International Megan's Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders was signed into a law by President Obama on February 8, 2016. [8] [9] International Megan's Law requires the notification to foreign governments when a citizen of the United States who is registered as a sex offender for sexual offense involving a minor is going to be traveling to their country. [10] The law requires a visual "unique identifier" to be placed on the passports of covered registrants and requires offenders to notify law enforcement 21 days before traveling abroad. [11] The law was challenged shortly after being enacted. [12]

Public notification

States differ with respect to public disclosure of offenders. In some states all sex offenders are subject to public notification through Megan's Law websites. However, in others, only information on high-risk offenders is publicly available, and the complete lists are withheld for law enforcement only. [13] Under federal SORNA tier I registrants may be excluded from public disclosure, with exemption of those convicted of "specified offense against a minor." [14] Since SORNA merely sets the minimum standards the states must follow, many SORNA compliant states disclose information of all tiers. [13] These disparities have prompted some registrants to move into states with less strict rules. [15]

Criticism

Evidence to support the effectiveness of public sex offender registries is limited and mixed. [16] Majority of research results do not find statistically significant shift in sexual offense trends following the implementation of sex offender registration and notification (SORN) regimes. [17] [18] [19] [20] A few studies indicate that sexual recidivism may have been lowered by SORN policies, [21] [22] while a few have found statistically significant increase in sex crimes following SORN implementation. [16] [23] According to the Office of Justice Programs' SMART Office, sex offender registration and notification requirements arguably have been implemented in the absence of empirical evidence regarding their effectiveness. [16]

Opponents of Megan's Law, like Women Against Registry, [24] National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws, [25] [26] [27] and Human Rights Watch, [28] [29] have called the law overbroad and an invitation to vigilante violence.

Treatment professionals such as ATSA criticize the lack of evidence of the laws' effectiveness, the automatic inclusion of offenders on the registry without determining the risk of reoffense (by applying scientifically validated risk assessment tools), the scientifically unsupported popular belief in high recidivism, and the counter-effectiveness of the laws, which can actually undermine, rather than improve public safety by exacerbating factors (e.g. unemployment, instability) that may lead to recidivism. [30] [31] In addition, civil rights and reformist organizations highlight the adverse collateral effects on the family members of registrants, and question the fairness of the registries as indefinite punishment, and when applied to certain offender groups, such as juveniles and young adults engaging in consensual acts. [28] [32] Some victims' rights advocates like Patty Wetterling have presented similar critique. [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] [38]

See also

Related Research Articles

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The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, commonly referred to as the 1994 Crime Bill, or the Clinton Crime Bill, is an Act of Congress dealing with crime and law enforcement; it became law in 1994. It is the largest crime bill in the history of the United States and consisted of 356 pages that provided for 100,000 new police officers, $9.7 billion in funding for prisons which were designed with significant input from experienced police officers. Sponsored by U.S. Representative Jack Brooks of Texas, the bill was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Then-Senator Joe Biden of Delaware drafted the Senate version of the legislation in cooperation with the National Association of Police Organizations, also incorporating the Assault Weapons ban and the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) with Senator Orrin Hatch.

Some jurisdictions may commit certain types of dangerous sex offenders to state-run detention facilities following the completion of their sentence if that person has a "mental abnormality" or personality disorder that makes the person likely to engage in sexual offenses if not confined in a secure facility. In the United States, twenty states, the federal government, and the District of Columbia have a version of these commitment laws, which are referred to as "Sexually Violent Predator" (SVP) or "Sexually Dangerous Persons" laws.

A sex offender is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and legal jurisdiction. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a sexual nature; however, some sex offenders have simply violated a law contained in a sexual category. Some of the serious crimes which result in a mandatory sex-offender classification are sexual assault, statutory rape, bestiality, child sexual abuse, incest, and rape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States National Sex Offenders Public Registry</span> Sex offender registry search tool coordinated by the United States Department of Justice

The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Registry is a cooperative effort between U.S. state agencies that host public sex offender registries and the U.S. federal government. The registry is coordinated by the United States Department of Justice and operates a web site search tool allowing a user to submit a single query to obtain information about sex offenders throughout the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act</span> US law regarding sexual abuse

The Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act, colloquially known as the Wetterling Act, is a United States law that requires states to implement a registry of sex offenders and crimes against children. It is named for Jacob Wetterling, a Minnesota eleven-year-old who was abducted by a stranger in 1989, and was missing for almost 27 years until his death was confirmed when his remains were found on September 1, 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jessica's Law</span> 2005 Florida law on victim rights

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act</span> U.S. federal statute

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act is a federal statute that was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006. The Walsh Act organizes sex offenders into three tiers according to the crime committed, and mandates that Tier 3 offenders update their whereabouts every three months with lifetime registration requirements. Tier 2 offenders must update their whereabouts every six months with 25 years of registration, and Tier 1 offenders must update their whereabouts every year with 15 years of registration. Failure to register and update information is a felony under the law. States are required to publicly disclose information of Tier 2 and Tier 3 offenders, at minimum. It also contains civil commitment provisions for sexually dangerous people.

