It was a law enacted to give information and also to notify to the public or several communities any case an individual who is known to be dangerous comes to the neighborhood. The way in which notification is done is different in every state in the United States of America. It may also vary from one community to the other in every state. With the enforcement of the law, it has helped all the states to be able to track every sex offender as well as being able to give information to the public on there whereabouts.
Megan's Law was derived from a young girl by the name Megan Kanka who was at the age of seven kidnapped, sexually harassed and eventually murdered. The kidnapper of Megan was reported to have been convicted twice for the same crime of sexual offense. The kidnapper had move to the street where Megan lived and people did not know his past history (Larson, 2003).
Information which are available in Megan's law
Information under Megan's Law relayed to the public is found to be notably vary depending on the particular place where people live. There are about fifteen states who have managed to post details on the online in a database in which the residents of those specific states can get access and look for information related to sexual offenders with details such as names and zip codes. The database has comprehensive information in relation to the offender such as the last known address of the offender and overview of the criminal offence committed. In some instances, the data base may also have the photograph of the culprit. In some of the extreme cases, there are jurisdictions that require the public to assemble to some specific areas like the police station in which they are given some time to go through the database of the offenders so that they can take some information with them in written form concerning the offender who is a threat to their community (Larson, 2003).
The quantity of information which police force gives to the public is also different in every state. In some states the sexual offenders may be required by law to put symbols on their residential windows so that public will be aware. Other states may increase their notification levels in which they will move to schools and even throughout the neighborhood depending on the dangerousness of the offender. Some of the states my do very little but enough to notify the whole public to enable them protect themselves from these people (Siegel, 2008).
Controversial issues surrounding the law
There are several controversies that have been raised concerning Megan's Law which supports the issue of the registration and the notification of the sexual offenders. So many people have proclaimed that the importance of this law to the public overweighs the reasons behind the controversial issues. Most of the sexual offenders have raised challenges facing them to the government, but there has not been any attempt to listen to their please. Court requires that the sexual offenders rights be protected but this has been under estimated because right to protect the public is more important than right to privacy. One of the mostly raised issues has been the fear of vigilantism in which when neighbors have information of the present of the sexual offender in the community, they may decide to chase him away from the neighborhood and even gang up cause physical injury to him. These are incidences that have basis though not rampant.
Another important concern that has been raised is that the law of Megan has become a discouraging factor for the offenders to comply with the laws registrations. Though it is a lawbreaking offence for sexual offenders to register his residential place as per the requirement of the law, it has been estimated that about twenty percent of the sexual offenders are not always complying according to the registration requirement. Another important practical concern is the risk that children are exposed to from their relative or family friend but not strangers. This is because, parents will concentrate in protecting their daughters from these sexual offenders in the database while not being attentive to other people who may also cause greater risk than sexual offenders in the database.