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<i>Connecticut Department of Public Safety v. Doe</i> 2003 United States Supreme Court case

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Megan's Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders</span> American federal law

The International Megan's Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders is a federal law that requires, among other things, a visual "unique identifier" to be placed on the passports of registrants convicted of sex offenses involving a minor. The law also requires covered offenders to notify law enforcement 21 days before traveling abroad. Critics have claimed violation of constitutional rights and note that the law would also cover those who were convicted as minors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws</span>

The National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws (NARSOL) is an organization headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina with operations based in Albuquerque, New Mexico and with affiliated organizations, advocates, and contacts in the vast majority of states. NARSOL and its affiliates are part of a movement to reform sexual offense laws in the United States. NARSOL has generated media attention by arranging national conferences in multiple cities including Boston, Albuquerque, Los Angeles Dallas, Atlanta, Cleveland, Houston, and Raleigh, and by being involved in numerous lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of sex offender registration and notification laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women Against Registry</span> American non-profit organization

Women Against Registry (W.A.R.) is a U.S. non-profit organization, based in Arnold, Missouri, which works to obtain changes in laws affecting sex offenders. Most W.A.R. members are mothers, wives, girlfriends, and other family members of persons convicted of a sexual offense. W.A.R. advocates the abolition of sex offender registries altogether, but also wants officials to be more judicious in deciding who poses a risk, instead of the current policies applied to all offenders indiscriminately.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sex offender registries in the United States</span>

In the United States, sex offender registries existed at both the federal and state levels. The federal registry is known as the National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) and integrates data in all state, territorial, and tribal registries provided by offenders required to register. Registries contain information about persons convicted of sexual offenses for law enforcement and public notification purposes. All 50 states and the District of Columbia maintain sex offender registries that are open to the public via websites; most information on offenders is visible to the public. Public disclosure of offender information varies between the states depending on offenders' designated tier, which may also vary from state to state, or risk assessment result. According to NCMEC, as of 2016 there were 859,500 registered sex offenders in United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitutionality of sex offender registries in the United States</span> Constitutional issue United States ;aw

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Movement to reform sex offender laws in the United States</span>

The movement to reform sex offender laws in the United States describes the efforts of individuals and organizations to change state laws requiring Sex offender registries in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effectiveness of sex offender registration policies in the United States</span>

Sex offender registration and notification (SORN) laws in the United States are widely accepted, with supporters believing that disclosing the location of sex offenders residence improves the public's ability to guard themselves and their children from sexual victimization. Despite this wide public acceptance, empirical observations do not uniformly support this belief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws</span> Nonprofit civil rights organisation

Alliance for Constitutional Sex Offense Laws (ACSOL) is a nonprofit civil rights, legal reform, and support organization, in Sacramento. ACSOL advocates for the protection of the constitution by restoring the rights of those required to register as sex offenders, and their families. ACSOL was formerly known as California Reform Sex Offender Laws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juvenile sex offenders in the United States</span>

A juvenile sex crime is defined as a legally proscribed sexual crime committed without consent by a minor under the age of 18. The act involves coercion, manipulation, a power imbalance between the perpetrator and victim, and threats of violence. The sexual offenses that fall under juvenile sex crimes range from non-contact to penetration. The severity of the sexual assault in the crime committed is often the amount of trauma and/or injuries the victim has suffered. Typically within these crimes, female children are the majority demographic of those targeted and the majority of offenders are male. Juvenile sex offenders are different than adult sex offenders in a few ways, as captured by National Incident Based Reporting System: they are more likely to be committed in school, offend in groups and against acquaintances, target young children as victims, and to have a male victim, whereas they are less likely than their adult counterpart to commit rape.

References

  1. ↑ Pub. L.   104–145 (text) (PDF)
  2. 1 2 "Public Law 104-145" (PDF). 104th Congress. Retrieved September 30, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Wright, Ph.D Richard G. (2014). Sex offender laws : failed policies, new directions (Second ed.). Springer Publishing Co Inc. pp. 50–65. ISBN   9780826196712.
  4. ↑ "Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994" (PDF). One Hundred Third Congress of the United States of America. 1995. pp. 246–247.
  5. 1 2 McLarin, Kimberly j. (August 30, 1994). "Trenton Races To Pass Bills On Sex Abuse". The New York Times. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  6. 1 2 Shapiro, Rich (July 27, 2014). "Parents of little girl who inspired Megan's Law recall brutal rape, murder of their daughter 20 years later". New York Daily News.
  7. ↑ "Clinton Signs Tougher "Megan's Law"". All Politics. CNN. May 17, 1996.
  8. ↑ "Statement by the Press Secretary on H.R. 515, H.R. 4188, S. 2152". whitehouse.gov . February 8, 2016 – via National Archives.
  9. ↑ "Obama signs International Megan's Law". nj.com. February 8, 2016.
  10. ↑ Moody, Chris (May 20, 2014). "House prepares for rare votes on standalone bills to curb human trafficking". Yahoo! News. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
  11. ↑ "S.1867 - International Megan's Law to Prevent Child Exploitation Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders". Congress.gov. 114th Congress (2015-2016). July 27, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Civil Rights Group Opposes Law Identifying Sex Offenders On Passports". CBS SF Bay Area. February 9, 2016.
  13. 1 2 "Megan's Law by State". Klaas Kids Foundation. April 14, 2014. Retrieved August 21, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Registry Requirement FAQs". Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending. Retrieved December 4, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Portland: Sex offender magnet?". Portland Tribune. February 14, 2013. Archived from the original on January 26, 2016. Retrieved February 25, 2016.
  16. 1 2 3 Office of Justice Programs (2012). "Chapter 8: Sex Offender Management Strategies". Office of Justice Programs - Sex Offender Management and Planning Initiative (SOMAPI).
  17. ↑ Levenson, Jill; Tewksbury, Richard (January 15, 2009). "Collateral Damage: Family Members of Registered Sex Offenders" (PDF). American Journal of Criminal Justice. 34 (1–2): 54–68. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.615.3651 . doi:10.1007/s12103-008-9055-x. S2CID   146412299.
  18. ↑ Vasquez, B. E.; Maddan, S.; Walker, J. T. (October 26, 2007). "The Influence of Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws in the United States: A Time-Series Analysis". Crime & Delinquency. 54 (2): 175–192. doi:10.1177/0011128707311641. S2CID   53318656.
  19. ↑ Zevitz, Richard G. (June 2006). "Sex Offender Community Notification: Its Role in Recidivism and Offender Reintegration". Criminal Justice Studies. 19 (2): 193–208. doi:10.1080/14786010600764567. S2CID   144828566.
  20. ↑ Prescott, J.J.; Rockoff, Jonah E. (February 2011). "Do Sex Offender Registration and Notification Laws Affect Criminal Behavior?". Journal of Law and Economics. 54 (1): 161–206. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.363.1170 . doi:10.1086/658485. S2CID   1672265.
  21. ↑ DUWE, GRANT; DONNAY, WILLIAM (May 2008). "The Impact of Megan's Law on Sex Offender Recidivism: The Minnesota Experience". Criminology. 46 (2): 411–446. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.2008.00114.x.
  22. ↑ "Sex offender sentencing in Washington State: Has community notification reduced recidivism?". Washington State Institute for Public Policy. December 2005.
  23. ↑ "Studies question effectiveness of sex offender laws". Science Daily. August 30, 2011.
  24. ↑ "Missouri Sex Offenders: "Women Against Registry" Says Labels Unfairly Destroy Lives". RFT. Archived from the original on June 25, 2016. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  25. ↑ Long, Matt (July 29, 2013). "Group calls for moratorium on sex offender registry after killings". South Carolina Radio Network. Archived from the original on December 16, 2014. Retrieved December 10, 2014.
  26. ↑ Zakalik, Lauren (August 29, 2012). "National conference aims to soften, reform sex offender laws". KOAT. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  27. ↑ Lovett, Ian (October 1, 2013). "Restricted Group Speaks Up, Saying Sex Crime Measures Go Too Far". The New York Times. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  28. 1 2 "No Easy Answers: Sex Offender Laws in the US". Human Rights Watch. September 11, 2007. Retrieved February 21, 2011.
  29. ↑ Raised on the Registry: The Irreparable Harm of Placing Children on Sex Offender Registries in the US Human Rights Watch 2013 ISBN   978-1-62313-0084
  30. ↑ "The Registration and Community Notification of Adult Sexual Offenders". ATSA.com. Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. April 5, 2010. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  31. ↑ "Sexual Offender Residence Restrictions". ATSA.com. Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers. April 5, 2010. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  32. ↑ Blow, Steve (July 17, 2014). "We can do better on sex offender laws". The Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on July 3, 2016. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  33. ↑ Bleyer, Jennifer (March 20, 2013). "Patty Wetterling questions sex offender laws". CityPages News. Archived from the original on November 13, 2014.
  34. ↑ Wetterling, Patty (September 14, 2007). "Patty Wetterling: The harm in sex-offender laws". Sacramento Bee. Archived from the original on May 14, 2013. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  35. ↑ Gunderson, Dan (June 18, 2007). "Sex offender laws have unintended consequences". MPR news. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  36. ↑ Mellema, Matt (August 11, 2014). "Sex Offender Laws Have Gone Too Far". Slate. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  37. ↑ Sethi, Chanakya (August 15, 2014). "Reforming the Registry". Slate. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  38. ↑ Wright, Richard (March 16, 2009). Sex Offender Laws: Failed Policies, New Directions. New York: Springer Publishing Company. pp. 101–116. ISBN   978--0-8261-1109-8. Archived from the original on July 10, 2015. Retrieved November 16, 2014.

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